Not a fighter, but a survivor

COEUR d’ALENE — Breast cancer has changed Elizabeth, a retired teacher in her mid-60s.

But not in a bad way.

“It is what it is, but it becomes what you make of it,” she said.

In September 2020, Elizabeth saw her doctor for her yearly physical exam. She was only supposed to get her cholesterol checked. But she’d noticed pain in her breast since her last mammogram, so she brought it up.

“I felt like I’d bruised myself,” she said. “I knew something wasn’t right. I didn’t just let it go.”

Neither did her doctor, who swiftly scheduled her for another mammogram. Further testing showed that she’d developed a cancerous tumor.

“I’m really thankful to her for that,” Elizabeth said. “She got me on track.”

Upon learning that she had breast cancer, Elizabeth’s friends and family were shocked. She’d always been in good health. She was physically fit, an avid hiker and bicyclist. But breast cancer doesn’t discriminate.

One in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society.

“I used to tell my friends ‘I’m taking one for the team,’” Elizabeth said with a laugh.

Breast cancer was the most prevalent cancer diagnosis at Kootenai Health in 2020, with 241 total cases. But data from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare indicates that Idaho is ranked 50th for breast cancer screening.

Elizabeth said she never considered herself a fighter. She didn’t battle cancer; she navigated it.

“I took it as an ill-mannered friend I had to work with until I could get it leave,” she said. “I was not at war with my own body.”

She underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy. Though it was hard, she had the support of friends and family.

The care she received at Kootenai Clinic Cancer Services in Post Falls made it easier to endure her weekly treatments.

“The nurses are so clever and so caring,” she said. “They gave me such assurance. I often felt like I was their mother, sister, friend, aunt — someone they cared about.”

She recalled a pharmacist at Kootenai Health who spent hours on the phone with her, talking through the possible side effects of her oral chemotherapy and organizing with her insurance provider.

Wherever possible, her care team arranged Elizabeth’s treatment around life events that were important to her, such as seeing a newborn grandchild.

“That was the glue that kept me together,” she said. “They wanted me to live my life despite cancer. You have to live through cancer. You can’t just stop living. You have to do your best to keep moving.”

In March 2021, Elizabeth had surgery to remove a small amount of remaining cancer. After undergoing radiation and oral chemotherapy, there was no evidence of disease.

About two years after her initial diagnosis, she remains cancer-free.

But she doesn’t view her journey as over.

“Once you have cancer, you always have cancer,” she said. “You know it’s a possibility. It’s still in the air around you.”

Surviving cancer has given her a clearer vision for certain parts of life, she said.

“It has allowed me to let go of some control I thought I had,” she said. “It’s taught me to live in the present and really dial into what’s important.”

She’s learned about the importance of trust, she said — trusting people, trusting processes, trusting her own body, which signaled to her that something was wrong before her next mammogram would’ve detected it.

Throughout her journey, Elizabeth said she often recalled the words of silent film actress Dorothy Bernard: “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.”

“I hold onto that,” she said.