Family matters
Cancer battle inspires kin to treasure every moment together
Finding a breast lump can be a harrowing experience for any woman, so when Jerrie Clinton, a retired nurse from Rose Bud, found a lump in 2012, she said that even though cancer was her first thought, she could not believe she had the disease. “Of course, you tell yourself, ‘No, it’s not,’ ” she said. She did, however, immediately schedule a mammogram. She had always been diligent about having regular mammograms, she added, but that year, she had missed her appointment by six months following the death of her mother-in-law. When staff members asked at the appointment whether she had any problems, she said she did not tell them about the lump. It wasn’t until they called her back to say they found something unusual on the scans that she told them. Clinton had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor, and she decided to have a bilateral mastectomy to remove both breasts, as well as breast reconstruction. She said she chose the mastectomy because her cancer was an aggressive type, and in addition to seeing patients with recurring breast cancer, her grandmother had battled metastatic breast cancer that spread to her bones. “Because I’m a nurse, I had seen so many people who had had a lumpectomy or had just one breast removed; then [the cancer] would come back in another spot or the other breast,” she added. “I just thought, ‘If they’ll take them both off, I don’t have to worry about this anymore. I’m done.’” She also underwent a chemotherapy regimen that left her nauseated for two days after each treatment and led to neuropathy in her feet and fingertips, but she said the side effects did not bother her; she is just glad to be alive. When she found the lump, Clinton was 61 and working two days a week at Searcy Medical Center. She decided to retire after receiving the cancer diagnosis. She said she did not want her colleagues to depend on her if she was too ill to go to work. Her husband, who traveled and worked long hours for his job, also retired as soon as he heard the news. “He went with me to every visit, every treatment, everything,” Clinton said. “He took over the house. He cleaned, fed me. He cooked anything I wanted.” Once when she was feeling nauseated after a chemotherapy treatment, she said he asked her what sounded good to eat. She told him she wanted lemon meringue pie, so he made the treat for her from scratch. Her daughter Amanda Miller, who lives next door, also helped support Clinton during her cancer battle. “I never worried I was going to lose her,” Miller said. “I never thought that she or my dad, either one, would give up; but to go in and see her sick or [nauseated] or that type of thing was the hardest. But they never had the attitude of, ‘This is going to be it,’ so I never looked at it that way, either.” At the time, Clinton, who has three children, said her seven grandchildren inspired her to keep fighting. She now has 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “I wanted to be able to spend time with them. I wasn’t ready to die yet,” she said, adding that maintaining the will to live is essential to overcoming cancer. “Don’t give up. Don’t just say, ‘Hey, I’m going to die,’ because you don’t have to these days.” She added that she is always willing to chat with other women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer so that they know what to expect from the treatments. She also walks in Race for the Cure most years, and she recently became a five-year survivor, which she said is a big milestone. Now she and her husband are making the most of their retirement by traveling.They bought a camper and went on 21 trips last year, she said “We go, we do, we try to see everything we can and enjoy it,” she said.“We come home, and the grandkids tackle us.They’re so wanting to see us, and we enjoy them until we’re exhausted.” Miller said that having cancer changed her mother’s outlook on life. Now Clinton and the rest of the family try to appreciate every moment together, rather than getting bogged down in the daily grind, Miller said. Clinton agreed that fighting cancer taught her not to sweat the small stuff. “Enjoy every minute you can,” she said. “Where you thought your house had to be spotless and everything done just perfect — it doesn’t, really. All those things, they’ll be there when you get back. Spend time with your family.”