Toni Gary is the personification of a cancer survivor.
The Inverness resident has resolutely battled the dreaded condition as assertively as it assailed upon her nearly 18 years ago. At that time, she set out to find out as much as she could about it, its effect on people and the varying treatments and medications used to stave it off.
She is determined not to be defeated.
Gary was diagnosed in 1999 with a then not well known but aggressive form of cancer identified as Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). She suffered several misdiagnoses before Dr. Phillip Ley of Jackson correctly identified her condition.
Gary is a staunch supporter of the American Cancer Society and the Relay for Life and their commitment to fight every cancer in every community. She chaired the first three Relay for Life events held in Indianola beginning in 2001.
In the early years, Gary said they went all out with bands and food at the all-night relays.
Groups were formed and hers was called the Divas. They would dress up and just enjoy, but the long events were hard on the survivors, she said.
“I got sick for a week, after it was over,” Gary said of the early days of her illness.
Even though the current Relay For Life events are shorter she said they are still lots of fun because you get to see people you don’t get to see all year, other survivors. She said, “I’m looking forward to it.”
“I had a really strange type of breast cancer and I want people to know about it too. I had never heard of it. What was so strange is it was misdiagnosed for about three months,” she said. Gary said regrettably she got silicone breast implants when she was 25, “I was dumb when I was 25 years-old. I had a chance to get them for almost free.”
When the doctor put them in, he guaranteed they were free of defects. “He took them and threw them against a wall to show me they would never rupture,” she said.
Gary is definitely not a fan, after educating herself on the potential hazards of breast implants.
“They were never tested on people, only on dogs, and still have never been tested on people,” she added.
Gary praises her local doctor, Eddie Donahoe, along with Dr. Ley, Dr. Walter Jones and the physicians and treatments received at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, which she said, saved her life.
She said her doctors told her the implants could have played a role in her cancer.
“I did mammograms and had breast exams every month,” she said.
Early Signs
When she began experiencing pain, itching and redness in her left breast she was prompted to see her gynecologist who did not find anything suspicious.
He told her it was likely something to do with the implants and suggested she see her plastic surgeon.
Gary said the plastic surgeon would not look at her mammograms and diagnosed her with silicone mastitis, giving her a Z-Pak.
By March, her breast was swollen and her skin was starting to look like an orange and her condition had worsened.
The plastic surgeon told her he couldn’t remove the implants for another six weeks because his son was getting married. So, it was the end of May before he attempted to remove them and by this time her left breast was double the size, red, itching and hot to the touch, she said.
She was told the surgery would take two hours but it ended up taking eight hours because he had to rupture the implants, scrape them out of her chest and cauterize it,
“It was goo, there was silicone everywhere, I had foreign material all in my chest,” she said.
She said he did perform a biopsy but she did not get the results until almost a week later.
During the interim, she read a letter sent to columnist Ann Landers from a man whose wife died because her Inflammatory Breast Cancer wasn’t properly diagnosed in time.
This family’s situation sounded similar as she feared something may have been missed.
“And it’s not a lump, it’s a nest,” she said, and it grows very fast and she had all of the same symptoms.
The First Cancer
Diagnosis
After the biopsy, she was diagnosed with Mucinous Colloid Cancer.
She brought up her concerns about IBC after reading the Ann Landers column, but she said the doctor was not familiar with that form of Breast Cancer.
Fortunately, a surgeon she was familiar with, Dr. Walter Jones, looked at it and immediately knew what it was and sent her to Dr. Ley at St. Dominic. Ley had previously studied at M.D. Anderson in Texas.
The Final Diagnosis
Ley did a special skin biopsy and sent it to Baptist Hospital for analysis
He had the results within a day and it was confirmed IBC.
By Thursday M.D. Anderson had set her an appointment for Friday morning.
So, she and her sister and her best friend, Wanda Hill, packed up and drove to Houston.
The center ran tests on her all day Friday and she met with a team of doctors led by Dr. Daniel J. Booser, Professor, Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.
Booser recommended a clinical trial as her best chance for survial. Gary opted in.
The program consisted of four rounds of a dose intense chemo to strengthen you and reduce the mass, then surgery, followed by six more rounds of another chemo, after that, seven weeks of radiation and a boost of strong radiation and capped off with oral medications to keep the cancer from coming back.
She praises Hill, who has been her friend since they were eight-years-old, and who traveles with her to every doctor’s visit, her children and family for their support that sustains her.
Gary was a teacher and a single mother when she was diagnosed and now sixteen years later she is still waging war against cancer and still trying to educate others even though she is unable to be in the classroom.
She’s lobbying in Washington D.C. for the American Cancer Society and raising funds because she knows the money goes for good things. A lot of it goes to education, research to fund things like clinical studies and free breast exams.
The Aftermath
Her ordeal has left her left chest wall purple and caved in. Her procedure is called a modified radical because they had to take part of her chest wall.
She’s had both hips replaced, her heart ablated, she has Cellulitis, which can turn into gangrene, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, Lymphedema and more,
“All of these little things,” she said. Plus the breast cancer can return at anytime.
In addition, her breasts were damaged too badly for reconstruction yet she was forced to do a consult and they told her they could take tissue from her buttock and use it for reconstruction. “I’m 50-years-old, I don’t want them, I don’t care,” she said.
They suggested giving her one breast on the right side and prosthesis for her left side, which she again declined.
“What am I going to do with one breast?” she asked.
Gary said online research gave her only a one in three chance to live 18 months, but when she inquired of Dr. Booser how long she had to live, he told her, “Only God knows that. I’m just going to try to make you better.”
Like most families in the U.S., Gary was not the only one in her immediate circle to receive a cancer diagnosis.
Her father suffered from Esophageal Cancer and Barrett’s Esophagus and died 10 years before she was diagnosed. Likely hereditary, her sister, brother and a paternal aunt all had Barrett’s Esophagus and in a rarity, her sister was also diagnosed with IBC as well, just 10 years after she was.
She was a caregiver to both her father and sister before they died. She said she tried to get her sister to go see Dr. Booser, like she did, but she wouldn’t go. She lived only four years past her diagnosis.
According to Gary, her sister was one of those who said, “I don’t want to know about it. I’m afraid they’re going to tell me I’m going to die.”
Up until recently Gary was still having to go to Houston every three weeks for checkups, now she only has to go one time a year.
Her work with the American Cancer Society has exposed her to some startling statistics on cancer, such as the probability of women getting it is one in three and one in two for men. According to her a cancer map shows more people affected with cancer along the Mississippi River than in other parts of the country. A lot of it is environmental, she said. Her doctor told her not to drink tap water, only distilled water.
Now a licensed counselor, Gary said, “My faith is what’s gotten me through.” She said she’s gone through depression, waking up in the middle of night, scared thinking she was going to die.
“I am not scared of anything any more. I don’t worry about anything anymore. Money doesn’t matter, things don’t matter, I am just as happy with my little house in Inverness. I tell people cancer is the worst thing that happened to me, and the best thing.”
