![]() She felt it was her best option.Īfter Suzy’s surgery, my parents, Stan and I were all at the hospital anxiously awaiting the results. Suzy would be left with a small scar but no more cancer. He would then do an implant ten days later. This surgeon suggested performing a subcutaneous mastectomy, a procedure in which the outside of the breast is left intact, but an incision is made and the breast tissue is removed. They refrain from using the word cure because cancer can recur.īut that, of course, is exactly what Suzy wanted to hear, and who could blame her? Like many women, and for that matter men, too, Suzy was of the frame of mind that the doctor was always right. Even the most respected cancer experts in the country (which he was certainly not) do not talk about recovery in terms of surviving cancer or remission. According to Suzy, this surgeon told Suzy he could cure her. He was very handsome, very suave and seemed very self-confident. It is important, if you are to learn from our mistakes, that I tell you a little bit about this surgeon. Our family doctor called in a surgeon to review Suzy’s case. My sister was terrified, naturally, but adamant against having a mastectomy. So when you are told you’ve got a life-threatening disease, and the treatment sounds more heinous than the thought of a little lump in the breast, it is understandable that a woman uneducated about cancer might opt for no treatment at all. There is rarely any pain associated with breast cancer in its early stages. The most difficult concept to grasp about cancer, I think, is the fact that when it is first detected the patient usually feels just fine. None of us knew enough to inquire about seeking information from a major cancer center or from a group of physicians associated with one in Peoria. Suzy trusted him with her cancer the same way she did with her measles. The truth of the matter is that growing up in the small town of Peoria, our family had been treated our whole lives by one doctor. If I had only known then what I know now. What happened from this point on is still difficult for me to talk about because I am so much more knowledgeable on the subject today. At the age of 33, Suzy had breast cancer. When I got off the plane, my father was waiting there alone with an expression on his face I will never forget. A biopsy is the surgical removal and microscopic examination of tissue to see if cancer cells are present. Her doctor had found a lump in her breast that was not a cyst. ![]() ![]() ![]() After graduating, I packed up my bags and moved to Dallas, Texas, home of my father’s older sister.Īlthough we were separated by distance, Suzy and I spoke every day by phone in the late afternoon.Īs if it were yesterday, I can remember the phone call I received from Suzy one Tuesday afternoon. I felt independent and responsible and ready to take on the world. I was active in many school projects and finally began to have confidence in myself. Eventually, she married her college sweetheart, Stan Komen.Ĭollege, for me, was the first time I felt I belonged anywhere. Suzy came back to Peoria when she graduated from college and got a job modeling locally. The boys didn’t know I was alive, except that I was Susan Goodman’s younger sister. I was still a big, sort of clumsy girl with two left feet. Suzy tried desperately to teach me about the pretty things in life: how to fix my hair, apply makeup and coordinate my wardrobe. I was a tomboy and a mischief-maker and delighted in nothing more than spending hours galloping around on horseback. ![]() I developed my own way of getting attention. I, on the other hand, was bigger, heavier and taller than most of my friends and her friends. She was the star of our hometown of Peoria, Illinois-the high school homecoming queen, the college beauty queen. She was beautiful and kind and loving, not only to me but to everyone. Growing up, Suzy and I were just about as close as two sisters can get. ![]()
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