Life-changing experience
After surgery for breast cancer, Kristine Deem will take part in Race for the Cure
Kristine Deem’s life changed forever five years ago when she found a lump in her left breast. At 37, and with no family history of illness, she never thought it would happen to her.
Deem learned the lump was a cyst and had it drained. But it returned six months later. And other lumps followed – in both breasts. Ella Gordan, a nurse at Panhandle Health District, said Deem’s was the worst case of cystic breasts she had seen and encouraged Deem to see a specialist.
She said the specialist, who Deem has asked to remain unnamed, told her she was fine. He drained her cysts and said they weren’t cancerous, even though she told him they were painful and bleeding. She believed he dismissed her because she was uninsured. “He did as little as possible,” she said.
Deem continued to find lumps, but nothing cancerous was showing up on a mammogram or on a sonogram.
Panhandle Health sent her to see Dr. Edward DeTar at Kootenai Surgical Associates. DeTar removed the cysts and performed a biopsy at Deem’s request. “I just knew,” she said. The results showed that Deem had breast cancer.
DeTar and medical professionals at Panhandle Health said that Deem’s persistence saved her life. “Nobody tells you a mammogram doesn’t show cancer,” Deem said. Her cancer was hiding behind her cysts.
On Sept. 2, Deem had a mastectomy to remove her left breast. On Sept. 15 , her follow-up appointment showed that her cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and she will have to undergo chemotherapy. And, she will lose her waist-length hair. “I’m scared and I’m mad,” she said.
Deem said only good is going to come out of her ordeal.
Less than a month after her surgery, Deem will be among breast cancer survivors, family and friends, at the ninth annual Susan G. Komen Coeur d’Alene Race for the Cure on Sept. 28. Her daughter, Ashley Klepper, and sister, Anne Way, will join her.
Cancer survivor Leslie Landwehr, an art teacher at Winton and Bryan elementary schools in Coeur d’Alene, was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, through a mammogram. “I’d like to encourage women to get out there … everybody knows somebody who has died or been affected by breast cancer. I know that a mammogram can save a life,” she said. She will also be at the race. “It truly is a race of support. It’s a celebration.”
Becky Olin, a third-grade teacher at Skyway Elementary School, is a two-year survivor. Her cancer was found early through a mammogram. To avoid radiation and chemotherapy, she opted to have a mastectomy.
After the school year began in 2006, just two days after the Race for the Cure, she had her surgery. She formed a close bond with her students that year. “I’ve never seen so many pink signs and pink cards.”
In the spring, Skyway held its first Kids for the Cure T-shirt design contest and Olin’s student, Brooklyn Cunningham, was the winner. The artwork will be worn by all Kids for the Cure participants on the Sept. 28 race.
Race for the Cure, Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s largest fundraiser, is worldwide, funding local grants and national cancer research. To register for the Sept. 28 Coeur d’Alene Race, visit www.komencda.org.