Cancer survivor tells her story through blog

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a series of interviews with cancer survivors, leading up to Relay for Life of Garland County on June 3 at Bank of the Ozarks Arena.

After three diagnoses of cancer and four rounds of treatments in 18 years, Valerie Swearingen-Mansbridge has brought the story of her battle and victory against cancer to readers through her blog, Coping Compass.

Mansbridge found a lump in one of her breasts after a birthday party for one of her children in 1998. Like her mother, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"I was in the bathtub and just checked," Mansbridge said. "I don't think I necessarily, at that time, did a once-a-month check. I probably did it pretty often."

For 18 months after having a lumpectomy, she underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She was later asked to undergo another round of chemotherapy, Taxol.

By June 2000, scar tissue from the area where her chemotherapy port was implanted had a build up of blood clots, causing her body to swell and close up. A doctor from India who worked in Jackson, Miss., performed an immediate procedure that provided fast results.

"The doctor said I probably had a week left. I had gone so downhill that I couldn't breathe," Mansbridge said. "I had an oxygen tank. I was going to swell shut. After the surgery, it was instant that I was OK."

Approaching 10 years without cancer, a mammogram detected a lump near the chest wall, too far for a self-examination to detect. In 2009, she was diagnosed with breast cancer a second time, but in both breasts. Doctors discovered she was a carrier of BRCA1, a hereditary genetic mutation.

"It means that my body was designed to get cancer," Mansbridge said.

With two sons and two daughters, Mansbridge is adamant about her children and grandchildren getting tested for the gene. One daughter has been found with the BRCA gene. She says the cost to be tested for the gene is not money, but anxiety.

"The cost for me was a treatment plan," Mansbridge said. "For a person living out there feeling fine and finding out that they have it, the cost is anxiety every day, not knowing what to do. It's hard on a family."

Both breasts were removed with a double mastectomy. Several Pap smear exams did not detect any abnormalities, but soon after her second diagnosis of breast cancer, she was found to have cancer in both fallopian tubes. Both ovaries were removed by laparoscopy.

Chemotherapy and radiation finalized in fall 2010. Mansbridge has recently completed five years on Arimidex, medication for breast cancer after surgery. Arimidex caused Mansbridge to experience sleep deprivation, and her muscles, joints and bones ache, along with other side effects.

Keeping a journal throughout her journey and her experience as a psychotherapist, Mansbridge started her blog on Jan. 1, 2016. She offers counseling to families, those who have been diagnosed with cancer and other clients and hopes to return back to her office.

Mansbridge offers her advice to those facing with cancer through her blog:

"Be willing to accept help from others, it is accepting love."

"Leave nothing unsaid to those you love, whether we have two years or 50 more. Be open."

Local on 05/15/2016

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