There is life after cancer

Barbara Diamond

Cancer survivors are living proof that the disease can be beaten. And

their numbers are growing.

“It is a curable disease now,” said Trudy Grossman, who has

survived and thrived for almost 14 years after cancer surgery.

Cancer no longer is always spelled F-A-T-A-L. Due to remarkable

strides made in cancer research, education, prevention and treatment

conquest of the disease is ever closer, according to the California

Division of the American Cancer Society.

Early detection is key.

“It’s not really doom and gloom now, if the cancer is diagnosed

early,” said Grossman, a longtime Laguna Beach resident. “Thirty

years ago, 58,000 bodies were brought home from Vietnam. During the

same period, 330,000 women died of breast cancer.”

Their memorials are the support groups that succor cancer patients

and raise funds for research and to increase public awareness.

“It’s so much more positive now,” Grossman said. “Diagnosis has

decreased, but morbidity -- death -- is down.”

More than 885,000 Californians alive today have a history of

cancer, according to the California Cancer Registry, 109,400 of them

men who have survived prostate cancer and 214,100 thousand of them

women who have survived beast cancer.

Ninety-nine percent of all breast cancers occur in women.

Grossman was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990.

“If anyone had told me then that I would be alive more than 13

years later and married to the man of my dreams, it would have seemed

impossible,” said Grossman, who married Bob Josephson last year.

“When I was faced with a mastectomy, I thought it was the worst

thing that could ever happen to me. That lasted about 12 minutes

until I started thinking about things that really mattered to me --

like breathing.”

For Lagunan Jayne Berberian, the thought of her two young sons

being raised without her guidance motivated her to survive.

Grossman coped with surgery and recovery by leaning on her funny

bone. She has shared her observations with audiences across the

country that range from high school students to corporate boards,

professionally and pro bono.

A mom, wife, community activist and life coach, Grossman has been

involved with Orange County and national nonprofit cancer

organizations, as well as companies in the medical industry.

“Now, I concentrate my energies on educating women as a

motivational humorist,” Grossman said. “It is a privilege.”

Tuesday she spoke to adult-education students in the Capistrano

Unified School District. She has spoken to a group of Mormons in Salt

Lake City and at industry conferences in Las Vegas. A couple of

months ago, she spoke to the Laguna Beach chapter of the National

Charity League, a young member of which had died of cancer.

Almost every hand was raised at the charity league meeting when

Grossman asked how many people in the audience knew someone who had

or has cancer.

Grossman urged the young women -- girls, really -- to begin

self-examinations at an early age, to make it a routine part of their

lives, even though cancer is rare in teenagers.

In fact, only women 40 and older are eligible for mammograms

unless something suspicious or family history dictates the procedure.

Susan G. Komen Foundation statistics show that less than one woman

in about 20,000 will get cancer before the age of 25. By 35, it’s one

woman in 622 and by 45, it’s one of every 93 women. At 55, one woman

in 33 is likely to get cancer and at 65 it’s one woman in 17. One 85

year-old woman our nine will be diagnosed with cancer.

“Tell the statistics to the parents of the 16-year old Emerald Bay

girl who died,” Grossman said. “Stats don’t mean diddly-squat when it

is you or a loved one.”

Orange County cancer stats are among the highest in the country,

Grossman said. In her opinion, lifestyle may be a factor in the

incidence of breast cancer here.

“We have a higher socioeconomic status,” Grossman said. “Women

here are more likely to go to doctors for routine checks.”

Other cancer-causing factors include drinking and smoking,

unhealthy weight gain, bad diets, too much sun and not enough run --

lack of exercise.

The good news is that breast cancer, which accounts for 30% of all

new cancer cases in women, has not increased in California since 1988

and mortality has decreased 24%. The bad news is that almost 23,000

California women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year,

according to reports in California Cancer Facts and Figures 2004,

published by the cancer society.

The projections are a rough guide and should not be regarded as

definitive.

“Unfortunately, men don’t have a counterpart to OB-GYNs with whom

women make annual appointments,” Grossman said. “They only have

nagging wives.”

Prostate cancer, which accounts for 32% of all male cancers, is

expected to be detected in 22,265 California men this year, according

to the 2004 Facts and Figures.

The Rev. Jerry Tankersley, pastor at Laguna Beach Presbyterian

Church, was operated on for prostate cancer in 2001. It was

discovered in an annual checkup.

“I had a history of prostate cancer in my family, so I had been

having regular checkups for some years,” Tankersley said. “The doctor

said it was a ‘run-of-the-mill malignancy’ and I made a quick

decision to have surgery.”

Polyps discovered at the same time led to a colon resection in

January. No malignancy was found.

A month ago, Tankersley’s doctor told him he would be unlikely to

have a recurrence of the cancer.

“It was detected early and affected only a small portion of the

gland,” Tankersley said. “It is important to have checkups.”

“Life after cancer is an opportunity to reassess where you are and

where you want to go,” Grossman said.

Anne Johnson felt dandy and looked healthy in 1988 when she was

diagnosed with lung cancer.

“The prognosis was not good -- less than five years,” Johnson

said. “I was lucky. It was caught early in a routine checkup.”

Losing half a lung, combined with prodigious allergies forced

Johnson to retire from teaching, which she loved, and move to clearer

skies of the coast. Although prompted by health concerns, the move

was fortuitous. She and husband Marv Johnson were custom-made for

Laguna.

He teaches sculpture at the Laguna School of Art & Design and

serves as park docent. She is active in politics, environmental

issues, the school district and serves on the Planning Commission.

Cancer took Anne Morris in a completely new direction, with many

turns in the road. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988 --

with a life expectancy of five years.

She was 35 and still living in her native Midwest.

“I vowed not to die in Kansas,” said Morris, who headed for

California.

A registered nurse, Morris began her life on the West Coast

working for a doctor. She gave that up to become business manager for

her husband, Laguna Beach contractor Mike Morris.

The couple joined two chambers of commerce and she began

volunteering for every chamber committee. She also accepted a seat on

the volunteer board of the Komen Foundation.

A stint as membership director of the Orange County Chamber of

Commerce was followed by a job as South Coast Medical Center annual

fund manager. She also managed to fit in a course in fund-raising at

UC Irvine.

Morris left the medical center when she was invited to be the

manager of the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce. Through that job,

she met South County Bank officials, who offered Morris her present

position as vice president of the branch recently opened in Laguna

Beach.

Morris wouldn’t wish cancer on anyone, but looking back she said

she can see the positive changes in her life since she was diagnosed

-- in her career and in her self-confidence.

“I was always a care-giver, but until I was invited to be on the

board of the Komen foundation, I had never thought of myself as a

leader of an organization,” Morris said. “But if you can survive

cancer, you can handle anything.

“You say to yourself, I am a survivor. I will survive.”

Optimism plays an important role in surviving cancer.

“For me to function, I had to be positive,” said Laguna Beach

Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman, who was diagnosed with bladder

cancer in September. “Normally, I am a worrier about my health, but

this was too serious to worry about. My reaction was ‘Get it out of

me.’”

His father’s side of the family had a history of heart disease and

Grossman had angioplasty three years ago.

Bladder cancer was the last thing on his mind when he went in for

a regular checkup. Although 80% of all bladder cancers are in males,

50% of those are smokers, which Grossman is not.

In fact, the bladder cancer only was detected because his doctor

sent him to a urologist for a check on prostate health. There he

remembered an occasion when he had seen blood in his urine.

The urologist scheduled two procedures -- one a less invasive

X-ray, the other more penetrating.

“It involves a camera and I could watch,” Grossman said.

And there it was.

“It was not a good visit,” Grossman said. “I didn’t get a second

opinion -- I saw it, it was there.”

Grossman scheduled the surgery for the following week.

The first person he told was his former wife, Trudy, then their

son.

“It is encouraging to see other people who have survived cancer,

but when it happens to you, you are stunned, flat out stunned,”

Grossman said.

He told very few other people, mostly those who would notice his

absence from community meetings or work.

“It is just not easy to drop it into a conversation,” Grossman

said. “Cancer is still a magic word -- in the 1960s you couldn’t find

a horoscope with the word cancer, the sign was changed to the crab.”

Earlier than that, it was sometimes called the Big C or Big

Casino.

The bladder cancer Grossman had recurs in about 75% of the

patients. He will be tested every three months for the next two years

and then every six months for another two years.

He’s a survivor.

“From the moment you are diagnosed, you are a survivor,” Morris

said.

And the numbers are growing.