Olivia Newton-John, Jaclyn Smith on surviving breast cancer
Actress Jaclyn Smith will never forget the day she found out she had breast cancer. And she'll never forget the lesson she learned in those very first moments of being a cancer patient. As her doctor gave her the diagnosis, "I was in a state of panic," she says. "It was kind of surreal, and you don't really hear what they're saying." The lesson she learned that day: "Don't go it alone," she says. Her husband, Brad Allen, who was with her at the doctor's office, was better able to focus and ask questions about the best treatment options. Smith says she remembers she did manage to ask one question: "I said, 'Am I going to be here for my children?' He said, '98 percent, yes.' " Five years later, Smith is indeed here for her children. She's one of the 2.4 million women in the United States who've survived breast cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. According to a report out this week from the American Cancer Society, the death rate from breast cancer went down 2.2 percent per year from 1990 to 2004. This means more life for these women, and more wisdom from them about how to survive a cancer diagnosis. (Smith, for example, travels the country talking to women about breast cancer as a paid spokeswoman for drug company Eli Lilly). Here, from Smith, singer Olivia Newton-John, and gynecological oncologist Dr. Carolyn Runowicz, herself a breast cancer survivor, is advice that can come only from having been there. startclickprintexclude--> When Newton-John got her diagnosis, she sat down to call her friends and tell them the bad news. Time was of the essence, since she knew a journalist was about to report erroneously that she was dying of cancer. "The second friend I called burst into tears, and I thought, 'I don't need this,' " she says. "So I had a sister and friends make the calls. That way I could focus on positive thoughts, instead of on the illness." three doctors gave her three different recommendations. To make choices, she says, patients need to know what type of tumor they have and how fast it's growing. She says a tumor that is estrogen positive, progesterone positive, and HER2 negative is the "best" kind to have -- tumors with those genetic characteristics tend to be the easiest to treat. And if it's spread to more than three lymph nodes, that's a sign you might need more aggressive treatment. startclickprintexclude--> Runowicz recommends taking some time to get a second (and maybe third) opinion on treatment options, especially if the original doctor was not at a major cancer center. And when they start chemotherapy, she tells women to give up any notions of having a normal life. "Chemo is in charge of your life. You get sick and you get tired," she says. "You just have to say, 'this is a year of my life, and it's going to be a short year and a long life.' " |
