Fighting cancer can feel like a full time job, but many patients still have to work throughout their treatment. In tonight's Buddy Check report we'll introduce you to a northern Michigan who worked through her radiation treatment for breast cancer with a little help from her friends and co-workers.
Breast cancer survivor Elizabeth Murrell says, "I've had mammograms since I was 32 years old because my mom died from breast cancer in 1983 so they started me very early."
What she got for her 40th birthday wasn't a surprise, but it wasn't what she hoped.
Murrell says, "It was just 2 days after my 40th birthday and they saw some spots they thought they should do a biopsy on and there was no lump."
No lump, but still cancer. On the advice of her doctor she passed on a full mastectomy and opted for a partial mastectomy and radiation therapy instead.
Radiation Oncologist Robert Prust, MD says, "We use radiation to address the risk of any microscopic disease that would be left behind during a more limited surgery."
And thanks to good friends she knew what she had in store.
Murrell says, "my best friend was diagnosed with breast cancer 6 months before I was and she let me see what the scaring looked like and the incision and all of that and it wasn't that bad and she went through the whole radiation process and I saw her being able to go to work everyday and be able to do this when it happened to me I had it fresh in my memory."
And doctors say radiation therapy for breast cancer can sound worse than it really is.
Dr. Prust says, "It almost universally goes a lot faster than people anticipated initially and they get through it ok."
Being able to not only get through it, but work through it was important to Elizabeth. It's what she wanted to do and thanks to some good planning and good people, she did just that for the seven weeks of her treatment.
Murrell says, "I scheduled it so it was at 9am so I'd go to radiation and it only takes 10 minutes and I'd get in my car and I work downtown and it was another 10 minutes I'd be at work. I worked with such supportive wonderful people. The best thing they did is that they didn't treat me any different they were there for me, they understood."
Elizabeth says the biggest side effect for her was forgetfulness. She called it "Swiss cheese brain." Dr. Prust says fatigue is very common with radiation therapy, and usually the worst physical side effect is tenderness at the sight of the radiation, similar to a sun burn.
Murrell recently had her 5 year checkup and she got the all clear.
