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Positive outlook helped one woman beat breast cancer
Having a positive outlook on life and having a solid family and group of friends is what got breast cancer survivor and Putnam County resident Angela Kiste and her family through one of the hardest times in her life.
Angela was diagnosed in October of 2010 with stage two, triple negative breast cancer, which is one of the worst kinds one can have. Being diagnosed with this type of cancer, there is only one treatment, a successful surgery.
"I had a mammogram the year before and it was a clean. I was only three or four months behind having my annual done and I found a lump. I was very lucky to find it when I did," Angela explained. "If I had let it go any longer than I had, they said probably within six months I would have been there. It's pretty aggressive when you have triple negative. In addition to being just a bad one, it grows quickly."
It's a known fact that those who have a family history breast cancer are more likely to get it themselves. However, in the case of Angela she had no past history.
"Mammograms are so important," Angela said. "It was truly unexpected. Not even thought of. There was no hint of anything and within a year I was a stage two."
At the time that Angela and her family were dealing with the news of breast cancer, she also found out she had uterine cancer. Although it was in the beginning stages, uterine cancer is known to be just as deadly as breast cancer.
Not long after the diagnosis, Angela underwent a nine-hour surgery on Oct. 19, 2010, at Saint Francis Hospital in Indianapolis that addressed not only the breast cancer, but the uterine cancer as well.
"I had one treatment option and I did that and I was very successful," Angela said with a smile. "They were able to remove everything, but because I had it for over a year they told me I need to have treatment in case there were any loose cells. It was a very long road for me. I literally underwent 12 months of chemotherapy. I had to be preventative."
Sticking together and trying to maintain some sort of normalcy helped not only Angela, but the entire family as well.
"The most difficult thing was trying to keep things on a normal level and not have a whole lot of anxiety in the house," her husband Tim explained. "It's a struggle to keep things even keeled without a support group here.
"I don't know how a single mother or someone without a church support group survives it," he added. "I was blessed with a job that let me take enough time off to make it to her treatments once a week. Without the blessings we had it would have been very difficult to make it through it."
Although, there were days where there was no energy left to get up off the couch, Angela kept a positive attitude through it all.
"I have an awesome support group of friends, a husband who has been a rock through the whole thing and three awesome teenagers who were my nurses, nurse maids and my rocks. It was a very long road for me," Angela said as she put her arm around Tim. "In a positive way I think it brought us closer together as a family. My key to survival was that I wasn't going to let it keep me down. I wasn't going to let it dictate my life and I just went a day at a time."
The family also received support from their friends and family as well as their church, which all helped with making meals or even just giving Tim a break to spend time with his wife.
"I have a very close group of girlfriends and they threw me a party pre-surgery," Angela explained laughing. "It was awesome. I received this huge pink box and inside it had letters, cards and gifts. They called it my bad day box. When I felt low or sad I was to go into that box and pick one thing out of there."
That positive support led to a positive outlook for Angela who very easily could have chosen to be down on herself, but instead she chose to embrace each day, determined to beat cancer.
"I just pushed myself every day to try and make it as normal as I could make it," Angela noted. "It's all about your outlook. If you decided you're beaten and done from the get-go you'll never get better. You'll never be able to endure it."
And although, a year after being diagnosed she was told that she was officially cancer free, it wasn't until recently that she felt a sense of relief.
"At the end you don't trust them saying, OK, you're good. I think it takes time," Angela said. "They said me reaching three years was more important than five. I feel now, three years later after I was diagnosed, I'm not waiting for the other shoe to drop."
Even though feeling of elation did come over the family when the cancer free notice came, it has proven difficult to put in the back of their minds all together.
"When you get the cancer free notice there is a feeling of elation, but at the same time I don't know that we'll ever get rid of the skeleton in the closet," Tim said. "There's always that fear (that it will come back)."
One thing the family is grateful for is the fact they didn't keep the cancer a secret. After people knew, it seemed a whole lot more prominent, everyone knows someone that's gone through it.
"My children have a deeper understanding of just how precious life is. Something that I think young people often take for granted," Angela said. "It gave them a broader understanding. They're even more advocates as well for women. They're not afraid to ask their aunts or their friends' parents, 'Have you had a mammogram?'"
So, as Angela and her family gear up for her three-year anniversary on Oct.19, she's hoping to have a celebration.
"Breast cancer isn't just a moment in your life. It's something that you'll have a relationship with your doctors the rest of your life. It's a lifelong partnership," Angela said reflecting. "I'm not quite sure what I'm doing (on her anniversary). I think it's a surprise."
Angela's fight with breast cancer was a long and hard fought battle, but it's an experience, which she believes she can use to help other people.
"It seems so long ago and it wasn't," Angela said smiling. "The biggest things were friends, family and God. You have to find the positive in it. I don't hide it. I'm supposed to share it and help other survive it."
"It will always be a part of me. It has to be."