Mom and daughter from Wyndmoor both had to battle cancer

Posted 9/28/18

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. Betsy Wallace, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer eight years ago, moderates a panel discussion of women sharing their experiences with third-year …

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Mom and daughter from Wyndmoor both had to battle cancer

Posted

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. Betsy Wallace, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer eight years ago, moderates a panel discussion of women sharing their experiences with third-year residents at Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College. (Photo by Barbara Sherf)[/caption]

by Barbara Sherf

As Americans recognize National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month (September) and many wear teal blue ribbons to raise awareness and honor those who have been lost, one local woman shared with us her eight-year journey and fervent belief in the family motto, “Face the wind.”

“‘Face the wind’ came from my mother’s side of the family, French people who sailed to Canada in the 1600s and then found their way down to New England. It is all about facing your challenges, whether it’s the struggle to find and farm arable land, starvation, giving birth to a child in a cabin or being newly diagnosed with cancer,” said Wyndmoor resident Betsy Wallace, 66, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer (OVCA) in July of 2010.

Wallace is well aware of the statistics from the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation. According to its website, www.sandyovarian.org, “OVCA is the most lethal of the gynecologic cancers. It’s the fifth leading cause of death among American women. This year, 22,000 will be diagnosed with the disease, and 15,500 will die from it.”

OVCA is often difficult to diagnose because symptoms may be subtle (bloating, feeling full quickly, abdominal pain, urinary urgency/frequency, among others) and thus are easily confused with other diseases, and because there is no single reliable, easy-to-administer screening tool. According to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance, 46.5 percent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer survive five years.

In the late spring of 2010, Wallace’s mother had taken a fall and wound up in an emergency room for a fractured pelvis. During her brief hospitalization, a community oncologist visited the 87-year-old woman, who had a history of colon cancer and ocular melanoma, and said CT scans showed that cancer had spread to her liver and spine. After speaking with an oncologist, Wallace’s mother decided not to undergo chemotherapy.

While Wallace tried to find a good nursing home nearby for her mother, she also started to experience pain in her groin and back, symptoms that can be associated with ovarian cancer. She treated it with ibuprofen and didn’t see a doctor (her gynecologist) until four weeks later when the pain got much worse. Her gynecologist immediately ordered a transvaginal ultrasound test. Two days later, while at work as an attorney for the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Wallace received “the call” from her gynecologist about the test results.

“I knew it wasn’t good that she was calling me. I was pretty much an emotional zombie, unable to feel or process what I was hearing,” said Wallace, who tried to keep the news quiet and process it before telling the rest of the family.

She sought out her next-door neighbor, Ella Lewin, who was battling OVCA herself. Ella advised Wallace to find a surgeon pronto and get a CA125 blood test to confirm whether or not it was ovarian cancer.

Wallace did. It was.

“The stats for me were grim, my mother was edging her way toward becoming a cancer statistic, and I didn’t want to join her.”

About a week after Wallace got “the call,” her two older sisters and younger brother and his wife (all of whom live out west) gathered at the Wyndmoor home Wallace shares with her husband, Ken Weiner, to craft a care plan for their mother on hospice.

Behind the scenes, Wallace and her husband visited two gynecological oncologists, one of whom was Ella’s doctor, to learn about treatment options for herself. They came up with a plan of action — “debulking” surgery (a radical hysterectomy) — on July 14, 2010, and then radiation and chemotherapy.

With her mother now in hospice care, she shared the news with her family. Wallace didn’t tell her mother until a week before her surgery. Wallace’s oldest sister, Michelle, who lives in Colorado, decided to stay, comforting their mother while Wallace was in surgery.

Wallace had done her homework and learned that clear cell OVCA was one of the worst kinds of OVCA because it is aggressive and does not respond well to chemotherapy. “I had made a mental note early on that I did not want Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma (OCCC). Then I read the pathology report two weeks after my debulking surgery, and I saw the words ‘Clear Cell.’ My heart plunged into an abyss.

“I was sure I was going to die within two years. I was full of rage and fear. My mother chose not to do chemo; she had months, not years to live, and I was really angry and afraid that she was going to take me with her.”

Then, at her first post-op visit with her gynecological oncologist, Wallace found out that her cancer had metastasized to her lungs. The original plan for radiation was ditched, and Wallace started on chemotherapy immediately.

“At some point, I did break down and tell my mother about the lung metastasis. When I visited my mother after a chemo infusion, she would get out of her bed and sit in her recliner, offering the bed to me. To the end she was always trying to be a mother,” said Wallace, whose mother died on October 31, 2010, three months after Wallace was diagnosed.

TO BE CONTINUED

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