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The Finish Line Is the Starting Line

Writer's picture: Surviving Breast CancerSurviving Breast Cancer

By Liz Benditt, President, The Balm Box


I like to think of myself as a medical miracle. Between 2009 and 2017, I survived four cancers over 8 years.


Melanoma

It started in 2009 at a weekend summer trip to the pool. My daughter was almost four years old and bumping around the baby pool in her little floaties with my husband, while I lounged on a deck chair with my baby boy, napping in a sweet, sweaty mess on my chest. My mother noticed a mole on my upper thigh and nagged me to get it checked. I rolled my eyes at her. She called the following week to see if I had made an appointment with a dermatologist – I had not. I succumbed to her nagging and made an appointment.

The dermatologist immediately wanted to biopsy the spot. A few days later, I got a call from the Doctor personally, with the news that it was melanoma, over 1mm and ergo too large for Mohs surgery. It was made clear to me that this was MELANOMA – a very fast-moving cancer – and it was imperative to remove the affected area and check to see if it spread to the lymph nodes. If it spread – I’d have maybe a year to live. If it had not spread – no big deal. This all happened over the course of 6 days. It was totally surreal. Live or die. The only two options. We got the call – clean margins, no spread to the lymph nodes.

Score 10 points to mothers knowing best and forcing me to make that dermatologist appointment. I stocked up on floppy hats, sunscreen, and SPF 50 swim shirts for my family and tried to go back to ‘normal’ life.

Thyroid Cancer

Eleven months later, I had an irregular mammogram requiring a biopsy. While the surgeon was probing all around the boobie-area, her hands started snaking up my neck. She noticed a small lump that was clearly bothering her. She sent me off to radiology to get an MRI. I got a “two-for-one” deal that time around – a breast AND neck biopsy. The same week the breast biopsy came back clear, we got the bad news that I had Thyroid Cancer.

Cancer #2 – less than one year after the first one.

After my experience with Melanoma, I was shocked at the lack of urgency from the medical establishment. I was given a long and complex checklist that had to be completed before I could schedule the surgery, including labs and endocrinology referrals. It took weeks to complete. I was frantic – where was the big rush to GET THE CANCER OUT from the year before?? The surgery was finally scheduled, childcare was in place and I was ready to get ON with it.

I ended up in a teeny-tiny category of patients with a very rare side effect from that surgery – It happens to less than 2% of patients – the surgery rendered me hypoparathyroid. For those of us without endocrinology degrees, the hypoparathyroid glands process calcium in the bloodstream. This bought me a bonus 2 weeks in the hospital, where teams of doctors created a complicated drug cocktail that would regulate my calcium. It was not fun, nor was I very stable when I finally was released to recuperate at home.