When cancer touches the family

Published 8:32 am Thursday, August 24, 2017

My daughter-in-law has breast cancer.
That fact still doesn’t seem real to me.
First there was the phone call when a suspicious lump was discovered in June and since she’s only 35 with young two kids, I thought it’s certainly, well, most probably, benign, and likely a lump in the milk ducts left over from a pregnancy.
Usually older women get breast cancer, right?
Wrong.
There was the follow up phone call on June 27 confirming what seems so unreal — an aggressive form of breast cancer called triple negative invasive ductal carcinoma, stage two.
In the weeks since then there have been doctors appointments, blood work, a bone scan, surgery to implant a port-a-cath and the first round of chemotherapy with a second round set for this week.
This diagnosis has turned her life around. She, my son and their children have had to move, she had to leave her job and she’s now facing five-months of chemo. After the chemo is over, she will be reevaluated through an MRI, then after January they will look at surgery options.
To add to this, on Aug. 17 Carol was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Cowden Syndrome, which is the cause of her cancer and predisposes her to tumors, both benign and malignant.
“My journey has gotten rougher. But it’s my fight and I will live with the cards that I have been dealt,” my daughter-in-law, Carol Sassine Meaux, said on the GoFundMe page created for her. “I have some of the best doctors and strongest support systems. I love my family and my friends. I am beyond blessed.”
Carol has been through the usual stuff you hear about when people go through chemo — nausea and stomach problems, weakness and, most recently, hair loss.
She’s coping well and even posted photos modeling head wraps and one showing where clumps of hair had fallen out leaving a shaved look on the rest of her head that quite frankly looked good.
I’m not writing this for sympathy; I just felt like I needed to tell someone about her battle with breast cancer.
I’ve written about numerous women who fought this fight, telling their stories of fear and pain, laughter and tears, rounds of chemo and radiation and surgeries. I did my best to let others know of this disease and how it affects them and their loved ones and to be the observer and storyteller.
I’ve written about their courage and their faith, their hair loss and whether they wore a wig or cap or were bald and proud. Written of their nausea, vomiting, dehydration, their hospital stays.
Some of these women were caretakers for others; some were mothers and grandmothers while going through their battle. They all held their head high and did what they had to do to live, to survive.
I’ve written of the joyous moments of breast cancer survivors who got to “ring the bell” after the last round of treatment and of being cancer free.
All of those stories bounce around in my head as I come to realize that yes, this is real and yes she does have breast cancer.
I’m so glad Carol is in tune with her body and noticed the lump and had it checked out as soon as possible. Early detection is vital to being a survivor and yes, Carol is ready for this fight — she’s a survivor.

Mary Meaux is a reporter with the Port Arthur News. Contact her at Mary.meaux@panews.com

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