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The Proactive Patient
From Town & Country Magazine
May, 2006 |
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Beverlye Hyman Fead
received a brutal diagnosis in September 2002: her abdominal area was riddled with advanced, malignant tumors from a rare cancer called leiomyosarcoma. Her doctor predicted that without treatment she'd live only two more months. But for Hyman Fead, a debilitating course of chemotherapy and surgery was as much the enemy as the malignant tumors.
Hyman Fead embarked on an experimental treatment devised by surgical oncologist Frederick Eilber, of UCLA Medical Center. No chemotherapy. No surgery. Instead, she takes the hormone blockers Femera, by pill daily, and Lupron Depot, by injection every three months, to shrink the tumors.
More than three years later, Hyman Fead is a vibrant, active woman living with cancer. The tumors are still there but smaller, thanks to the treatment.
Hyman Fead has penned her story in I Can Do This: Living With Cancer, Tracing a Year of Hope (SBCC Wellness Program; $19.99). Her goal is to comfort and energize other cancer patients. "To be the best possible patient today, be your own advocate," she says. To that end, she recommends consulting many doctors - not just one or two. She herself sought four opinions: "It's exhausting, but it's your life." Hyman Fead also advises tape-recording appointments. "Ask your doctor's permission first," she says. "Its difficult to remember everything, so mine were always very understanding and said yes." |
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I Can Do This
I Can Do This tells the story of my life after being diagnosed with 4th stage,
metastasized, inoperable cancer.
"This is what we suggest, Mrs. Fead: three weeks of heavy chemo in the
hospital—you’ll get very sick, lose your hair. When you’ve healed from
that treatment, we will resection your stomach. It’s a very slow recovery.
Then three more weeks of twenty-four-hour-a-day chemo into the site. Let’s
see, this is Friday. We should schedule you for Monday.
We can’t miss this window of opportunity."
"And if I decide not to do this?" I responded.
"I’m not sure I could survive this, and I’m certainly not ready to give
up my life as I know it by Monday." I looked into the faces of those two
bright young doctors as they answered my question. "We think you would have
about two months." Blur. White noise. So much of it I didn’t hear,
couldn’t hear.
I went to another doctor and it was as though the heavens
opened. I began an experimental treatment of Femara and Lupron. When the doctor
explained the program, I thought to myself then, this is the treatment I’m
going with.
I decided to do what was best for me. Now, two and a half years after the initial
treatment, I am playing tennis,
hiking the highest mountains, luxuriating in my grandchildren, and relishing the
richness of my life.
Today, all of my tumors are still in place. I live well with
my cancer, and I think to myself, "If I can do this, there is hope you can
too."
Reviews for I Can Do This
Following is a review from Kirkus
Discoveries
Poems, paintings and
reflections chronicle a cancer survivor's experiences and lessons of her
first year battling the illness.
The story begins with
Hyman Fead's initial doctor's visit to confront the long-suffered pain deep
within her stomach. As cancer had claimed her grandmother, mother and two
sisters, she also fought the disease for much of her life. Nevertheless, she
delayed facing the truth, which turned out to be quite dire: fourth-stage,
inoperable, metastasized leiomyosarcoma. Her knowledge of what lay ahead is
both blessing and curse, and she shares her moments of hope and fear with
equal honesty. Though she begins with very little chance of recovery, she
perseveres through her own unfailing resolve and the love and support of her
family and friends. She intimately shares the comforts and inspirations, big
and small, that get her through each day during the first weeks and over the
course of her treatment. Encouraged by a friend to take a poetry class at
the Cancer Center, she finds strength in her own creativity, revealed
through the poems and paintings contained herein. Some members of her
support network encourage her to try natural therapies such as acupuncture;
others stop by with that old panacea, chicken soup; still others assist with
quotidian tasks such as answering the phone and taking messages. In addition
to providing real hope for anyone diagnosed with cancer, Hyman Fead offers
valuable insight into what is required from family, friends and other loved
ones.
More importantly, she
deftly avoids didacticism, leading by example with a writing style that is
heartening and effective. A slim volume full of much-needed love and
medicine. (15 b&w photos, 6 color illustrations throughout)
Following is a review from the Santa Barbara Independent
The cover of Santa Barbara resident Beverlye Hyman Fead's book, I Can Do This: Living with Cancer, Tracing a Year of Hope, is graced with a self-portrait, titled "Tears". In it, Hyman Fead's green eyes stare out at the reader, and more than just the hint of tears stream down her cheek.
When opening the slim, colorful volume, the message of hope portrayed by Hyman Fead is more substantial than the thin pencil marks of a tracing; it is more like the bright bold of an oil painting. Hyman Fead's expression of hope takes the form of poignant poetry interspersed with her and her family's stories, reproductions of her evocative orchid paintings and self-portraits, and touching photographs of her family. The reader has a glimpse of a private diary, yet of an experience that transcends the personal to the universal.
Universal, because everyone's lives are somehow touched by cancer: whether it is the diagnosis of a friend, family member, or even one's own self, the current epidemic of cancer affects nearly everyone. Hyman Fead lost her grandmother, mother and both sisters to cancer. But she began the poetry, art, and prose contained in this book as part of her healing process in her own ongoing battle with the disease. She was diagnosed in late 2000 with fourth-stage metastasized cancer, a collection of tumors in her abdominal area that her doctors deemed inoperable. Rather than undergo extensive chemotherapy, Hyman Fead opted for an experimental treatment, in the form of a daily pill and a shot every three months that she continues to this day.
A California native and longtime painter and ceramic artist, Hyman Fead found it difficult to paint immediately following the diagnosis, but rediscovered her creative voice through a poetry workshop taught by poet and teacher Perie Longo at the Santa Barbara Cancer Center. Longo and the class, Hyman Fead said, "put the fire under her." Although she had written previously - poetry for herself, travel articles for magazines - nothing was like I Can Do This.
In her poetry, Hyman Fead's subjects range from her feelings about cancer, treatments, and interventions, to her family and events in her life. In "CAT Scan," she describes the fear and tension that accompanies the diagnostic test: "I'm as cold as the floor". In other verses, she evokes the uplifting feeling of familial love as in the poetic telling of the story of her mother's diamonds. Her poetry is reflective of youth, aging, illness, living in the body, and her images throughout give the reader pause and draw them in. In "Dreams," Hyman Fead's dead family members visit her in her slumber "early in the morning when / the sheets cocoon around me." Her poems also evoke places she loves, as in "Everyone Naps in Capri," in which she describes how "Bellies filled with wine / Bodies warmed by sun / Everyone naps in Capri / All lined up facing the sea."
Hyman Fead's stories, images and poems allow someone with cancer, along with their family and friends, to experience the reflection of a friendly voice that understands the trials, the laughter, and the tears and the opportunity to reflect on one's life. It is also a hopeful book for all of us who live, necessarily, in the mortal shadow of death. Yet even so, Hyman Fead insists throughout the book that cancer is not necessarily a death sentence. "You don't cure it, you live with it," she says. And, as evidenced by the vitality of her writing, live she has.
Nana What's Cancer
The Following is an excerpt from Beverlye's upcoming publication - Nana What's Cancer. This is a book written by Beverlye and her nine year old granddaughter Tessa. This was Tessa's idea to explain cancer to children. She asks the questions and Beverlye answers them.
Chapter 3
“Nana, is there an age limit for cancer?”
“No, Tess, there aren't any age limits for cancer.”
“So, cancer can happen to anyone?” Tess asked, surprised. “And you're talking about anyone from old people to little kids to moms and dads, right?”
“That's right, but that isn't the whole answer. There are a lot of statistics about cancer, but a few facts are particularly important for you to remember.”
“Statistics are facts, aren't they?” Tess asked.
I nodded, proud of her for remembering the definition. “You and I have talked about statistics before, but the most important one I want you to remember is that the average age of a cancer patient is someone who is sixty-six years old.”
She couldn't hide her smile. “Most kids think that's really old.”
I grinned at her. “And we both know it's not, don't we?”
She laughed. “Well, you're not old, Nana. That's for sure.”
“Do you remember our trip to Washington, DC?”
“Yeah, it was amazingly cool.”
I agreed. “It was amazingly cool to see so many cancer survivors from all over the country gathered in one place. The American Cancer Society's Celebration on the Hill showed us that cancer patients and cancer survivors come in every age, from every race, and from every walk of life. We saw babies in strollers, elderly people in wheelchairs, and all the ages in between, and every one of them wore what?” I prompted.
“Survivor T-shirts,” Tess supplied.
“Because . . . “
“Because they all have survived cancer!”
“Right you are, Tess.”
“So,” I continued, “cancer doesn't have age limits, but most cancer patients are older people. The good news is that there are lots of new treatments for all of the different kinds of cancer. Some cancer patients are diagnosed, receive their treatment or medication, sometimes both, and they continue with their lives.”
“That's super good news, Nana.”
I smiled at her. “I know it is. My hope for you, and for all of the kids your age, is that your children will never even have to think about cancer, because it will be a disease like polio , which existed a long time ago. Scientists and researchers are working very hard to find cures for the various kinds of cancer.”
“So people and kids won't ever have to worry or become sick with cancer?” Tess confirmed.
“Exactly! And wouldn't that be great?” I asked.
She grinned. “Nana, it would be better than great. It would be amazingly cool!”
Third Age Foundation
Here are some links to the column Beverlye writes for the
Third Age Foundation health section:
The Healing Project
Hospital Tips
Living with Cancer
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