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Editor’s note: This is the second part of a story about Liz Files, a Benton resident who is a survivor of ovarion cancer.
While sitting in the treatment room, Liz Files interacts with other cancer patients — one who has daily Lovenox injections to prevent blood clots. The patient said the injections prevent blood clots in the lungs adding many people die from having blood clots in their lungs and not from the cancer itself.
Another patient said her cancer returned after a year and a half.
Another woman said she had undergone six treatments and abdominal procedures that “made me sicker than a dog.”
Files is an ovarian cancer survivor, a Benton resident and a 35-year employee of the Rend Lake Conservancy District.
She said she was “off work for six months” while undergoing surgery and treatments.
“I had surgery in July and started treatments in August,” she said. “I have been clear for a while now and hope to stay that way as long as I continue with the treatments.”
Files said medical personnel continue to monitor her CA level.
“My CA-125 level is always higher,” Files said. “CA-125 refers to a substance that may be found in high amounts in the blood of patients with certain types of cancer, including ovarian cancer. CA-125 levels are also used to monitor how well cancer treatments are working or if the cancer has returned.”
She said no new “hot spots” were detected since she was tested in December.
Files is grateful for insurance coverage, given cancer treatment costs.
“The initial treatment took six hours and cost $10,000,” she said. “Treatments now last an hour and cost $5,000 each. All I pay is the $20 co-pay through Blue Cross Blue Shield.
“Blue Cross Blue Shield has a contractual agreement,” Files said. “I don’t pay the full contractual price and have a $500 deductible policy.”
She said naps are common during treatments, adding that she sleeps a lot while continuing to battle cancer.
Patients also compare notes during the weekly treatments. Files said the treatments darken the skin, particularly the bottom of a person’s feet.
Another patient recalls bags of frozen peas being strapped to a patient’s feet to prevent burning during cancer treatments.
“The chemo burns you from the inside out and can turn the bottom of your feet black,” Files said.
Other patients say they have been “on just about every chemo drug known to man,” Files said.
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a story about Liz Files, a Benton resident who is a survivor of ovarion cancer.
While sitting in the treatment room, Liz Files interacts with other cancer patients — one who has daily Lovenox injections to prevent blood clots. The patient said the injections prevent blood clots in the lungs adding many people die from having blood clots in their lungs and not from the cancer itself.
Another patient said her cancer returned after a year and a half.
Another woman said she had undergone six treatments and abdominal procedures that “made me sicker than a dog.”
Files is an ovarian cancer survivor, a Benton resident and a 35-year employee of the Rend Lake Conservancy District.
She said she was “off work for six months” while undergoing surgery and treatments.
“I had surgery in July and started treatments in August,” she said. “I have been clear for a while now and hope to stay that way as long as I continue with the treatments.”
Files said medical personnel continue to monitor her CA level.
“My CA-125 level is always higher,” Files said. “CA-125 refers to a substance that may be found in high amounts in the blood of patients with certain types of cancer, including ovarian cancer. CA-125 levels are also used to monitor how well cancer treatments are working or if the cancer has returned.”
She said no new “hot spots” were detected since she was tested in December.
Files is grateful for insurance coverage, given cancer treatment costs.
“The initial treatment took six hours and cost $10,000,” she said. “Treatments now last an hour and cost $5,000 each. All I pay is the $20 co-pay through Blue Cross Blue Shield.
“Blue Cross Blue Shield has a contractual agreement,” Files said. “I don’t pay the full contractual price and have a $500 deductible policy.”
She said naps are common during treatments, adding that she sleeps a lot while continuing to battle cancer.
Patients also compare notes during the weekly treatments. Files said the treatments darken the skin, particularly the bottom of a person’s feet.
Another patient recalls bags of frozen peas being strapped to a patient’s feet to prevent burning during cancer treatments.
“The chemo burns you from the inside out and can turn the bottom of your feet black,” Files said.
Other patients say they have been “on just about every chemo drug known to man,” Files said.
Patients caution that the use of steroids causes them to “eat a lot and sleep for days” after the treatment. One woman said she gained 10 pounds in three weeks while on steroids.
Another topic of conversation during treatments is referred to as “chemo poop.” Patients said the medications cause them to burp, have gas and causes their stool to have a distinctive odor, along with other side effects including loose stool.
One patient said she takes medications to avoid having constipation while taking chemotherapy treatments. She said if she takes too much of the medication, she develops diarrhea.
Files said following chemo treatments, “it is important to drink as much fluid as you can possibly hold.”
“It is important to get the treatment out of your kidneys as quickly as possible, otherwise you burn from the inside out,” she said. “I drink a lot of water, tea, GatorAde and ginger ale to flush out my kidneys.”
Leaving the Chesterfield, Mo., and St. Louis traffic behind, the first exit means a stop for Files as she arms herself with beverages for the drive home.
Files said she now drives herself to and from treatments, but it was not that way in the beginning.
“My first treatment after surgery was on a Friday,” she said. “The treatment lasted from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. I had someone come with me to drive me home and I went straight to bed.”
She even took a summer off from treatments to get other work done. “You can’t even have your teeth cleaned while you are taking cancer treatments,” she said. “I took last summer off because I was mentally and physically exhausted.
“Cancer patients who are undergoing treatments cannot get their teeth cleaned or have eye examinations for fear of infection,” she said. “I had to have permission to get my teeth cleaned. I couldn’t have any other dental work done. You also can not get a pedicure or a manicure while having chemo treatments.”
Sun worshippers are also inconvenienced by chemo treatments, she said.
“I really like being out in the sun but have to be covered head to toe while having chemo treatments,” Files said. “During my summer off from chemo treatments, I spent a lot of time at the lake and working in the yard.”
Cancer patients also try on wigs that line the blocks of windows of the treatment room. One woman said she preferred to cover her head with a bandana, saying the wigs are “hot, uncomfortable and don’t look natural.”
Other patients talked of once having long hair that has been reduced to “peach fuzz.”
One woman talked about having extremely long hair that “came out in clumps once the cancer treatments began.” She, too, prefers to wear a protective covering instead of a wig.
Files said once her hair started coming out by the handful, she opted to have her head shaved.
“I too had long hair at one time, but when it got patchy, I went to V.E.’s Barber Shop in West Frankfort, and he shaved my head,” she said. “When the cancer returned, it wasn’t hard to have it shaved a second time. V.E. said it would probably grow in unruly, but it grew in straight. I had him shave it twice.
“Losing my hair was not a big deal,” Files said. “When it grew back it is now very thin. It wasn’t this thin before.”
She also has a “nice” wig but says it is not worn much.
“I find that I’m always tugging on it,” Files said. “I will probably have my head shaved again before the hot weather arrives. I wear sock hats in the winter because they are soft and more comfortable.”
She said surgical procedures during the first year after ovarian cancer was discovered removed her spleen along with sections of her liver, pancreas and lungs to remove the tumor.
“The sections that were removed will replenish themselves,” Files said.
“I had hernia surgery the third year from picking up things that were too heavy to lift,” she said. “So far, I have had three surgeries. I found it harder to recover from the hernia surgery than I did the two surgeries to remove the cancerous tumors.”
She is also grateful for family support. With parents in Enfield and a brother and sister in Carmi, Files said she found comfort as she recuperated from surgery in her parents home.
“If it weren’t for family and friends, it would be a lot more difficult,” she said. “It was easier on me to stay with my parents after I had surgery instead of having them drive to and from Benton, and it has worked out well.
“When I returned home, it was easier for my friends to stop by and visit me,” Files said. “The grocery store is nearby so that makes it easier on everybody, too.”
She has lost count of the number of cancer treatments but has “resigned myself to the fact that I will always have to have them,” Files said.
“The treatments are necessary for a good quality of life, and I can deal with it.”
The survivor has also learned that she has to “pick and choose what I want to accomplish in the course of a day.”
“I have good days and I have bad days, but I have learned that I just can’t push myself too hard on bad days,” Files said. “I don’t do as much as I used to on weekends because I found that if I wear myself out, I can’t go to work on Monday.”
The list of things a patient cannot do while undergoing cancer treatments can be mind-boggling and difficult to remember, she said.
“Those having treatments cannot take hot showers or hand-wash dishes without using a specific brand of dishwashing liquid. I tried washing dishes and broke out in blisters due to the interaction between the cancer drug doxil and the dish soap.”
Files said she has treatments three times a month.
“I get one week off every month,” she said. “I see my physician once a month for a pelvic and rectal examination and that’s when I learn the results of the blood work,” she said. “I don’t have blood work done during the week that I don’t have a treatment.”
Files said the weekly treatments include a question-and-answer period during which she is asked to confirm her insurance provider and emergency contact names and telephone numbers.
“When I see the doctor, I give him a list of the medications, vitamins and herbal supplements that I take because any one of them could react with the cancer treatment drugs,” she said.
Files said when she was taking steroids, her energy level increased.
“I could shop for hours,” she said. “The drugs kept me higher than a Georgia pine. The treatment they have me on now contains little steroids — nothing like I was on before.
“The steroids used to drive me crazy,” Files said. “The people I work with watched me move from place to place and could always tell when I was taking the steroids. They would ask me how many I had taken that particular day.”
She said treatments begin with pre-meds before a patient gets “the real stuff.”
Files is always thinking of others who are having cancer treatments and makes frequent visits to websites to make purchases.
“I try to buy things to take to treatments with me to share with other cancer patients,” she said. “One year, I took M & M’s that said ‘Bah-humbug’ right before Christmas, and during another treatment, I brought pieces of jewelry to commemorate ovarian cancer research. I also buy the gel bracelets and cards that spell out the warning signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer.
“We are like one big family in the treatment room and are always doing something to help each other when we can,” Files said.
