Teen shares story of breast cancer battle

April 07, 2008 04:50 pm

— AVON — Adrienne Harlow is a 19-year-old sophomore at Purdue University who is studying communications. She spends her free time hanging out with friends and playing intramural softball.
But as summer approaches, the Avon High School graduate will be preparing to endure chemotherapy treatments and radiation.
“Every day is a little different,” Harlow said of her attitude toward her diagnosis of breast cancer. “I’m nervous about the treatment taking up my whole summer. When you’re young and in college, you think you’re invincible. I’m realizing things happen.”
Harlow’s gynecologist, Michelle Fenoughty from Westside Physicians for Women, said that Harlow essentially saved her own life.
“Adrienne takes wonderful care of herself,” Fenoughty said. “She’s not someone at risk for an obscure illness. She had the foresight to call her doctor and say, ‘Something isn’t right.’”
Harlow said she found a lump in her breast last July when she grazed over it in the shower. She researched breast lumps online and found that most women her age with lumps have fibercystics disease. Though from what she read, she didn’t have any symptoms of that disease.
Her mother suggested making a doctor’s appointment, she said.
What followed was several months of anxiety as Harlow underwent numerous tests. Her first ultrasound came back clear, but when the lump didn’t go away, she got a second ultrasound.
“The technician went to get a doctor, who said he couldn’t see a mass but something didn’t look right,” Harlow said. “But he didn’t really know why. I went to Dr. Fenoughty and told her I don’t think this is right. I’d rather have it removed. So she referred me to a surgeon. I was getting kind of nervous because nobody could tell me what it was.”
Harlow had her surgical biopsy on a Friday in February and had to wait until Tuesday for her results.
“I went back to school on Monday, and I started getting nervous,” Harlow said. “Something was telling me something was wrong. I thought they’d call early Tuesday. They didn’t call in the morning. I went to classes, and they still hadn’t called that afternoon.”
Later that day, Harlow had a voicemail from Fenoughty saying they needed to talk. When Harlow returned the call, she received the news that she had breast cancer.
“She started explaining some things, but that’s all I heard,” Harlow said. “I was in shock. I thought I was going to die. I went back and forth from being OK and then my mood would change and I’d cry. It was within every hour I would go through these different emotions about everything. It was hard to deal with at school while my family was at home.”
Fenoughty said that typically, people hear a doctor say a mammogram or ultrasound is normal and then their worries are gone. But this particular diagnosis affected her deeply as a doctor.
“As a physician, my patient’s level of concern guides me,” Fenoughty said. “They have an instinct. This is a good example of ‘it can happen to me.’ It’s a good example of why 19-year-olds need to do breast exams and why we as physicians need to pay attention to them. It was a good wake-up call for me not to feel guilty to send someone for imaging or a biopsy, because the reassurance it brings both of us is grand. If Adrienne had waited six more months, she could be telling different story right now. We would not be talking about her chances of having babies. We would be talking about her chances of being alive.”
Harlow received a lumpectomy and after testing, it was confirmed she had no cancer in her lymph nodes. The next step is to begin chemo treatments at the end of April.
“The oncologist said that the side effects of this chemo would cause me to lose my hair and be sick and tired,” Harlow said. “I’ll get four treatments, one every 21 days. Out of those days, I might feel bad for about five days. They said it may not be as bad for me because I’m younger, and to go out and do whatever I feel up to doing.”
Harlow wants to use her story to raise awareness about breast cancer and women’s health. She will be participating in the Race for the Cure with 15 of her friends in April under the team name “Go Pink or Go Home.”
“I tell my friends if they ever find anything, get it checked out,” Harlow said. “You never know.”
Fenoughty also encourages women to have good communication with their doctors. The better the relationship between doctor and patient, and the better they know each other, the more reassured both parties will feel about moving forward with any kind of testing or treatment.
“If they can’t communicate with their physician, they need to move on,” Fenoughty said. “But make sure you’re communicating fair. I’m not God and I don’t want that job. You have to be straight up with your physician regarding what you are worried about. Adrienne is a good voice and a good example. She’s a remarkably strong girl and will be the Susan G. Komen of her time, as far as making a mark.”
To donate to Harlow’s cause and Race for the Cure, visit her website at www.race.komenindy.org/goto/gopink.
jamie.hergott@flyergroup.com

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