Thursday, June 01, 2000
'It doesn't mean a death sentence'
Women urged to take control in fight for health
By Marie McCain
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Connie Hudson suspected the worst, but she decided to believe her doctor.
It was July 1998 and the West Chester woman's visit to her regular physician had yielded nothing more than a prescription for antibiotics and the doctor's quickly uttered assurance that her ailment was not serious.
Her mammogram, taken months earlier, showed no sign of anything suspicious. And the small lump she'd discovered had been diagnosed as only a fibroid despite its soreness.
“Cancer wouldn't hurt,” her doctor had said.
Now, nearly two years, a lumpectomy, seven months of chemotherapy, and a doctor change later, the 40-year-old breast cancer survivor is urging women to take their feelings and their health seriously — even if your doctor does not.
“The thing I kept coming back to was I had done everything I was supposed to have done,” she said. “I did the self-examination. I had a mammogram. I went to the doctor. I did what I was supposed to do.”
An assistant vice president with the Covington-based Huntington National Bank, Mrs. Hudson is in charge of regional community relations. Her fight manifests itself in all parts of her life — especially her job.
Today, Huntington will sponsor a Community Appreciation Day, promoting breast cancer awareness. The company has joined with the YWCA and the Breast and Cervical Cancer Network to offer affordable, and in some cases free mammogram screenings on site.
The event will feature the Breast Cancer Alliance's “Wall of Hope,” a photo collage of women surviving the disease.
Mrs. Hudson has also become more active in her fight against cancer. In early May, she and a group of other breast cancer sur vivors with the Breast Cancer Alliance traveled to Washington D.C. as part of the National Breast Cancer Coalition's “Lobby Day.” There they met with Ohio Congressional members and lobbied for greater research funding.
In addition, the group urged congressional leaders to approve House Bill 1070 and Senate Bill 662 which would give states the option to extend Medicaid so that it covers breast cancer treatment for needy women. Medicaid covers mammograms and not treatment.
Six months after the July 1998 appointment, Mrs. Hudson learned the “fibroid” in her right breast was cancerous. (She followed a friend's advice and consulted another doctor.)
By then, the disease had spread to four lymph nodes. She was in stage two of a four-stage process. Stage four is terminal.
Mrs. Hudson was planning her wedding to Jerry Hudson. (They married in October 1999). She was moving and she was inundated with work.
But two months after her diagnosis, she underwent chemotherapy. She was allowed to work from home or at a location closer to home.
“I lost all my hair. But it didn't matter to me. I put on my makeup and jewelry and went on about my business. I didn't wear a wig. That was me. I didn't think about it,” she said.
Mrs. Hudson joined the Breast Cancer Alliance and met other survivors and learned about the disease. “I'd thought it was hereditary. I thought I was safe because no one in my family had had breast cancer before. I thought it affected Caucasian women mainly,” she said. Mrs. Hudson is African-American.
She now worries for her 19-year-old daughter, Nakia Winfrey.
“(Breast cancer) statistics for all women are so high in Hamilton County alone — it's like running water,” she said. “Hamilton County is ranked seventh in the nation among those areas with residents at risk for death due to breast cancer. It could be our environment. The foods we eat. No one really knows what causes breast cancer.”
She advises early detection and urges women to begin having mammograms in their 30s.
“When you hear the word "cancer' it doesn't mean a death sentence. You can get up and live your life. Go to the doctor. Go to other doctors if you think your doctor is wrong. You just have to take control and have self-esteem,” she said.
High-end developments soar
Drug use by teens down in Tristate
Officials aim to beat heat deaths
New job, old name for former Mrs. Luken
Greg Thiel saw life perfectly
City examines its Web picture
Two held in bank holdup
Horse show looks ahead
One-man whirlwind of charity
Opinions on area codes get airing
Perseverance reaps pride as grandmother graduates
Pig parade: There's No Place Like Ham
Police union defends chief in dispute over racial slur
Stabbed priest sees auxiliary bishop
Theologian says freedom at risk
Angels watch over town
Board OKs deal for nonteachers
Fidelity growth includes 450 jobs
Fire, explosion at plant injures 10 firefighters
Germans get a full tour
'It doesn't mean a death sentence'
Retrial under way in murder case
Sierra Club takes to airwaves with attack on Bush
Central Avenue to close for ramp work
Committee pares list for Ohio coin design
CSO clarinetist wins prestigious Avery Fisher grant
Landfill proposal rejected
Touring actor home for summer in 'Threepenny Opera'
GET TO IT
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Tristate digest
