Barbara Graham: A breast cancer survivor story
Barbara Graham
By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
There are so many forms of cancer that strike families in our nation today; the hues of the ribbons that symbolize the awareness month for each form covers a huge spectrum of colors, a reminder for survivors and in honor of those that have lost the battle to the disease that has taken so many loved ones. The News and Press will highlight survivor stories of people in Darlington County throughout the year in hopes that their story will spread awareness and remind readers to go for annual physicals – early detection saves lives. If you would like to be included, please contact us.
Now a picture of health, Barbara Graham was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, and had surgery in 2001. She readily shares her story with others in the hope that they will not only perform self breast exams, that they will be persistent in seeking treatment when their intuition tells them something is not quite right.
“I felt a knot in my breast,” Graham recalled. “And I was leaking from that breast… enough to wet through my bra to my shirt. I went to my family practice physician and told him I had found a lump; at first he dismissed it and said it was nothing. A month went by, and I did another self breast exam and it felt larger. Again, he said it was nothing; it was just an overactive milk duct. The third time I was insistent; it had grown even larger, the lump was right under the skin – had I waited longer it would have been protruding. He finally gave me a breast exam. Then, he sent me for a mammogram, a core biopsy, and an ultrasound.”
As she had the ultrasound, Graham said that something just didn’t seem right about the way the technician was behaving. “She was saying to herself, ‘mmm hmm,’ I thought to myself, God, what is wrong? This doesn’t sound good.”
The core biopsy was also performed, on a Friday, extracting fluid from the lump with a long needle.
“I had to wait the weekend to find out the results,” she said. “On Monday, I walked over to get my results. I’d known the women in the office for years, and they said they couldn’t tell me anything, to wait for the doctor. I admit it made me suspicious. Later on he called me and said, ‘Come on over, let’s talk.’ I knew that didn’t sound good. When I sat down across from him, he pushed the results across the desk to me. I read them, and then just said, ‘Okay. What do we do next?’”
From there, she was referred to an oncologist and prepared for surgery. “I told the surgeon not to worry about saving anything, to just take the whole thing,” she said. “When I woke up, they only had to remove the lump. I went through chemotherapy, then radiation, then took the tamoxiphin pill for five years.”
The hardest part of the process was the chemotherapy.
“There was one treatment that I was the sickest I’ve ever been in my life,” she said. “I remember thinking even my hair felt sick.”
She had cut her hair back pretty short, and really never was completely bald. “By the time that I would have been, it was already growing back.” she said. As with other women that have undergone chemotherapy, she recalled how odd it was to not have eyebrows, to have to pencil them in. But that was nothing compared to the constant nausea she felt, even with medications to lessen it.
To make matters worse, she was going through tremendous loss with the death of one of her sons, a musician who was killed in a car wreck coming home from performing at a wedding.
“My other two children were in college at the time, and there were so many things happening…it just felt like my life was falling apart,” said Graham. “But you know, it is so wonderful how your life can fall apart but it all comes back together to make you stronger. You pick up all those pieces and put them back together, and you can go on. But it takes a lot of prayer…a whole lot of prayer to be able to do that.”
She now works with the University of South Carolina with their South Carolina Witness Project, traveling around the state and locally in the Pee Dee area in workshops helping others that are discovering how to go on after a diagnosis of cancer.
Graham is also this year’s President of the Darlington County Section of the National Council of Negro Women.
“I hope that God can use me to help others,” said Graham. “I never thought I was going to die when I was diagnosed. I just want to get though it, and get to the other side. It humbles you to know that you can be doing everything right, taking care of yourself, working hard, and something like that can just take you to your knees. But it does not have to end you.”
McLeod Mobile Mammography Unit
The Bethel AME Church Womens Ministry, located at 1321 South Main St, Darlington is hosting the McLeod Mammography Unit Thursday November 3 from 9 a.m. to 4p.m. Call 843-777-2095 to schedule a reservation.
Note: at least 20 people must register by Monday, October 31st or the event will be canceled.
To learn more about early diagnosis of cancer, and programs to help newly diagnosed cancer patients, visit: American Cancer Society www.cancer.org.