7 minute read
Keeping positive
Fourth-grade cheerleaders surround Becky Landers during a recent Youth Football League game which featured a pink-out. As a special guest, Landers got in for free. (Cathy Spaulding)
Positive attitude keeps
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Landers' cancer at bay
Story by Cathy Spaulding
AT-shirt proclaiming "Breast Cancer messed with the wrong chick," shows how Haskell resident Becky Landers remains steadfast in confronting breast cancer.
"I haven't cried over this one time," Landers said. "I will not let this get me down. To me, letting it get me down means letting it beat me."
She said she seeks to believe "this is just another thing, it will be over." "That's part of the healing to me," she said. "It will pass just as other things do. God will get me through it."
Landers, 56, has made sure others keep positive as well. "I've determined that from the very beginning," she said. "When I called my dad to tell him, he'd freak out and I said, 'Dad we're not doing this. We're not going to play the game this way. We're gong to start out positive. It's going to be over and it's going to be fine."
Landers traces her story to February. "I started noticing that my right breast was heavier, bigger, more dense, just kind of different than the
ABOVE: Becky Landers shows some muscle in her fight against breast cancer. She is surrounded by family. Front row, from left, grandsons Caleb Clinton, Colt Gray and Buddy Gray. Back Row, from left, son Joe Gray, son-in-law Mitch Meredith, son Derek Landers and husband Joe Landers. (Red River Photography)
LEFT: Joe Landers says his wife, Becky Landers, has shown a strong will and doesn’t let things get to her. (Red River Photography)
Becky Landers hugs grandson Colt Gray during a recent visit. Landers thrives on family support. (Red River Photography)
other," she recalled.
A mammogram showed several masses. She was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer. "It affects even your skin," Landers said. "It's always diagnosed as a Stage 3 cancer because of how fast it grows."
On April 9, Landers started a chemotherapy treatment, which involved undergoing eight-hour treatments every three weeks. She recalled sleeping a lot and reading. "It's bad if you're an internet shopper," she said. "I really did pretty well with the chemo. I feel like, with enough time between the treatments, I kind of recovered. If I had to have them two or three times a week, it would have been different."
She had to return to the treatment center in Broken Arrow a day after each treatment to get a shot. The shot helped create more red blood cells, but also made her bones ache, she said.
Landers said she ended chemo treatments in early August, then had a complete mastectomy of her breast. "After that, the pathology came back negative," she said.
She still needs treatment, however. Landers said she must remain still while a tube helps drain body fluid. "They didn't want me to do anything, just be still, and I'm not a 'be still' person," Landers said. "I've watched more TV in the last three weeks than I've
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ever watched in the past 10 years."
During this time, Landers has had to stop playing in a competitive pool league with her husband. She said she hasn't been able to sew garments for American Girl dolls, a money-making hobby of hers.
She also has taken time from her job as a correctional unit assistant at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft. Several co-workers have donated their sick leave to her.
Landers said her family, her husband's family and her friends have been more than supportive. "Everybody we know has been bringing over food," she said. "The places where we played pool have had benefits to pay for doctors and driving back and forth. I've had lots and lots of support."
Joe Landers called his wife a strong-willed woman.
"Since I've known her, she doesn't let anything get her," he said. "If she wasn't so strong willed, she wouldn't be as healthy as she is now."
Becky Landers said she begins daily radiation next month at Saint Francis Hospital Muskogee, five days a week. "What we're doing now is just to make sure there's nothing left and to scare it off if it thinks it wants to come back," she said.
That stubborn, positive attitude has played a huge part in her wellness, she said.
She predicted that one year from today, she'll be talking about doing reconstruction — "back doing what I want to do, back doing things I normally do. There's no reason to let it continue."
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