Editor’s Note: In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, each Friday in October The Dispatch will feature an area resident’s story about battling the disease. If you know of an inspiring story we should share email [email protected].
When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in Columbus, her doctor can advise her to read all the printed materials on the side effects for all the treatments and medications that will become a part of her life.
Or, for simplicity’s sake, the doctor can just point to Alice Chain
“I think I had every side effect you could possibly have from every treatment or medication,” said Chain, whose breast cancer journey included a double-mastectomy and extensive rounds of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. “It got to the point where me and my doctor would kind of laugh about it. It was ridiculous. If there was a side effect, known or unknown, I got it.”
Her hair fell out, which is common. Her toenails fell off, which is certainly uncommon. Every treatment seemed to trigger some sort of side effect, from minor to alarming. She was hospitalized three times for bad reactions to her treatments and now, a year removed from her last chemo session, she still battles the residual effects of cancer, both physiological and psychological.
“It’s not over when the treatment ends,” she said.
Chain was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram in 2017.
“I had done mammograms every year and the self-exams like you are supposed to, but I’d been busy starting my second career and, for some reason, I went four or five years before I got a mammogram,” she said. “Then on, Aug. 11, 2017, I had a mammogram and they found two lumps on my right breast and the cancer was found in five of the seven lymph nodes they tested.”
She was scheduled for a right-side mastectomy immediately — the surgery was performed Aug. 29.
“I give credit to my radiologist,” she said. “I was in surgery before even some of the biopsies had come back.”
Two months later she began chemo, and after a second round in early 2018, she completed her treatment with 33 weeks of radiation treatments, which ended last October.
Her left breast was removed in May 2018 as a precaution against a return of the cancer.
Throw in several reconstructive surgeries, and a couple more to come, and it’s been a two-year ordeal.
And even though her treatments are behind her, challenges remain.
“I think in a lot of ways, this last year has been the hardest,” she said. “I had some arthritis before the cancer and the treatments and medicines I had been taking eased the effects of it. When I got off that, the arthritis came back with a vengeance. I have good days and bad. This morning was not so good. This afternoon is pretty good. It can change from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day.”
Chain’s cancer came as she was transitioning into a new career. After 20 years as a cosmetologist, Chain went to nursing school.
A job at Trinity Health Care assisted living facility was the first offer she had after nursing school and she’s been a licensed professional nurse there for seven years, working even as she battled cancer.
Working with her patients, she said, was often an escape.
“They are hilarious,” she said. “They are just so wise and have so much information. I have two ladies in my care who are 102 years old. What they’ve seen. What they know. They can tell you everything. You learn so much. And one of them can get around the track with her walker faster than I can. They are amazing.”
Jennifer Lucas, director of resident services at Trinity, said before, during and after her cancer treatments, Chain has been an invaluable member of the caregiving team.
“She’s a wonderful nurse,” Lawrence said. “She has a gentle soul. She worked even when she was going through treatment and I think, again, that just shows her strength and character. Even though she wasn’t feeling well, she wanted to make sure her patients were taken care of. What more can you say?”
Lawrence said Chain’s natural empathy and compassion seemed to grow as she went through her own health crisis and its aftermath. Chain has sensed that, too.
“I was empathetic and had compassion before, but not like it is now,” she said. “Honestly, you don’t know what someone is going through in their life. I know there are people who are hiding a lot of pain and suffering. I’m more aware now.”
Perhaps that, too, is a side effect from her cancer.
And for once, it’s a good side effect to have.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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