Surviving breast cancer

It never should have happened to Sue Hagman and Lani Lawson, at least not as soon as it did, according to common stereotypes.

“It” is breast cancer, and the two Mill Creek residents were both diagnosed with the disease when they were in their mid-30s, almost 15 years earlier than the majority of cases.

“I had a hard time,” said Lawson, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2001 at age 37. “Everyone (else with the disease) was so much older. I felt like I didn’t belong to a cancer group.”

Lawson is part of a group of local women who have had breast cancer at a younger age. She says she has five friends, all under the age of 45, who have already beaten the illness.

One of those friends is Sue Hagman, who was 35 when diagnosed with breast cancer in February of this year. Now 36, Hagman has already completed treatment and is not only recovering, she is sharing her story with anyone and everyone who will listen about something many keep to themselves.

“I will talk to anyone who wants to know anything about my experience,” Hagman said.

Part of that experience is what Hagman called being in “medical school, only you don’t have to pay for it. Insurance does.”

That’s because Lawson and Hagman have become very familiar with the illness, the treatments and the effects of both.

Both women had mastectomies and chemotherapy to treat their cancers. Lawson also underwent radiation treatment. Both have seen their hair fall out and grow back.

Both women, however, tried to make the best of the experience, especially in regards to losing their hair as a result of chemotherapy.

“I went to Buhner Buzz Night (at a Seattle Mariners baseball game) and got my head shaved rather then let it fall out,” Lawson said.

Hagman, meanwhile, used her weakening hair follicles to have some fun with her young children. She said she used to sit in the backyard of her home with her children, and pull out her hair in clumps.

“You have to make it as fun as you can,” Lawson said. “Why dwell on the negative?”

The two women met earlier this year after Hagman was diagnosed. David Hagman, Sue’s husband, called the Mill Creek Community Association to ask if they were aware of any resources, and Mary Ann Baggenstos, executive administrator of the association, guided the Hagman’s to Lawson, a community association board member who stepped down when she became ill.

“He really struggled with anxiety and depression over this,” Sue Hagman said about her husband. “We had to explain to the children that momma’s going to be sick, and she’s going to lose her hair. We had to explain to them that it was not their fault.”

Both women, who were stay-at-home moms, had young children at the time, and both were able to find support for raising them. The Hagman’s hired a part-time nanny to help out, while Lawson’s parents helped out raising her two sons.

Support also came from the community. Both received what they described as an immense amount of get-well cards. Many of their neighbors also brought their families prepared meals while they were undergoing treatments.

“You wouldn’t believe the support of this community,” Lawson said.

Another similarity between the two women is that neither of them discovered any lumps on their breasts, a common sign of breast cancer and something women can find during self-examination. Instead, both were detected after medical examinations, with mammograms being the starting point.

“I had a pain in my right breast,” Hagman said. “It felt like an infection you can get while nursing, but I wasn’t nursing anymore.”

Hagman then went to a doctor, who advised her to get a mammogram, which turned up three probable sites, which were confirmed cancerous by a biopsy.

Lawson also had a biopsy, which came back normal. Her surgeon, however, had suspicions and ordered another procedure, which detected cancerous cells.

“I went through a lot of anxiety,” Lawson said.

While Lawson had a family history of breast cancer, Hagman did not. Doctors eventually found 11 tumors in Hagman, which she said was “real unusual.”

While Lawson and Hagman are currently cancer-free, both women are dealing with the after-effects of having the illness.

Lawson has to walk around with her left arm constantly wrapped. At first glance, it appears she is wearing a cast, but the compression sleeve has a purpose – to keep fluid from building up in her arm because she’s lost several lymph nodes as a result of the disease.

“It’s just a byproduct. I’ll wear it the rest of my life,” she said, adding that at some point she will wear a compression sleeve, which she said is “not nearly as obnoxious as this thing.”

Hagman, meanwhile, is going through early menopause.

“One thing about chemo-induced menopause is it hits harder,” she said. “I get 18-20 hot flashes a day, and they’re intense, just an immediate, broiling kind of hot. Taking Vitamin E has helped some.

“It may be temporary, or it may be permanent,” Hagman said about early menopause. “I just don’t know.”