Tag Archives: Chemotherapy

Talking to your kids about cancer

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This is a guest post written by mother, two-time breast cancer survivor Shirley Horn. I don’t have Internet access in my new apartment, so I haven’t been able to post lately. But I’ll update you all soon! For now, enjoy my mom’s writing.

Decisions about parenting are like decisions about breast cancer treatments:  only YOU know what’s best for your children and yourself, regardless of what any of your close or not-so-close relatives or friends have to say about it.  When you’re faced with a disease as daunting as cancer, how to tell the kids is one tough part of the process.

My husband is Jewish and very traditional in his cultural and secular views. “Don’t tell the Kinder,” is a phrase I’ve often heard in our 24 years of marriage. (“Kinder” is Yiddish and German for “children”.) With my husband and his generational peers, it’s a deeply held belief that children should be allowed to keep their innocence as long as possible, unburdened by the woes of the world. When Rachel was very young, it seemed a good mantra to uphold and I wanted to protect her from everything that was bad or sad.

Shirley and Rachel in 1990 in England

We had just moved from Massachusetts to California when I was diagnosed the first time.  My daughter was 9 and she was settling down in our new neighborhood and making friends in her new school. Although she was a bright and precocious fourth-grader, we chose not to share the news with Rachel until we knew as much as we could know about my cancer and treatment plan. Since I had a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy, it was an outpatient procedure and although we told her I was going to have an operation, I was home when she got home from school that night and functioning fairly normally. A couple of weeks after the surgery, we were off to a family reunion to celebrate our old uncle’s 80th birthday.

Chemo is, of course, a different story, and one not easily hidden. If the sight of Mom going bald isn’t enough to scare the wits out of a child, watching Mom with her head in the toilet heaving her guts out several times a day for a couple of days every week will certainly do the trick. (Or at least make your kids think twice about eating Dad’s cooking!)

A few weeks before my chemo began, I sat Rachel down one afternoon and explained.  “Mom’s sick.  I’ve got something called breast cancer. That’s why I’ve gone to the doctor a lot lately and went to the hospital last month. I’m going to be OK, but I’m not completely done yet. Soon, I’m going to start taking some medicine that is really strong and powerful.  The medicine is going to make me sick, too, but just for a little while. It’s even going to make all my hair fall out, but it’s going to make me better so the cancer doesn’t come back.” I think I said a few more things and then I asked Rachel if she had any questions. She said, “May I have a cup of tea, please?” That’s when I knew she’d be OK, too.

Rachel went wig shopping with me. We made a day of it and went to a cool shop that had a large selection of wigs and hats. She had fun helping me try on the wigs and she even got to try on a few. Together, we selected my wig (which I ended up wearing only once) and we each picked out a cute hat. She was part of the discussion when I decided to get my “G.I. Jane” haircut before chemo began, and she defended my honor when the kids at school teased her about having a bald mom.

We were fortunate to have several wonderful friends (mothers of Rachel’s friends) who pitched right in and drove carpool, brought over meals and invited Rachel for sleepovers during my treatment. Rachel herself maintained a cool and calm composure; I don’t ever remember her showing fear or being upset. If she was, she never let me see it. Even at 9, her protective instincts were there.

How old should a child be before you suspend the “Don’t tell the Kinder” rule when it comes to something like cancer? Not every 9-year-old child is capable of handling the Big C with the poise and maturity that Rachel showed. Your 7-year-old may absorb the news and deal with your illness by becoming Florence Nightingale and never leaving your bedside. Let your motherly instincts and intrinsic understanding of your child’s disposition guide you.

I found that being straightforward with my daughter and involving her in the process was the best course of action then.  12 years later, when my cancer returned and I discovered that I carry the BRCA 2 gene mutation, it was still the best course of action.

Shirley and Rachel at graduation in 2012

Shirley Horn is a retired marketing professional living in Redondo Beach, CA. She is an avid paddler for the Los Angeles Pink Dragons, a breast cancer survivor dragon boat team. She is also an artist and sells her work, along with custom-made mastectomy drain pockets and pit pillows, on her online store Precious Survivors.

I think it’s time to deal with the big bad question:

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Why? Why would I have a mastectomy, as a perfectly healthy 21-year-old?

I’ve been avoiding this post for a while–not because I didn’t want to answer the question, but because I didn’t know where it would belong. It seems like something I should have written about a long time ago, before my surgery. And I did write about it, for myself, to justify the decision. But now I want to “go public” with my thought process, because people are right: removing all of my breast tissue at a young age is absolutely ludicrous.

This time last year I was driving home from work, anxiously awaiting the debauchery that would be the following evening: my 21st birthday. At that moment, I was just a normal college student. I was so excited to finally be free of my crappy fake ID, but before that magical first legal drink, I would have to make sure my camera was charged, my hair was straight, and my clutch was packed with the necessary lip glosses and eyeliners.

Celebrating my 21st birthday last April. From left to right: Marissa, Danielle, Rachel, Katy.

Six months later, everything was different. I felt nothing like that girl who was excited to go out to bars with her sorority sisters to celebrate another year. My BRCA test results were in, and it seemed that I would never be the same again.

I was suddenly resentful of my body. I felt so betrayed! My relationship with my body had never been perfect; there were certainly a wonky few years during high school. But since starting college, I’d finally become comfortable being me. And then, when things seemed to be going great in life, my body just threw me under the bus. “Oh hey! You’re gonna get cancer!” No, I guess it wasn’t my body–it was my DNA. That’s what made it even worse, at least at the time: the very essence of my being was flawed.

Oh no…not an awkward photo from high school!

No one could see that I was broken, but I knew it. I just didn’t know when it (cancer) was going to strike. My breasts were–you guessed it–ticking time bombs (oh so that’s where the name comes from!) Every time I caught a glimpse of them in the mirror while changing, I shuddered. I hated them. I didn’t trust them. What if there was a cancerous cell lurking in them already?

The BRCA test results felt like a death sentence. But maybe that’s the wrong way to describe it…I never thought I was going to die…but I never thought I was going to live, either–at least not happily and cancer-free. It was a death sentence for my normal, relatively simple life. It was a sentence for cancer. I read up on the numbers, and I knew how BRCA had played out in my own life: my mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer twice. The fact that I, too, was BRCA positive meant that I was going to get cancer. There wasn’t hope that it would skip me or that I could diet and exercise my way out of it. No. If I lived long enough and had enough breast tissue, I was going to get breast cancer.

These two thoughts–resentment toward my body and belief that I would eventually have cancer–were what drove me to my decision to have a prophylactic mastectomy.

I really hate being depressed. I hate hating myself. I wanted, so badly, to get back on track with my self-esteem and self-image. You can only truly love someone if you love yourself first, and I really hated myself last October when I found out about my BRCA mutation. Imagine how poor Bryce felt?

It’s true that I could have waited one year, five years, ten years–any period of time, perhaps–before having a mastectomy. And I think that if I had waited a few years, I still would have been doing it by choice, not by necessity. But I know that I would have felt so much self-loathing during that time. I was not prepared for those feelings. The drama of my teenage insecurities was hard enough; I did not want to repeat any of that. The sooner I got on with my mastectomy, the sooner I would have reconstruction. The sooner I would have reconstruction, the sooner I would love my breasts–and myself–again.

A mastectomy and reconstruction would give back what the BRCA mutation had taken: my self-esteem. But it would also give me peace of mind. Many women who are at high-risk for breast cancer opt for the surveillance option instead of surgery. They are diligent about their mammograms, MRIs, and breast exams and join special hospital programs for high-risk women.

This was certainly a choice I could have made, but it was too passive. Yes, I could screen the heck out of my breasts, but that wouldn’t stop a tumor from forming. And let me tell you: I’m a worrier. If something hurts (my eyes, my ears, the space between my toes), I go to the webMD Symptom Checker and diagnose myself (and it’s always terminal). Imagine me at a yearly MRI or mammogram? I just know I would be freaked out for days waiting for the results.

Remember when I thought I had esophagus cancer? Thanks, webMD Symptom Checker.

And the way I saw it–again, based on the numbers–was that eventually one of those MRIs or mammograms would come back with a spot. I would get the spot biopsied, and then a doctor would tell me that I have cancer. The doctor, knowing that I have a BRCA mutation, would then strongly suggest a double mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy and maybe radiation.

I would not get to pick when this happened. Cancer would not care if I had a career and children to think of; it would just strike. I would have to halt my life for surgery and a very difficult treatment; I would have to explain to my family what was wrong with me. My mom didn’t get to pick when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It just happened to her, and at a really sucky time.

When I found out that I had a BRCA mutation, I was given a choice–the choice my mother never had. I could choose when my life would be inconvenienced. I could decide if I wanted it to be because of cancer, or because of me. I decided to stop my life for a few weeks because of me–because of a decision I made myself. If I had decided against a prophylactic mastectomy, I would have to have one at some point, anyway…and it wouldn’t be prophylactic anymore. It would be because I had breast cancer.

My brother Michael put it best in an email to me a few days before my surgery: “Doing this [a mastectomy], or not doing this, are each big decisions.  One choice is potentially fatal, and one is just fucked up.  You chose fucked up, which is clearly the right choice.”

He’s right. It is “fucked up.” It’s ridiculous. It’s upsetting. I was distraught for weeks before my mastectomy, and sometimes now, even after, I get angry and sad and insecure. But it was the right choice. I didn’t cause the stop codon that screwed up my BRCA2 gene. Nothing I ate, drank, said, watched or smelled affected it in any way; it just happened. I couldn’t control it. But now I am in control of my body and health again, and I have my prophylactic mastectomy to thank for that.

I know blogs are supposed to be concise…and that certainly wasn’t. But I hope it made sense. I hope that at least one person out there understands my decision a bit more…I hope it doesn’t seem so crazy and extreme.

I want YOU to get tested for the BRCA mutation in 20 years so you can take control of your health again, future self!

Tomorrow’s my 22nd birthday, and I’ve given myself the gift of life! So cheesy, and so true.

 

Twelve years ago

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Twelve years ago, I was a carefree nine-year-old who had just moved from Boston to San Francisco. School was going well, my parents promised to buy me a dog for Christmas, and I’d joined a soccer team.

Rachel and Madeline, early 2000

My head was in the clouds. I don’t remember much about my mom having cancer; I just knew she was sick. It didn’t mean very much to me.

In October of 1999, while getting dressed for work in the morning, my mom found a lump in her left breast. An October 14th mammogram and ultrasound revealed a “9 x 11 mm mass with ill-defined, indistinct margins.” An October 22nd biopsy confirmed it as a “grade 2 infiltrating ductal carcinoma.”

Rachel and Mom, Halloween 1999. Mom made me that Sgt. Pepper costume!

My mom was given two options: a mastectomy or a lumpectomy (at the time, doctors didn’t know she had a BRCA mutation.) Either option would require chemotherapy and radiation.

She opted for the lumpectomy. Her first round of chemotherapy was on January 17th, 2000. By December of 2000, her mammograms were clear.

Where was I in all of this? I’m not really sure. I have no recollection of the moment she told me she was sick. Apparently she sat me down and explained, as best she could to someone who would prefer to ride a bike than to talk about medical problems, that she was ill but she was getting treatment and would be okay in the end. After she was done talking, I asked for a cup of tea.

Either I absorbed the news so well that I was going to reflect on it with a nice cup of Earl Grey, or I had no idea what to do with the information and was looking to change the subject.

One day we went shopping for wigs. It was a lot of fun, but boy, was it overwhelming. There was so many styles. At the time, my mom’s hair was a curly ash brown, styled in a short, almost cropped cut. But the wig she picked wasn’t like her hair at all: it was auburn, a shoulder-length bob. And she never actually wore it–why did we pick it?

“Why?” Those were the type of questions I remember.

“Why is your mom bald?” That was the worst one, my most vivid memory of my mom’s breast cancer. I was in my fourth grade class giving a presentation about animal abuse. I’d invited a local newspaper columnist who wrote about animals to speak to the class. My parents were so proud of me; they came to watch my presentation and to meet the columnist.

Mom wore a green, flowery dress that touched the floor and a purple knit hat. It was obvious that she had no hair: even the shortest of cuts would have had at least some strands poking out the back. The hat was a way of protecting the rest of the world from cancer, of shielding the problem and letting everyone ignore it.

So when a boy named Michael asked why my mom was bald, I was taken aback. Didn’t he know he wasn’t supposed to ask that kind of question? Had his parents not taught him any manners? What was his deal?!

I don’t remember how I answered him. I’m sure I said something snarky.

That incident was honestly the most traumatic breast cancer-related moment of my childhood. By the time fifth grade started, breast cancer seemed like a thing of the past. Mom was done with chemo and radiation, her hair was growing back, life had resumed as normal. Breast cancer, it seemed, had only been a minor hiccup.