Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 18, 1993 TAG: 9310180010
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It has been more than a year, but Laura Turner has never forgotten the look in her doctor's eyes when he examined the lump in her left breast.
She had discovered the small mass herself during a regular monthly breast self-examination, a procedure she had incorporated into her routine for five years, since turning 40.
She suspected breast cancer - her mother had died when the disease traveled to her lungs - and she feared the worst. When her doctor told her he, too, was concerned, she had no doubt a biopsy would reveal cancer.
"When you are diagnosed with cancer, you go into shock," said Turner.
Thus began a painful - and revealing - odyssey for which Turner said she was not prepared: a yearlong struggle through two surgeries, chemotherapy, depression, loss of her hair and the slow, quiet realization that she is a breast cancer survivor.
"I don't ever want to forget how I felt during this time," Turner said. "Life is so precious. I learned how important my family and friends and my faith were."
Turner sports a pink silk ribbon on her suit jacket, a symbol of the growing political movement among breast cancer survivors. It is no accident that it resembles the red ribbons worn by those involved in the highly visible battle against AIDS in America.
Today, Turner will rally in Washington with other breast cancer survivors, their families and friends in the first organized march on Washington. They plan to hand over petitions with 2.6 million names to President Clinton urging a full-scale government assault on the "silent killer."
The march is organized by the National Breast Cancer Coalition, a grass-roots effort to educate the public about breast cancer and increase funding for research and treatment of the disease.
"It's a tremendous expense to not deal with the disease, and that's our message to Congress," said Kendra McCarthy, a founder and current president of the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation, which is part of the coalition.
The coalition also works to improve women's access to mammography screening, a tool that doctors say can significantly reduce the mortality rate by catching the disease in its infancy.
In addition, medical and professional groups who sponsor National Breast Cancer Awareness Month have declared Tuesday the nation's first National Mammography Day. Gov. Douglas Wilder is expected to hold a news conference Tuesday at the state Capitol to highlight the need for greater access to the diagnostic tool for Virginians.
For Turner, the mother of a 24-year-old daughter, the Washington march represents a kind of coming of age, translating the experience of her year of fear into real political action. Like those caught up in the struggle to find a cure for AIDS, she believes a cure will be found only when the public applies pressure to the federal government and state legislatures for more research funds.
She has also been asked to serve on a committee at Lewis-Gale Regional Cancer Center to develop a question-and-answer booklet for women facing removal of a breast. The booklet would help them understand the surgery and recovery period and prepare them for what chemotherapy or radiation does to the human body.
Turner, who first underwent a lumpectomy and then a modified radical mastectomy, decries the "appalling lack of information from doctors." Women bring some of the information vacuum on themselves, she said, by not asking detailed questions about the operation and the treatment.
"There are many breast cancer patients who didn't want to know," Turner said. It is also hard to absorb the medical information when faced with a life-threatening disease. She advises, when possible, taking a family member or friend to every medical appointment and treatment.
While undergoing her six months of chemotherapy, "my husband went to every appointment with me, except two," said Turner, now 46. For those two sessions, she enlisted her brother and her psychotherapist, a woman who taught her meditation to help her get through the chemical infusions and encouraged her to set realistic goals in her work and personal life as she was struggling with the disease.
Still, Turner said, no doctor or nurse told her she would be "slammed head-first into menopause" as the chemotherapy destroyed the function of her ovaries.
"They told me your period would stop," she said. "I had hot flashes, I was depressed and crying." Only when she read of other women in similar situations was she finally convinced she was not alone.
Medically, she said, she received excellent treatment. But after six months of chemotherapy, she switched oncologists to one who offered her more spiritual and moral support. She believes now that such support is just as important as the medicines that help to conquer the cancer cells.
She also had no worries about her job. Her co-workers provided emotional support; her boss cleared the way for her to take time off, then helped in her transition back to full-time employment.
But she said there have been adjustments in making her return to the "well world," where people still talk in hushed tones about the disease or avoid the discussion altogether.
She said she sees that attitude when people inquire about her pink ribbon, although oddly, it is men who are more willing than women to ask her questions about her disease.
"I tell anyone I can that I am a breast cancer survivor," she said. "I want to see everyone wear a pink ribbon."
by CNB