Leslie Tripp
Jamie said he was thrilled to introduce his hero but thought most of us knew her so he would leave it to her.
Leslie said thanks for the opportunity to talk to the Club. She spoke with friends about what direction to take and came to the conclusion that once someone is diagnosed, everything changes and one can only speak from the heart. She said she knew she didn't look like she'd had cancer but insider her heart it was a different story.
5 years ago she found a lump and went for a mammogram which came back negative but she and her docter were still uncertain and she was referred and had a biopsy to dispell that and they found 4 grade 3 tumours that were at stage 2 on a 4 step grade. It was not a big a surprise and she resolved to do what it took to get through it. Surgery removed 11 nodes of which 6 were positive and they hoped they had it all. Chemo, to kill the loose cells, took 6 months of weekly visits. She tried to stay healthy throughout but it was unnerving to see the team that treated her was gowned to avoid contact with the poison they were putting in her.
She said it's like a flu that never goes away but it also takes the hair, the mental strength. She got to the stage where she couldn't take association with anything related to the process - the ice and water she was supposed to take to relieve the sores in her mouth made her want to throw up. The smell still makes her naseous.
All she could do was work hard to keep life normal - cancer hurts everybody. She played hockey and worked to keep the kids active and to maintain a sense of their own life. She felt cancer took away her ability to dream or even to plan as much as one day ahead. She often heard people say 'next week we'll' but she never felt she could. There have been changes since - her hair has grown back, she's had corrective surgery - but she looks at life differently know, she's got some anger but she's also more appreciative.
The treatments put her into menopause and she's alone because she's 45 and post menopausal and none of her friends are. She still lives life with fear of dying and leaving Jamie and the kids. She thought, when she was declared clean, that it would be over but her body is still changing and once you've had it, everything becomes abnormal, even the smallest indicator. She was reviewing the numbers from a blood test, which were good, but the doctor suggested one more test and she was taken back 5 years to a horrible place. She reviewed information on the internet and with her contacts and it looks ok but she has a history of cancer and she has to be aware.
She's lost a breast and the ability to think she'll grow old because that history is there and now it's there for the kids too. They have to check off that box on forms from now on. She doesn't think it took her spirit and she's still even tempered and she thinks that she has learned something, that she can make a difference. We need to live with intention, walk to the edge, laugh, live without regrets and continue to learn, to appreciate friends and do what we love.
Yvonne thanked Leslie for coming and sharing so much with the Club.
In answer to a question Leslie said she supported the Gilda's Club in Barrie and was grateful to the Club for helping. When someone from Midland or Parry Sound has to go back and forth every week and sit in impersonal hospital waiting rooms a place to get away and avoid smells and connections is helpful. A place where information and support was available meant patients would be made more comfortable and more informed while doctors could spend more time working. The Gilda's Club will make it easier mentally, psychologically and emotionally.
Steve added his thanks to Yvonne's.