– Anna DeMorias’ fourth bout with cancer

ANNA DeMorias is 54 years old and has been having a battle with cancer – having first been diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2008, and experiencing three other attacks – darting different parts of her body.

“I used to go to the gym and one morning after exercises I was lying down to take a rest when my hand just past by my right side breast and I felt a lump; I was shocked, but also scared to go to have it checked out because all of my father’s family had cancer in different parts of their bodies,” Anna told the Pepperpot Magazine. “So you know I was really afraid and so for some months, I did not go to the doctor to find out what was happening.

However, by the next year March my husband began to urge me to go…he told me if I did not go he would be vexed with me because by then the breast had also started to nip.”

MILK DUCT
She said that when she went to the Georgetown Hospital they sent her for a mammogram and the mammogram said ‘further’ and so the first time they did the biopsy they said that it was a ‘milk duct’, (This is described as Stage 0 breast cancer…, which is a non-invasive cancer where abnormal cells have been found in the lining of the breast milk duct. In Stage 0 breast cancer, the atypical cells have not spread outside of the ducts or lobules into the surrounding breast tissue.)

However, according to Anna, she continued to feel pain in the breast, which caused her to eventually have another biopsy done. The second biopsy showed that she had cancer of the breast and immediately the hospital advised her to have the surgery done on the breast to remove the cancer. This, she said, was done by October 2009 at the Georgetown Hospital by Dr. Rambarran.

LUNG CANCER
“By December of the same year, the cancer then went to my lungs. This caused me to have to take 13 months of chemotherapy. By that time the doctors told my family that I had no hope and so they sent me home to die. Also by then I had 107 pounds and so I know that God is good,” she said.

Anna told the Pepperpot Magazine that during this time somebody told her family about the Cancer Institute where they took her to meet Dr. Bhola. She related that the doctor wanted to know how she was still alive, “Because the fever was flying to my head and my blood had gone down to seven-something. However, I managed to survive that bout of illness once more.”

THIRD TIME – LEFT BREAST
But by 2015 the cancer had returned – this time to the left breast, Anna stated.
“However, I did not give up even though it was really hard for me at times, but with the loving support of my family and also the doctors and nurses of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporatio (GPHC) I was able to put up a fight, which to a large extent I could say that I won,” Anna said.

She explained that during that time she had to go through lots of treatment again; observe strict control of the foods she ate; make the effort to exercise and do all that was within her power to fight the cancer and win.

“I am continuing to fight; I have not given up; I have not lost hope; to an extent I can say that I am successful in the fight against the cancer of my left breast and I am thankful because that is now in the past, though I now have another battle on my hand, which I am also determined to win,” she said.

THE FOURTH TIME
Anna told the Pepperpot Magazine, “Now it come back again – this time it is vaginal cancer and so far I have already taken 26 sessions of radiation from May to July and now I have to do the Brachytherapy, which I will be doing soon. (Brachytherapy is also called implant radiation therapy, internal radiation therapy, and radiation brachytherapy; this is where the radioactive material is sealed in needles, seeds, wires, or catheters and placed directly into or near a tumour.)

She said that she wants to tell people that they have hope. “It is 10 years now that I am fighting this battle of cancer in various parts of my body. However, I know that this will not take me and so I want people to know that they must change their diet; come off a lot of sweets because cancer loves the sweet foods and drinks.

You know that people might look at me and say that I have a kind of big size, but it is not sweet or what I eat; you know I was really sick while doing the radiation, I was not able to walk and those things. I used to have to lie down and eat. While doing the radiation I had ‘shingles’ come out and I went through a lot, but God is good and I am here still fighting,” she assured.

Anna said that she is now in the Periwinkle Club; the Giving Hope Foundation; the Oncology Unit of the Georgetown Hospital and also at the Beacon Foundation. Her desire, she said, is to be able to ‘spread the word’ to persons that cancer is not the end of the world. She said that she always had a lot of support, which is still there for her from her family, friends and doctors. (mercilinburke2017@gmail.com)