‘It’s all good’ Annual mammogram detects cancer in retired nurse
I felt like the Lord laid it out: ‘Do this, do this, do this.’ I felt really positive through the whole thing.” JENNY BLAIR Conway
Jenny Blair of Conway is a retired nurse, so she knew what it might mean when a lump was found during a routine mammogram. The 72-year-old worked for Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock, then took off 14 years to raise her three children and retired after a 13-year stint at the Faulkner County Health Department in Conway. In November 2017, she went to Conway Regional Medical Center for her mammogram. “I went for my regular mammogram, and I was like one month late, but I’ve always been real faithful to get them,” Blair said. She had a 3-D mammogram,“the one they said was a little deeper, a little bit better,” Blair said. “Then it came back that I had something they needed to check out, so they did a biopsy on Nov. 16 and found out it was cancer,” she said. “We thought it was going to be so simple, that it was enclosed.” Blair said she put her faith in God and the medical staff, and despite her medical training, she didn’t spend time researching. “I have friends who are survivors,” she said. “I was like, ‘Hurry up so I can get the chemo done and be OK.’ They thought [the cancer] was enclosed, so they told me it was low-grade. “I wasn’t really worried at all. I thought,‘It can’t be very big. I come every year.’” On Nov. 21, Blair went to visit breast surgeon Dr. James Hagans, who told her a lumpectomy and treatment would be “just fine.” “So that’s what I did,” she said. Blair underwent a lumpectomy in her right breast on Dec. 15 in Little Rock. Then Hagans referred her to Dr. Lawrence Mendelsohn, an oncology specialist in Little Rock. “What happened was, it did metastasize to one of my lymph glands,” Blair said.“I still thought,‘Just one.’” She had her first chemotherapy treatment on Jan. 17. “I definitely thought I’d be sick, but I had heard it’s so much better than it used to be, so I wasn’t too worried about that anyway,” Blair said. “When you get the IV with the chemicals, you get steroids,” she said.“I thought, ‘Woo, this is fine!’ The third day, ugh. There’s medicine in it that handles nausea pretty well. I didn’t get [the drug] they call the red devil.You start getting where you want to throw up. I got through it, thank goodness.” Blair received six treatments three weeks apart. Her last treatment was on May 14. She was lucky — her hair thinned, but she didn’t lose it. She also underwent 21 radiation treatments, starting on June 19 and ending on July 19. “Really, all the way through this — it just opened up, step by step,” Blair said. “I felt like the Lord laid it out: ‘Do this, do this, do this.’ I felt really positive through the whole thing.” Her family, including her husband of 48 years as of Oct. 3, Buddy, and friends and fellow members of Four Winds Church, were supportive. “Everybody, of course, would call and check and text and see how I was doing,” Blair said, “but Buddy was really, really my mainstay.” Blair also attended the Caring Hearts, a support group started by Vivian Trickey Smith of Conway.The group is for survivors of all types of cancer, or “people come who just need a boost,” Smith said. Blair was invited to the group by a fellow church member, Ella Reese, a twotime breast cancer survivor and the Smiths’ neighbor. “[Reese] said, ‘Why don’t you come and eat lunch and just visit some of the ladies there?’” Blair said. “I didn’t feel like I needed support, but I said ‘OK.’ “I went and really enjoyed it.They were really sweet, really nice.There were a lot of people there with no hair. I can see, yes, that’s a good place for support.” Smith said the group meets once a month in her home. “This is the most laid-back group of people you’ll ever meet,” she said. “I just think everybody in their life just needs some place to go to know they’re not alone.” Smith said about 15 women in the group have had or have breast cancer. More information is available by emailing Smith at caring heartslunchbunch@ yahoo.com. Blair’s advice for other women faced with the breast-cancer journey is, “Of course, it is OK to say, you just need to pray, for one thing. He’ll show you if you’ll listen and look. At least he did me; it was so clear what to do.” She also encourages women to perform breast self-exams and get annual mammograms without fail. “It could have really spread a lot further,” Blair said of her cancer. On Oct. 1, she went to Conway Regional Medical Center for her follow-up exam. Although Blair said she was nervous waiting for the results, the outcome was positive. “It’s clear,” she said.“It’s all good.”