Dona Fitzpatrick - Inflammatory Breast Cancer

I can’t say I’m a breast cancer survivor yet - but I can
say that I’m surviving happily and able to look at each day as
a new beginning. Although the cancer keeps progressing
and my doctor has diagnosed it as “incurable”, I’m still
optimistic that we’ll manage to get the cancer completely
under control or we’ll find a cure somehow. There’s
wonderful research being done and new cancer cures being
discovered every day. It’s what keeps me hopeful.
In brief - I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast
Cancer (IBC) 3-1/2 years ago. IBC is the most aggressive
form of breast cancer and the prognosis was really not good
several years ago. It still isn’t wonderful, but there have been
tremendous developments in the past 10 years or so. I feel
quite impassioned about helping raise awareness about IBC
and have given many public talks. Early diagnosis is crucial.
The symptoms are a slight rash on the breast, or a wrinkling
of the skin, like an orange peel. Very often IBC is
misdiagnosed by a woman’s family doctor and she’s given
an ineffective treatment for several months. The delay can
be deadly - IBC is so aggressive that every day counts.
When I was first diagnosed, my husband and I read
information and statistics about it on the Internet and were
terrified. Survival beyond 5 years was almost unheard of.
Must admit I cried that night. Since then there have been
wonderful advances with the disease and I’ve spoken to
others who have been IBC survivors for 12 years now – and
still counting.
Fortunately for me, the medical care I’ve received has
been amazing. I have 3 wonderful, supportive and caring
doctors who work as a team to help me. Days after my
surgeon saw me and told me I had IBC, I started on chemo. I
then had a mastectomy on my left breast and then radiation.
At that point (10 months later) it looked like I was cancer
free. The cancer came back in October, shortly after I had
agreed to be the spokesperson for Ottawa’s Run for the
Cure. I stood in front of everyone on Parliament Hill that year
and promised to come back as a “survivor”, not just
someone surviving cancer.
Since then I’ve had at least 8 other rounds of chemo.
The cancer has spread to my skin, the chest wall and around
my lung - and this year I found another primary IBC on my
other breast. Last February I had another mastectomy. The
chemo sometimes stops the cancer growing, but then the
cancer cells learn to adapt to the chemo drug and it
becomes ineffective. I’m currently paying about $1,600 every
month for my chemo drugs. There’s a drug on the market
called Avastin that has had wonderful results in the U.S. with
IBC patients. Unfortunately, it isn’t covered for IBC patients
in Ontario and is very expensive.
But I’m still optimistic. I’ve tried every natural therapy I
can think of to support my treatment, including a macrobiotic
diet. Perhaps the natural treatments are having an effect and
working to prevent the cancer from progressing more, I’m
not really sure.
Throughout all the treatment and chemo, I’ve managed
to work full-time. I love my job and the people at the office
have been wonderfully supportive - some even joining my
team, “Dona’s Divas” for the Run for the Cure this year. I still
do everything I used to do, just a tiny bit slower (and I have
to get to bed early and get lots of sleep). Other than that, I
have absolutely nothing to complain about and a ton to be
grateful for. I can’t believe how wonderfully supportive family
and friends have been - I feel surrounded by love. People
talk about the lessons they learn from having something like
cancer. I feel it has taught me a lot of life’s lessons and I’m a
calmer, happier and more balanced person now than I ever
was before. I’m grateful for every day.
And I know I will join the ranks of the “survivors” one of
these days.