[dropcap]F[/dropcap]our hours until her plane leaves for London and Pam Crowther is still not packed yet.
She glances in the mirror on her way to the closet and lingers over the image looking back at her thinking to herself how different her life was before July 23, 2016.
Crowther said she was 45, married to her husband for almost 20 years, and had two kids, a son, James, and a daughter, Carlie. She was leading an active life before she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
“Everything changed,” Crowther said.
Crowther, a Seton Austin employee, said she noticed a small lump towards the back of her armpit after she had her annual mammogram. Crowther called her doctor who then asked her to come back in for another examination.
Crowther was then sent to the Seton Austin Breast Cancer Center, where they discovered that she had some atypical lymph nodes. The center referred her to a general surgeon.
Crowther said she didn’t think much of the atypical lymph nodes as she was not a clinical employee.
She lived a very healthy lifestyle, but when the surgeon came back with the news that seven lymph nodes were affected with aggressive cancer, it changed everything.
“I was a healthy person so when he told me what he found I was shocked,” Crowther said. “Hearing you have cancer is scary, I had to tell my kids, I had to tell my husband, my family and friends and coworkers.”
Instead of shrinking in the shadow of her diagnosis, Crowther chose to rise up and not let her cancer be stronger or more determined than she was.
“Every event I celebrated; like when I cut my long hair short, when we had a party,” Crowther said. “When I started to lose my hair and had to shave it off, we had a party.”
Through 20 weeks of chemotherapy, six and a half weeks of radiation treatments, a partial mastectomy and nine more corrective surgeries to address additional scar tissue, Crowther has celebrated it all.
“I wasn’t going to allow cancer to dictate my life,” Crowther said.
Crowther was determined to do her fair share in her battle against her cancer by continuing to run everyday through her treatment.
She started to weight train, even changing her diet completely to organic food to boost her immune system.
“I made sure that I was doing what I could to be present in my life, so I didn’t let the cancer run me,” Crowther said.
Crowther said her doctor believed her workout regimen was part of the reason why she had such a speedy recovery without the aid of steroids. It’s also why she felt much better after chemotherapy treatments.
“My doctor said I was one of the very few who kept that focus and positivity that I was going to get through this,” Crowther said.
Crowther said her attitude throughout her treatment was only one part of her success story. Her doctors and nurses were her “rock stars” and gave her every resource to fight the cancer, not only in the body, but also in her mind.
Crowther said she wouldn’t change what happened to her, even though it was tough. She encourages other people to go to their doctors and get checked out, both men and women alike.
“I did everything I could (to stay healthy) but it happened and I feel like now I can step up and help people by being an advocate for the things that helped me,” Crowther said.
Crowther admitted that half the fight against cancer is mental. She said she even yelled and screamed at cancer on her daily runs to feel like she was beating it.
July 23, 2017 marked one year that Crowther has been cancer free.
With a checkup coming up on Oct. 23, she said the key is to remain strong and lean on family and friends.
“It’s a journey that anyone that finds out they have cancer, they need to stay strong and really lean on their friends and family and resources in the community for help,” Crowther said.
