Teri Booth

The strongest desire known to human life is to continue living.

Teri read the words above in a fortune cookie.  As an 8 year survivor of Stage I grade 3 breast cancer, she has been grateful for the wisdom of many doctors, friends, and family members – yet it was a phrase on a crumpled piece of paper nestled in a cookie that continues to resonate with her.  Why? Perhaps because though exceptional medical guidance is essential ameliorating physical health, and the empathy and mood boosts from friends and family keep the mind and spirit going, it is ultimately an individual’s unconquerable will to live that makes her a survivor.

At 34 years old, Teri discovered a small lump in her left breast that turned out to be a two cm tumor that lay too close to her chest wall to be seen in a mammogram.  As her grandfather had passed away from cancer and her mother was a 20 year survivor, Teri knew what she was up against.  She proceeded with an ultrasound, which confirmed her doctor’s suspicions that she did, in fact, have cancer.  The next step would be to decide on a treatment plan, a process that Teri equates with a game show.

 Behind door number one was an experimental procedure in which a hole would be cut into her left lung, allowing doctors to remove any possible malignant lymph nodes under her breast plate.  After the incision, the lung would be deflated, the lymph nodes removed, and the lung re-inflated.  The catch: at the time, the procedure had only been attempted on pigs, making Teri the first human subject.  Wary of the uncertainty of this option, she moved on to door number two: one day of surgery in two parts.  It would begin with a lumpectomy that would then be followed by the removal of two sentinel and eight lymph nodes.  Eight weeks after her surgery Teri began chemotherapy, after which she moved on to radiation therapy.  Though her lovely parting gifts were weight loss, a plummeting white blood cell count, lymphedema, fatigue, and forgetfulness, her margins were clear and her journey to recovery underway.

Following Teri’s diagnosis and treatment, many people afflicted with cancer went to her for advice. Though grateful to be alive and able to help others through their illness, Teri – like many survivors – also felt an overwhelming guilt for surviving a disease that had claimed the lives of so many others.  It is often difficult to reconcile why even those with a strong desire to continue living perish, while others of the same fortitude live on.  While this is a question that may never be answered, the mystery is part of what pushes us forward, leading survivors like Teri to continue to help those around them, and to begin to recognize the singular meaning of each miraculous life.

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