my three breast cancers

by Marsha Allen

I first felt a ripple in my breast in early 1996 and saw three different doctors from the spring to the fall, but no one could feel anything. In October, I had a mammogram and areas of concern were found in both breasts. Dr. Duven did a bilateral biopsy and cancer was detected in the right breast.

In December of 1996, at the age of 54, I had a lumpectomy of the right breast. My youngest daughter had just graduated from college and moved home to help out. I had no trouble with the surgery or radiation that followed except for burning on the breast and a very, very sore nipple. The staff at the Cancer Treatment Center made the 10 minutes a day I spent there a breeze. I was then put on Tamoxifen but wasn’t able to tolerate the drug.

My husband and family were very supportive but we felt that I had been handed a death sentence as both my grandmothers and my mother died from cancer, as well as my mother-in-law. Five years passed quickly and I went in for my last check-up with mammogram. I was riding on air. I had made it to the five year mark!

However, I received a call telling me that I needed my right breast biopsied. It turned out to be an aggressive cancer. I had decided that if my cancer ever returned, I would go the M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center in Houston, Texas. Surgery took over 12 hours – I had a mastectomy, rebuilding of the right breast, and reduction of the left breast.

As the physician was finishing the reduction on the left breast, he felt an area of concern and did a biopsy that came back as cancer. This cancer had not shown up on any mammograms in Iowa or Texas. The surgeon was called back in and a lumpectomy was then performed on the left breast. My sister was waiting for me when I got out of surgery and was the best moral support that I could have asked for. I brow beat her into singing hymns for me as I thought I was dying. I had no feeling in my right arm or strength in my fingers to push the morphine button.

I had nine giant (bagel sized) drainage tubes in me but by the second day I was walking around the nurses’s station. Twelve days later I was back in Iowa and shortly began aggressive chemotherapy which was very rough. I often felt unwell, but did not want to give into the discomfort. I got dressed and went out to breakfast each morning, though sometimes my mouth was too sore to eat. I felt God was only going to give me so much time, so I was going to do what I wanted with it.

Sitting home and complaining just didn’t fit my agenda. I lost all of my hair so I bought a wig, but it itched my head and it was cold. I began to use turbans which I liked better. However, one Sunday I was in church and became overheated and sick. I thought either the turban goes or I go. I reached up and took that thing off my head, right in front of God and everyone else!

It was liberating. It was wonderful. After that, I went bald.

Today I look on each day as a special blessing from God. I take each day, one day at a time. I look forward to my church meetings, my Red Hat meetings and my garden club meetings. I visit my children and grandchildren. I plan for the future, but I also enjoy today – for this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. 

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