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Family, friends keep survivor going strong
ROACHDALE -- Nothing can prepare a person for the shock of hearing they are positive for breast cancer. However, with the help of family and friends that journey was made a little easier for Putnam County resident and former state legislator Susan Crosby.
Crosby, 68, who retired from the state legislature after 12 years in December 1999, did everything by the books when it came to her health -- going for her annual mammogram religiously as a precaution.
"I never thought I was at risk for breast cancer because I didn't have any family history of it," Crosby explained. "I have an annual mammogram always scheduled right after my birthday in October."
Last year, however, Crosby was a few months late going in for her annual testing, having been busy taking care of an ill neighbor.
"After I went in, I got a call to come back and do another one," Crosby said. "I went back for the retrial, thinking it was obviously the machine or whatever and found out that I had five spots that I had not had the year before."
Not knowing what to think, Crosby hoped for the best, that the five new spots would turn out to be just cysts.
"I really thought that they were just going to be cysts and that they probably were going to pop when they did the biopsy," Crosby explained. "I was still in total denial that this could be happening to me."
After the biopsy was completed, Crosby was informed in January, that she did in fact have DCIS or ductal carcinoma in situ, which is the presence of abnormal cells inside the milk duct of the breast. It is also considered to be the earliest form of breast cancer.
"It is a fairly noninvasive cancer," Crosby added. "If you have to have cancer it's the best one to have to have."
After receiving the traumatic news, Crosby with her husband Joe by her side, went in for surgery in February.
"The surgeon told me, 'DCIS is something we can easily work with and treat. I promise you that you're not going to die from this,'" Crosby noted. "So, I had the surgery and the surgeon then sent my tissue results off for a DNA test as well as to get a second opinion through this national lab, which she felt she had 100 percent reliability in."
Two weeks later, Crosby received another phone call that once again carried some heavy news.
"Two weeks later she called back and said she had bad news and good news," Crosby explained. "I told her to give me the bad news first and she said they had found some invasive hidden away in the DCIS. So, that meant we had to go back and do some more surgery and check my lymph glands to see if it possibly could have spread. Right up until we got the tissue tests back, I was still in total denial."
Hearing such news, made Crosby wonder what good news she could possibly receive. Her surgeon, however, informed her that she was estrogen positive, which meant that Crosby's case could be treated fairly easily with radiation and not chemo if nothing had spread.
"Luckily it had not spread to my lymph glands and we were able to do some follow-up radiation treatments for four weeks, five days a week," Crosby said. "I'm also now on medication that I will be taking every day for the next five years."
Having completed radiation treatments and moving toward just taking medication, Crosby's life is slowly going back to normal. However, she did suffer some scar tissue damage through her two surgeries, which resulted in Crosby finding solace in yoga.
"I have scar tissue damage from the initial surgery as well as the second right underneath my armpit about right where your bra hits. It was probably the most uncomfortable part," Crosby explained. "With that being said, my surgeon advised me that the best way to treat it was through exercise. After hearing that, later on that day I was driving through downtown Greencastle and I saw Dance Workshop had yoga."
After receiving clearance from her doctor, Crosby began yoga in hopes of not only stretching her muscles, but helping her with some much needed relaxation.
Crosby was able to find a partner in Dance Workshop instructor Shawnya Byrd, who wanted to help from the get-go.
"I didn't want her to think I was wimping out, you know if I couldn't raise my arm up as high as some of the others," Crosby said with a laugh. "She's been phenomenal. She's researched it and came up with all these great exercises that I could use as far as working my arm and that whole chest area. Today, this is less than six months, I can't feel any of the scar tissue."
As of now, Crosby is six months cancer free, in large part thanks to the outpouring support from her friends and family.
"I had wonderful, fabulous support from family and friends," Crosby said. "I just cannot tell you how much that meant to me to constantly have a friend call me and tell me that they're behind me, that they were sending prayers to me. It was just really, really special to know that we had so many people rooting for me.
"My family, my husband Joe, sons Todd and Tom along with my daughter-in-law Amber, were just absolutely amazing at how strong they were for me. I couldn't have done it without the support of family and friends and all the prayers I received from so many people."
For those who may be just starting a journey with breast cancer or for those who are struggling with it now, Crosby advises people to stay positive and try to live a healthy stress-free lifestyle.
"I would tell people to stay strong and to stay positive," Crosby added. "With the new technologies they have today and everything that they've learned through research, it's not the death sentence that it used to be."