This is the tenth year since US-based Guyanese Judith Richmond was diagnosed with breast cancer and she has had time to reflect on health and wellness and now urges people to be proactive in living healthy lifestyles and to take heed of public health awareness programmes.
“I feel so fortunate and blessed to be here. I encourage people to listen to their bodies and visit the doctor. I was not proactive enough. I didn’t have a mammogram until I was 55, and that was after I felt the lump in my breast, even though a family member was diagnosed with breast cancer a year and a half before,” Richmond of Kitty, Georgetown and Atlanta, Georgia told Stabroek Weekend in a recent interview.
“I urge anyone with cancer to undergo treatment. Each day of extended life offers a new opportunity for a cure, a treatment and with artificial intelligence there may be much quicker medical breakthroughs. To those without cancer, eat a healthy diet, maintain a lean weight, exercise, and remain stress free, live, laugh, love.”
In May 2014, Richmond found a dreaded lump in one of her breasts. “I cried. I vomited. I couldn’t sleep nor eat, and my blood pressure shot through the roof. My children tried their best to console me but to me lumps meant cancer and cancer meant death,” she said.
She is sharing her story, she said, because she felt and still feels that cancer is affecting the lives of many people in many ways everywhere, every day.
When her diagnosis became known, she said, many people were supportive, and some did not know what to say to her and how to say it.
“Some were intrusive and offered their advice on what to eat and what to drink. Some had advice that I quickly ignored and discouraged. I chose not to look at the internet. I discussed my issues with my team of doctors in keeping with the first piece of advice given to me by the doctor who performed my breast surgery,” she said.
The single parent of three young adults, all university graduates who are doing well professionally, Richmond visits Guyana regularly and celebrated her 65th birthday in Georgetown with family and friends in August. She said that when she found the lump, she visited her primary care physician who referred her to breast surgeon Dr Rogsbert Phillips-Reed. “Folks in Atlanta know she’s amazing,” Richmond said.
After finally getting an appointment in June and having done an ultrasound, tissues were retrieved from her breast and lymph node and she was told to return in three days for the results.
“On June 20, I went to the doctor’s office and sat in the room waiting for what seemed to be the longest wait of my life. After some time, there was a knock on the door. I looked up and four doctors entered the room. I knew immediately what they’d say,” she added.
She was diagnosed with stage 2 metastatic breast cancer.
“Luckily it had spread to only one lymph node,” she said. “Dr Phillips’s first words to me were, ‘You’re going to be alright,’ then she recommended I go home. Instead, I went to work. It wasn’t time to sit down and dwell on my diagnosis.”
According to Richmond, a past student of St Joseph High School in Georgetown and a founder member of the US Chapter of the school’s alumni association which honoured her for her activism, she had already suspected she had breast cancer and had agonised about it which caused her sleepless nights even before she was medically diagnosed.
“I had dwelled on the outcome for a month before and once confirmed, it was time to begin the fight for my life. I took the approach that I had cancer, cancer did not have me,” she said.
After months of chemotherapy and radiation, she was free of the cancerous cells.
“I thank God that I’m still here ten years later. As I look back or rather forward, I encourage women and men to know their bodies, if something looks and feels odd, it doesn’t hurt to get it checked out,” she stressed.
Sharing her experience during treatment, she said, she was hospitalised for a day to have a chemotherapy port inserted on the upper left side above her breastbone. A few days later, she experienced pain whenever she swallowed, yawned, and turned her head from left to right.
“I also had a lump on the left side of my neck. The pain got worse, and my daughter Gina, insisted that I get it checked out. I went to the oncologist,” she recalled.
She had an ultrasound of the left neck at the hospital on a Friday and after the procedure they told her they would send the results to her doctor the following Monday. By the time she returned home, she received a call from the oncologist asking her to return to her office immediately.
“I had developed a blood clot the size of the palm of my hand in my carotid artery, which was serious, because if dislodged, it could kill me. I was immediately injected with a blood thinner in my stomach and prescribed 2 injections a day which I had to administer myself,” she said.
Next, she had four months of intense chemotherapy, followed by radiation, and breast reconstructive surgery.
Recovery, support
“Recovery was not so bad. However, I got tired easily and that drained energy I experienced from chemo still rears its ugly head at times. But I understood the challenges that treatment came with, and it was a life-or-death decision for me,” she said.
During treatments she had lost her sense of taste, but it gradually returned. Her hair, which was all gone from her head, arms, legs and eyelashes also slowly returned.
“My fingernails were black and to this day I still see traces of black in them. My poor eyebrows are still not there yet,” she said in a matter-of-fact manner.
During recovery some of the thoughts that ran through her mind were of regret at not heeding medical advice given to women about their health and wellness.
“Why did I not have a mammogram before, especially when a family member had been diagnosed a few years earlier? Why wasn’t I proactive about this? I could have avoided extensive treatment had I just acted differently,” she stated.
It was during this time that she learned who her support team really was.
“Folks were quick to offer to lend a hand or bring me something if I needed it, but only a few were ‘really there’,” she said.
Nevertheless, she understood they meant well, and was sure that if she really needed a hand, they would have followed through.
“My children were helpful. My son Ade, sat with me during my infusion days and Gina cooked a few times. She got mad when I didn’t like what she cooked like a barley soup with a whole lot of good stuff in it. She didn’t understand that my sense of taste was off and if it didn’t taste or smell right, it wouldn’t sit well in my stomach,” she said.
Her younger daughter Andrea was off at college, and she had a challenging time during that period accepting her mother’s diagnosis.
Richmond’s family member who had recently faced this journey, was on standby to offer insight and support when she needed a ‘breast cancer buddy’ to lean on. A colleague at work, who was a 20-year survivor, was also her go-to counsellor during her chemotherapy.
“But sadly, I had to cut off some of my family members and a few close friends, who didn’t like that I opted for chemotherapy. They thought they had all the best solutions in the world for curing cancer. At the end of the day, it was my choice,” she said.
Her first rounds of chemotherapy, which were administered every other Thursday, were the strongest.
“I was unable to return to work until Monday for Tuesday of the following week. I wore a mask because my immune system was compromised. And since students love to hug and shake hands, one of my mentors presented me with a huge bottle of hand sanitizer which I had readily available in my office,” she said
She was working at Morehouse College, the alma mater of the late Martin Luther King Jnr and recently retired as office manager after 20 years.
Once while recuperating she drank a cucumber-based health drink and seconds later she felt sick, she recalled.
“I went to the restroom, locked myself in and I passed out on the floor. I was locked in the restroom, my cell phone was on my desk, and nobody knew where I was. When I regained consciousness, I tried to get up. It was the cold tiled floor against my bald head – my wig had fallen off my head – that eventually revived me. Just as I got up and opened the door, I saw my daughter coming down the hall,” she said. Her daughter was a student at Spelman College, just across the street from Morehouse College. “She was a sight for sore eyes to see and it must have been God who sent her at the time I needed a familiar face the most.”
She had fainted because the cucumber-based health drink had lowered her blood pressure to an alarmingly low rate. From work she was taken to the oncologist and had to receive four days of intravenous fluids.
“But I must mention my international student Taku Feso from Zimbabwe, who was so kind to me. Every day he came to my office when I was ready to leave. He took my bag and ensured I got to my car safely,” she recalled.
For the most part, she had to console her children who were initially alarmed at her diagnosis. “However, they were troopers. They took a page out of my book once they saw that I was going to face this battle with a coat of impenetrable armour. I didn’t need weeping, just support and encouragement. I had done enough weeping, so it was time to press forward,” she said.
Relief
When she was finished with chemotherapy, radiation and reconstructive surgery, she was relieved.
“It meant that my body had a chance to feel normal again. I could begin to breathe a little easier. However, to be realistic, today, I still feel so vulnerable. I was prescribed a daily pill and ten years later, I still take it. I still feel apprehensive whenever I feel an ache, or my body doesn’t feel right. I still visit the oncologist every six months for check-ups and on my next visit I will begin to have infusions, to repair some of the damage to my bones caused by the pill I take every day,” she said.
Richmond, who takes the chance to travel to Guyana and other overseas destinations whenever she could, said, “I’m living and enjoying the time I have with family and friends, travelling and spending time exploring new cultures and experiences. Tomorrow is not promised so my plan is to live each day to the fullest.”
In August, Richmond was in Guyana along with her brother Joel and his partner and she did the Essequibo River tour among her travels locally. Earlier this month she was in Japan.
