Living carefree: Part of therapy comes from a ride, getting back to work for Landis

Thursday, October 29, 2009 3:00 AM  |  Printer friendly version | E-mail to a friend | Dear Diary,

I may have breast cancer, but I know not having chemotherapy is the right choice.

By Shavonne Potts

spotts@salisburypost.comNext year, Debbie Goodman will have hit an important milestone in her life. She will be breast cancer free for five years — the length of time a patient's risk of reoccurrence is diminished.

She'll surpass that benchmark with the same fervor she gave to her December 2005 breast cancer diagnosis, with determination to survive.

Goodman, a Harley-Davidson enthusiast, truly lives by the Harley mantra — Live to Ride, Ride to Live.

She rides on the back of her husband Rick's Harley anytime they want to ride and "be free."

After being diagnosed in her 50s, the Landis resident decided she would fight back.

Her doctor called her into his office after discovering, "something wasn't right," she said.

She went into the office expecting nothing. Goodman had a round of other tests, including a mammogram and a couple of biopsies.

"Everything came back OK," she said.

She went back to the doctor's office once again.

"I wasn't a bit worried," she said.

The doctor found a tumor that was an infiltrating ductal carcinoma, the most common type of breast cancer that breaks through the duct wall and invades the breast tissue.

"The first thing you think of is, 'I'm going to die,' " Goodman said.

She was borderline between stage I and stage II cancer. At stage I, the cancer invades nearby tissue and at stage II, cancer can spread to lymph nodes. Lymph nodes help fight infections.

The diagnosis was a shock to her family and friends.

"It was really a shock to me. It knocked me off my feet," Goodman said.

She found a surgeon who she quickly replaced after he said upsetting things during an initial consultation.

Her mother, who is a breast cancer survivor, feared she'd passed on the gene to her daughter.

She expressed her concerns to the doctor who told them it was her mother's fault Goodman had cancer.

Disgusted, Goodman never returned to the Charlotte doctor.

A friend of Goodman's suggested a Concord surgeon, who performed her mastectomy.

She would have preferred a double mastectomy, but she only had her left breast removed.

"I wanted them both cut off," she said.

She had to come to terms with having her breast removed.

"That is a devastating thing to know you're going to lose a part of your body," Goodman said.

Goodman, a diabetic, stayed in the hospital for a day as a precaution.

Goodman is the deputy administrator, billing clerk, town clerk and tax collector for the town of Landis. She missed one week of work.

"Part of my best therapy was being able to come back to work," Goodman said.

Surprisingly for her doctor, she opted for no chemotherapy or radiation.

"I already made up my mind. I was not going to do it," she said matter-of-fact.

She wasn't afraid of the potential hair loss.

"I said, 'if I died I'd rather not feel sick, but feel good,' " Goodman said.

Her doctor asked if she was certain she didn't want chemotherapy. He told her the cancer could potentially return.

"In my heart I felt like I made the right decision," she said.

She refused any of the common medications, like Tamoxifin, given to cancer patients as part of treatment.

"I haven't had a problem," she said.

During her surgery recovery, she only took two pain pills.

In 2006, she began her reconstruction procedures. Since Goodman is diabetic, her best reconstructive approach was to have an implant.

Before receiving the implant she underwent the painful process of expanders.

Doctors placed a hollow sack into her chest wall. Over the course of months, saline is pumped into the sack, stretching the skin to make room for the implant.

"They hurt more than anything else ever hurt," she said.

She cut her expander procedures short after she just couldn't take the pain any further.

"If I could have it my way, I'd have had them the size of a peanut," she said laughing.

All through her appointments and subsequent recovery, her husband, family, friends and co-workers were there for her.

"Everybody was real supportive," she said.

Goodman and her husband, Rick, talked about her surgery and treatment options. "I let her decide. That's what makes a woman," he said of her mastectomy choice.

He called his wife lucky.

No one knows what it's like until they go through it, she said.

"A lot of people think they know, but until you walk in those shoes, you don't know," Goodman said.

Her advice to others going through what she went through is that your attitude affects your outcome.

"You can whine, but it's not going to change what's there," she said.

The way a person handles a situation can determine the battle of being a survivor, Goodman said.

She chooses to celebrate her survival by living life.

She lives life like she rides a Harley — carefree.