FEELING GOOD '92 • FEELING GOOD '92 • FEELING GOOD '92 • FEELING GOOD '92 • FEELING GOOD '92 • FEELING GOOD '92
SurvivingBreast
Cancer
Getting through the ordeal
requires being medically
informed.
JOANNE ZUROFF
Special to The Jewish News
T
he words are spo-
ken and the reality
hovers like a cloud.
"The diagnosis:
breast cancer." The
doctor realizes his words will
change your life, but you, the
patient, are innocent of the
many implications and ig-
norant of the amount of infor-
mation you'll need to survive
this ordeal.
Reactions to such a pro-
nouncement vary. Some
women fall apart; some are
stoic. Some need to talk about
it while others are silent and
embarrassed.
Jeannie Savas, a Troy resi-
dent, was in her late 40s
when she was diagnosed with
breast cancer. After her
mastectomy, she went
through six months of
chemotherapy. She puffed up
from the steroids and her
olive skin darkened. She lost
her eyelashes and her hair
thinned. Every time she saw
her mastectomy site in the
mirror, she was reminded of
her bout with this deadly
disease.
"I wanted to get it out of my
mind," Jeannie recalls, and
this she managed to do by
having reconstructive
surgery; Dr. Michael Busuito
of Troy created a new breast
from a wedge of Jeannie's
stomach, including skin,
tissue and muscle.
Less than 24 hours after
Charlotte Tessler received
news of a "very bad" mam-
mogram, she underwent
surgery for a modified radical
mastectomy. An active West
Bloomfielder in her late 40s,
Charlotte submitted to a six.-
month regimen of chemo-
therapy. The steroids caused
her to bloat considerably and
her hair thinned. However,
she never felt the need to put
on the wig she had purchas-
ed at the outset of her illness.
Dark circles appeared
under Charlotte's eyes and
Joanne Zuroff, a recovered
breast and ovarian cancer
patient, is a freelance
journalist who lives in
Farmington Hills.
she felt nauseated much of
the time. She continued her
community involvement, but
gratefully accepted the help
of friends and relatives who
took her to chemotherapy ap-
pointments and often helped
with cooking and shopping.
It's been 20 years since Bar-
bara Curtindale of Farm-
ington Hills lost her breast to
cancer. Since that time, she
had devoted much of her
energy to volunteer activities
with the American Cancer
Society. She has also been in-
volved in the ACS's Reach to
Recovery program and the
Just Between Us support pro-
gram. For many years she
worked as a certified pro-
sthetic fitter for mastectomy
and has only recently retired.
Just after her 41st birthday,
Fran Cook was diagnosed
with breast cancer and under-
went a modified radical mas-
tectomy with simultaneous
reconstruction, stage I. She
decided to "go public" about
her illness and was touched
and amazed by her co-
workers' support.
During four months of
chemotherapy and seven
weeks of radiation, she con-
tinued to work when she
could, wearing a wig or a tur-
ban. During treatment, Fran
took care to wear lipstick and
blush and penciled in her
thinning eyebrows. It was im-
portant to her that she look
her best, and besides, there
was a new man in her life.
David Wiener had begun
dating Fran just before she
was diagnosed, but it didn't
scare him off. Instead, he
rallied with love and en-
couragement. Fran, who had
always been ambivalent
about committing herself to
marriage, concluded, "If I can
handle cancer, I can handle
marriage."
At her wedding, Fran wore
a traditional white wedding
gown and was delighted that
in spite of her lopsided
bustline caused by the tem-
porary implant, her seam-
stress was able to create the
illusion of a perfect fit. Fran
completed her reconstructive
surgery this past summer.
As you can deduce, women
today are surviving breast
cancer. New diagnostic tools
are finding the disease
earlier, and advanced, in-
novative medical treatment
offers most patients hope. But
in many cases, survival is con-
tingent upon going through
chemotherapy or radiation,
sometimes both.
The surgical procedure
itself is often just the first in
a long series of steps toward
wellness. For some women,
this is the most traumatic.
Losing a breast represents; to
many, disfigurement and loss
of femininity. To help women
deal with these feelings, the
American Cancer Society's
Reach to Recovery volunteers
visit patients in the hospital
soon after surgery. They pro-
vide psychological back-up,
post-surgical exercises for the
arm, and even a temporary
breast prosthesis.
Being fitted for a perma-
nent breast prosthesis is a
milestone for most women.
Barbara Curtindale explains
that there are many different
shapes and textures available
in prostheses, and the fitter
aims to match the other
breast as naturally as possi-
ble. This can be done, as per
the doctor's prescription, four
to six weeks after surgery.
Prostheses are readily avail-
able and cost about $200 to
A strong support
system of family
and friends is
vital for surviving
cancer.
THE DETROIT JEWISH-NEWS
F-13