more of Marla's Personal Story as a Cancer Survivor
October, 1998
Five years ago this day (October 8, 1998) was perhaps one of the most frightening of my life. I had been diagnosed with breast cancer, had a bilateral mastectomy, found nine positive lymph nodes, been through nearly five weeks of staging tests to determine just how far the cancer had spread, and at 4 p.m. was facing my first chemotherapy. To say I was terrified was an understatement. And I knew that I had just trashed what should have been
a joyful celebration with family and friends...the next day was my 50th birthday.
Looking back on this day, on the eve of my 55th birthday, I am amazed at the changes that breast cancer brought to my life. My stepchildren (now adults) became my children; we could not be closer than if I had born them myself. My husband and I have a new appreciation of life and are doing our best to live it fully. The company I work for saved my job the six months I was off, and is supporting my work with American Cancer Society and other organizations with both time, materials and personnel.
Much of my "spare" time goes to the American Cancer Society, where I have met many new friends and gone into the community to spread the word about the fight against cancer.
What I'm getting to is this: my life is fuller, richer and much more rewarding than it ever was before cancer. This morning, as I was driving to work, my thoughts turned to these five years of survival...and the most surprising thought. If I could go back to five years ago last July and change the surgeon's words, "The biopsy showed the lump is malignant"
to "The biopsy showed the lump is benign," my choice would be to take the malignancy! I can't think of anything I would trade for the richness of my life since cancer.
Marla in California, USA
December, 2005
Here we are, approaching 13 years out from my cancer diagnosis. Dan and I are living our dream that surfaced during the long talks we had during my chemo. We retired in June, 2004, got into our motor home and drove off into the sunset. Today finds us in north central Texas, where we are spending the winter before heading to Seward, Alaska in May. I did have an oncology checkup before we left in 2004, and my oncologist gave me some startling news: He thought that if the chemo worked at all, I would recur and die within two years of diagnosis! "That's what most women do, at the stage you were at," he said. What a shock I am to that poor young man!
The point I need to make here is that whatever you're told or not told. the best that medicine can do is give you statistical averages. That means, simply, if your averages state that 80% of the women in your situation don't make, it means that 20% do!!! We seem to somehow loose sight of the other side of the equation when we hear it. So please, set your fears aside and know that you can be the good side of that statistic! I still believe that we have a great deal to do with survival, and that's the biggest part of it.
The second part of that point is this: set goals for yourself. Plan your future. If there's nothing for you to live for, then maybe you won't. When the time comes to reach those goals, set more. Always keep something ahead to reach for. Then just know that you'll do it.
Marla B. Pence in Texas, USA
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ---
Wow! What a ride!!!!!
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