"Mommy, since grandma died of cancer and now you have cancer ... does that mean that I am going to get it?"
Answering her 10-year-old daughter Leah, Peggy Byers responded, "Honey, you are really good with science, so maybe when you are older you will come up with a cure for it."
Byers, a professor of communications studies at Ball State always knew that she would get cancer at some point in her life, so when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2001 no tears fell... she just simply thought, let's do what we have to do to get rid of this.
Byers' mother was diagnosed with inflammatory cancer in 1995 but never complained or felt sorry for herself. Byers now tries to exemplify everything her mother was. Anyone who walks past her will see nothing that would indicate she has cancer.
She has a sleek figure and a head covered by a red bandanna, a natural wig or a green wig depending on the situation. The red bandanna is for teaching, the natural wig for church and the green wig for playing with her children or trying to get her students to lighten up and laugh about her disposition. According to Peggy, "What's the point of being bald if you can't have fun with it?"
It all seemed very routine. A mammogram in October, a callback and then a biopsy at the end of the month. It was the day after Thanksgiving that the doctor called and gave her the diagnosis. There were no symptoms; Byers had always been very healthy. On Dec. 12 doctors removed what they could see. When the results came back there was cancer in the margins. The doctors performed a second surgery and removed seven lymph nodes.
Two days later she had a third surgery and had twenty-five lymph nodes removed. Byers remained strong throughout the whole process but remembered one particular time when she broke down.
"I was in the doctor's office removing my shirt," she said. "There was a mirror... I had staples across my chest and under my armpit. I broke down .... I looked like Frankenstein."
Then it was time to move on to six months of chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy is a foreign word to anyone who has not been through it. Byers was lucky to have a private room her first two treatments. Sitting in a comfortable chair with a good friend nearby, she watched as the nurse found a vein, hooked up an IV and administered what Byers calls the, "woozy stuff." During this time Byers listens to music while she holds her rosary. The first time it took four hours, the second took three.
Usually two days later the symptoms of chemotherapy show themselves. Byers describes it being a very emotional time. She does not actually get sick but rather feels sick to her stomach.
"I sit on the sofa in a daze," she said. "I feel as though I am carrying 100 pound weights on my arms and feet."
When the symptoms subside, the routine reappears and Byers is mother and professor again. She has only missed a couple days of work, usually the Monday after she receives her treatments. She goes to the gym twice a week to keep her blood flowing and her body in shape.
She recalled a vacation when she and her children had visited a friend in Colorado at a place called the "Garden of the Gods." A huge balancing rock attracted the children as soon as they bustled out of the car. Watching her children, Byers' friend asked, "What makes you the happiest?" Byers simply answered, "Children being children."
She envisioned a perfect day to be one involving her children, perfectly well behaved, making a cake or cookies, lots of playing, flowers, the pool, good food, movies, everyone being healthy and happy, the baby-sitter coming for free and Byers being whisked away on the back of a Harley. "Wait a minute ... change that to a BMW," she said, laughing. Unfortunately she does cry.
Byers said, "I trust in God that I am going through this for a reason - there is something that I need to learn from this. I take good care of myself and try to maintain as normal a schedule as possible. It would be much worse if I just sat home feeling sorry for myself every day. I will not allow myself to do that."
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