Looking forward
Benton breast-cancer survivor hopes to give back after retirement
Nothing puts a damper on holiday celebrations like bad news, so when Susan Hill, 64, of Benton was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer during a routine mammogram right before Thanksgiving, she waited until the day after Christmas to tell anyone besides her husband. “I didn’t want to spoil anybody’s Christmas,” she said. “The kids were kind of shocked I didn’t tell them sooner, but … even though they’re adult children, they’re still your kids, and you try to protect them as much as possible.” One of her sisters had been diagnosed with breast cancer a year-and-a-half earlier and had undergone a double mastectomy with no additional treatment. Hill scheduled a mastectomy for January, but her plans changed when she fell and broke her leg on NewYear’s Eve. Because of the injury, she said, she would have needed to wait until she healed before surgeons performed the mastectomy, completing chemotherapy in the meantime. “I wanted the cancer removed as soon as possible,” she said, so she opted for a lumpectomy, during which doctors also removed 18 lymph nodes, then would undergo chemotherapy later. Even though her sister was a breast-cancer survivor, Hill added that she never considered getting the disease herself because she lived a healthy lifestyle. “It doesn’t matter how healthy you are,” she said. “Cancer can strike at any time.” She added that she required chemotherapy and additional treatment because her cancer was triple positive, meaning it grew quickly in response to estrogen, progesterone and a protein called HER2. She was living in Memphis at the time, so she underwent chemotherapy, Herceptin infusions and radiation at Saint Francis Hospital there. She lost her hair the day of the second treatment, she said, and she also experienced some nausea. She added that the appointments lasted for hours, so a group of volunteers passed out snacks, blankets and water to help patients feel more comfortable. Hill’s husband, who was later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and died last year, drove her to the appointments and took care of her when she felt sick, and her daughter, who had just earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Memphis, postponed her move to Denver so she could be near Hill until she finished the chemotherapy. Hill’s son had just gotten engaged, she added. “So just knowing what their future held and wanting to make sure that I was around to see that future [inspired me],” Hill said.“I felt like everyone needed me, and I needed to make sure that I was around to help.” She advises breast cancer patients to reach out to survivors who have dealt with the disease, adding that cancer centers may offer support groups for patients. “I didn’t really participate in the support group, which I think, looking back, I probably should have,” she said.“I relied on my family to be my support group. I’m lucky that I have a family, a big family that was a good support group.” Soon after she finished her last radiation treatment, Hill attended Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure in North Little Rock. “That was actually the first time that I went out in public without a wig on, with no hair,” she said.“In that situation with that group of people and everybody being so supportive and everything, I felt proud that I was a survivor. I was glad to be there, trying to raise money for other people who are going through this.” Hill also participated in an experimental study for an oral cancer-treatment drug, but the medicine was too hard on her stomach, she said. She now takes letrozole to reduce the possibility of the cancer coming back, which she said still concerns her, even though recent bone and CT scans at CARTI in Little Rock showed she was cancer-free. “Every year when you go for your mammogram, you’re always very apprehensive, because I know there is a chance that it will come back,” she said. “We all live with the chance that you can get cancer.” During the scans, doctors took a sample of her blood to test for a gene that causes breast and cervical cancer, she added. If the test is positive, she said, she will take measures to protect herself against cervical cancer and let her siblings know so they and their children can be tested as well. She also plans to retire next spring, which will give her time to volunteer with organizations that support patients with breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. She said she became interested in driving patients to and from chemotherapy appointments after seeing a request from a cancer-related organization. “I thought, ‘That would be bad, if you had to pay an Uber or someone else every time you needed to go for a treatment,’” she said. “Then one day I was in a store, and a lady was on the phone complaining because her car wasn’t working and she couldn’t find a ride to the doctor, and I thought, ‘You know, that’s a need that needs to be met.’” Retirement will also give Hill more time to spend with her six grandchildren, who are spread out in Little Rock, Baltimore and Spokane, Washington. She said she is grateful that she was diagnosed and treated early because she is alive to watch the children grow up. “The main thing is to get those annual mammograms. Early diagnosis and treatment are by far the best way to have a good outcome like I did,” she said. “Don’t wait. Go in and get tested.”