Breast Cancer Stories: Kimberly, doctor and Breast Cancer survivor

Do you have a Breast Cancer story you’d like to share? Email us at beutifulmagazine@gmail.com!   A DOCTOR BECOMES A PATIENT When a doctor becomes a patient, the lessons learned can ripple outward — not just to patients who are similarly afflicted, but also to the physicians who treat them. In March 2008, Dr. Kimberly Allison was a 33-year-old breast cancer pathologist nursing her second child when her own breast cancer diagnosis thrust her into, as she put it, “a perfect storm.” “There’s never a good time to have cancer,” she said. But this was clearly one of the worst. She was working full time, having recently been named director of breast pathology at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Her husband, Ryan, had just opened a new restaurant, and she was mother to an infant son and a 4-year-old daughter. As if a diagnosis of cancer on top of all that were not challenging enough, her cancer turned out to be one of the most difficult types to treat and cure. The tumor cells lacked receptors for estrogen and progesterone that are associated with more curable cancers, but the cells carried receptors for HER-2/neu, a growth factor associated with aggressive disease. At diagnosis, her cancer had already spread to at least one lymph node and, Dr. Allison said, “it was big, very big, seven centimeters.” She said in an interview: “This was not good. The cancers I usually see in my lab average only one to two centimeters. I checked on the survival statistics for my kind of cancer, and they were only 40 percent at 10 years.” At the time, she said, “it seemed like the world had turned on its end.” Now, more than three years later, Dr. Allison sees her cancer as “a really powerful experience” that helped her find inner strength, taught her not to sweat the little things, reconnected her to many people she rarely saw, and prompted her to communicate more directly with patients, who in the past had been just cells on a slide. Because she was helped emotionally and physically through cancer treatment by another young woman whose breast cancer diagnosis occurred a year earlier just before her wedding, Dr. Allison has chosen to give back, “to mentor other people as I was mentored,” she told Andrew Schorr, a health communications specialist in Seattle, in an interview online at patientpower.info. She speaks to support groups, and she’s written a book, “Red Sunshine,” just published by Hatherleigh Press. It grew out of the journal she kept throughout her treatment. “There are lots of guidebooks out there for women with breast cancer,” she said. “But I wanted to know what happens beyond the science, what the treatment was like emotionally and physically. Hearing from other survivors was most helpful to me. It gave me hope and made the experience much less fearful.” The book’s title reflects the positive attitude that helped her weather the challenging treatment, which she completed two years ago. One of the drugs often given to women with breast cancer is Adriamycin, a bright red liquid delivered intravenously. Many patients call it the “red devil” because of its terrible side effects — severe nausea, constipation, mouth sores and serious declines in white blood cells that protect against infections. But Dr. Allison said she renamed the drug “red sunshine” and chose to regard the therapy “as my ally, not my enemy. I looked forward to getting it every week. Thinking of that drug as ‘red sunshine’ helped me see the positive side of a trying situation.” Aggressive Therapy Pays Off Dr. Allison’s cancer developed seven years before the age at which routine screening by mammography is generally recommended. Mammography and sometimes ultrasound can pick up cancers rarely felt by physical exam — the tiny, more curable cancers that she routinely diagnoses. Although Dr. Allison said that “by the time cancer is found on self-examination, it’s large,” she had been doing regular breast self-examination and noticed an area in the upper outer part of her left breast that was firmer than the surrounding tissue and seemed more fixed. Because she was breast-feeding at the time, she assumed the cause was a plugged duct or mastitis. But when it didn’t resolve in a few weeks, she took her husband’s advice and got it checked. “I carried my biopsy myself to my colleagues, telling them I really wasn’t worried,” she said. “Boy, was I shocked by what they found.” But she wasted no time wallowing in self-pity and turned immediately to the recommended treatment, which began with six months of chemotherapy: three months on Adriamycin and Cytoxan, followed by three months of Taxol, which was combined with a year on Herceptin, the drug engineered to target HER-2/neu. Her main side effects were mild nausea, which was “well controlled by an intravenous drug,” and fatigue after the energizing effects of a steroid wore off. Of course, she lost all her hair and got a wig. (“Did you know they have names? Mine was called Erica.”) The hairpiece amused her daughter, Madeline, but scared baby Henry, “who knew it wasn’t me.” “I was really lucky,” she said. “I had a complete response to chemotherapy and was cancer-free when it was done.” Next she had both breasts removed and reconstructed, and underwent radiation therapy to make sure no errant cancer cells were floating around, waiting for the opportunity to sprout a recurrence. The double mastectomy was a personal choice. As she told Mr. Schorr, “I didn’t want to go through increased screening my entire life, which hopefully will be long. And I was mad at my breasts. I felt they had betrayed me, and I wasn’t that attached to them.” Throughout the entire treatment program, Dr. Allison worked part time or full time, with time off only to recuperate from surgery. Her Message to Patients A lot of help from her friends and family made it all possible. “People want to help,” she said, “but you have to let people know what you need so you don’t end up with six casseroles on the same night.” In her book, she describes the invaluable help she got from the various “gurus” she appointed: for music, cancer fashion and makeup, nutrition and exercise, as well as a friend who lived near her parents and could check on them regularly. Her mother and mother-in-law alternated visits to help with the children and meals. A nurse encouraged her to exercise regularly as a way to reduce side effects and fatigue. Her precancer runs were replaced by yoga and workouts in the gym, which kept her in shape and energized. Between treatments, she and Ryan took their first vacation together without the children — six days in Hawaii that rejuvenated both her body and their marriage, prompting her to suggest that oncologists prescribe more vacation time as an integral part of cancer therapy. Source: NY Times

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About The Author

Patricia Colli, Editor of Beutiful Magazine, is a human rights activist, equality advocate, and promoter of health, acceptance and wellbeing. Having experienced disordered eating, unhealthy exercise patterns and poor body image, she is especially passionate about shedding light on eating disorders and the power of body acceptance.