Anne Wilkinson

Tahlequah, OK

Breast Cancer Survivor

I should be dead right now, according to the oncologist who read my PET scan in 2006 and found that my breast cancer had spread to my lung. In front of a roomful of sick people in his clinic, he told me I only had about a year and a half to live, and I needed to get my affairs in order.

After I told my husband what the doctor had said, I fell apart. But my husband reminded me that we'd already decided to drive to Tulsa to Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). The man who had taken my PET scan had recommended CTCA to us. What he told us sounded wonderful. So, two days after I was given that death sentence, that's what we did.

When I walked into CTCA, I couldn't believe how beautiful the facility was. It looked like a hotel, not a hospital. I met with an Oncology Information Specialist, who, after listening to my story, told me she wasn't surprised at what I'd been told. She went on to say that I'd find a large number of CTCA patients whod tell a similar story. I later found out she was right. I love to write, and I've compiled a journal full of their case studies.

Within a couple weeks, after we had all my medical records together, I went through four days of appointments at CTCA, to get tests, meet with clinicians and then have port surgery and start chemo. CTCA is amazing. If you have blood work done, it's only a matter of hours before you have the results. In four days, I had chemo started. That's way different from what you experience in a small town, where the first time I learned I had breast cancer, back in 2001, it was six weeks after the diagnosis before I was able to start chemotherapy.

But let me go back to that point in my story. In 2001, I received my original diagnosis of breast cancer. I'd had a mammogram, and while it was clear, my doctor in Tahlequah felt a rough spot of skin under my right breast and said that in his experience, this usually indicated cancer. But, he wanted me to get some additional opinions. I saw two more physicians, both of whom agreed with the mammogram that I had no cancer. So I did nothing. Ten months later, I felt a hard lump in my right breast. I went back to my original doctor and was diagnosed as having stage 2A breast cancer. He was broken-hearted, because he'd suspected cancer and angry that the mammogram hadn't shown it.

At that time, I had a mastectomy, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. For the next several years, the new oncologist I was seeing for follow-up didn't order any scans on me, saying I looked too healthy to be sick. She didn't order a CT scan or a PET scan. I did look healthy. I'd started seeing a nutritionist when I was first diagnosed, and made sure I ate very healthily. In fact, Id started working for the nutritionist, so I could learn all I could. I also did a lot of my own research on cancer and tried to follow what I learned to keep my immune system healthy.

After the fourth year, this oncologist told me she didn't want to see me for a year. I was about to make that follow-up appointment with her, when I suffered a severe pain over my left lung. My husband drove me to the Emergency Room of the hospital, where I learned I had pleurisy and was given some antibiotics. The doctor there then sat and asked me a lot of questions. He was concerned that my last CT scan had been five years earlier and made arrangements for a CT scan with my primary physician. It looked suspicious, so a PET scan was ordered, and that's when I learned that my breast cancer had metastized to my lung.

I'm so glad that once we learned that, we came straight to CTCA. What a wonderful place. At CTCA, my medical oncologist, Dr. Shrestha, tried two difference chemotherapy treatment plans. The first one didn't deliver the results she wanted, so she asked me to consider a more difficult one. I told her I was ready. It consisted of 12 treatments delivered in a series of three weeks on and one week off until all 12 were done. Following the chemo, I had a PET scan. The day I was to get the results, in March 2007, I was feeling very happy. When I saw Dr. Shrestha, she asked why I was so happy, and I told her my birthday was a week away, and I believed she was going to give me the birthday gift I wanted. She looked at me and said, "Happy Birthday." I was in remission.

At present, I'm still in remission and doing well. I'm 84, and my four children would like me to live many more years. I know that's up to the Lord, but that's what I've asked Him for. He's been so good to me through this whole cancer journey. My husband and I live in a Christian retirement village, and God gave me a special friend there who visits me a lot and has blessed me tremendously through this time. I've also had many people praying for me, and God has answered all our prayers. I've told Him I'd do my part and keep my hopes up and my diet good and then I've asked Him if He'd do the rest. He has. Along the way, He's taught me perseverance, filled me with happiness and surrounded me with love from family and friends. I'm so grateful to Him for all He's done. I tell Him, life is sweet. I love every day.