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With breast cancer
mortality 44 percent higher than in white women, the disease
is a major concern for African-American women. Black women
are also more likely to be untreated or undertreated than
others and more often to have breast cancer detected at an
advanced stage.
On Sunday, October 25,
Center of Hope in partnership with Susan G. Komen Northwest
Ohio will hold a Worship in Pink religious service to honor
breast cancer survivors, caregivers and loved ones. The
event will promote healing and bring awareness to the issue
of breast cancer disparities, and encourage early
identification and prevention.
Gia Haskins moved from
breast cancer victim to become a nine-year breast cancer
survivor. I spoke her in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness
month. Haskins is a participant in the upcoming Worship in
Pink service.
Perryman:
Can you talk about your experience and how you survived
breast cancer?
Haskins:
My grandmother had breast cancer and I was working in the
medical profession, so I started getting mammograms at age
34. The mammogram I had the year when I was 38 is when I was
diagnosed. A week and a half afterwards I discovered a lump
in my left breast even though the mammogram came out normal.
Initially I had the lump removed, a minor surgery and went
right back to work in the surgeon’s office that did the
surgery.
Pretty much that next
day, which was like December 16, 2006, and the surgeon that
I worked for indicated that she wanted to talk to me, so I
knew it wasn’t good news. When I went in to speak with her,
she said that I was positive for cancer and that it was
invasive and aggressive, and it started close where it eats
the breast tissue pretty rapidly, and that I would need to
have an additional surgery.
I chose bilateral
mastectomy, which I had both sides done and breast
reconstruction on both sides. After that, I did
chemotherapy.
Perryman:
How were you able to get through the surgery?
Haskins:
The surgeon that I worked for was a Christian. She prayed
for me and gave me my first prayer quilt, and then the
oncologist was also Christian, so they both prayed for me.
The surgery lasted 16-1/2 hours. I was in ICU the first
three days. I received two blood transfusions on my first
hospital stay and I ended up having to go into surgery again
the next morning because of a large blood clot that was in
the right side opposite the side with the cancer.
Perryman:
Would you discuss the post-surgery experience and the coping
strategies that enabled you to navigate this
life-threatening illness?
Haskins:
Lots of prayer and support is key. It is an emotional
rollercoaster but I had lots of support. My support system
was of course, my husband Donnell, my sister and my
brother-in-law and some co-workers. Between my sister and my
brother-in-law, they sat with me through all my chemo
treatments, as well as Donnell, who helped me with the
recovery, and like I said, a lot of prayer. People from St.
Luke’s, people from work, the physicians that I worked with
were also in prayer. So, prayer, a positive attitude,
helping others, and continuing to go to church is key.
Perryman:
Were you able to receive strong, positive spiritual support
from your congregation?
Haskins:
Actually, everybody that really knew me at that time at
Bethlehem Baptist Church knew that I was going through
breast cancer, so they would visit me. There were quite a
few church members that came out for my initial surgery, and
I had several surgeries after that. I had one of the ladies
from my church’s Caring Ministry to take me to surgery. The
church members helped me to keep a positive attitude with
their supportive phone calls, visits and things like that.
You have to keep a positive attitude.
Also, I started to get
better when I looked to do things, so I went and started a
breast cancer support group myself. I went to the board at
St. Luke’s Hospital, me and another survivor, told our
stories and why we thought a support group was needed. We
started the group, began meeting regularly, got larger, and
started going to surgeries with people or maybe going to an
appointment with one of the people that you’re supporting or
just provided whatever kind of help that was needed. My
thing is once you get through the experience, then it’s your
turn to go help the next person. You’ve got to know that
there’s a person that’s surviving cancer, it’s your turn to
go and help them.
Perryman:
What else can others learn from your experience in moving
from victim of the disease to breast cancer survivor?
Haskins:
Getting mammograms. A lot of people wait too long and are
already at stage four, the point where the cancer’s already
spread. I feel our numbers are so much higher because we
don’t get checked up enough, checked out enough. It’s only
15 minutes, going in and getting a mammogram. It’s a little
uncomfortable for 15 minutes, but then you’re out the door,
but you just saved your own life.
But once you get the
diagnosis, the very next step is that you’ve got to have
support. You have to have that person that goes to those
appointments with you after that, because when you get the
diagnosis, your mind is so focused on the cancer. You’re
going to get a whole bunch of information thrown at you and
because you hear so much stuff that you’re ingesting, it’s a
lot to take in at one time. You’ll need to have that second
person. You’ve got to have somebody support you.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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