By Keysha Drexel
Journal editor
When she was 46 years old, Martha Welch of Vestavia Hills was like a lot of other busy working mothers.
She put others first, pouring her energy into her job as a nurse and her role as a wife and mother of two.
“I was due for my yearly mammogram, and I put it off for a little while that year,” Welch said. “My father had just died of Alzheimer’s, my daughter was getting ready to go to college and my son was in the 11th grade in high school. Like so many other women, I put myself and my needs on the back burner.”
Welch had no family history of breast cancer, but as a health professional, she knew the importance of regular checkups and monthly self-exams.
That’s why she was stunned when in 2006, she finally went to the mammogram appointment she had been putting off and was told that an abnormality had been detected in one of her breasts.
“This lump that showed up on the mammogram hadn’t been felt by me or my doctor, and so when I was told I had cancer, I almost couldn’t believe it,” she said.
Welch said as the word “cancer” came out of her doctor’s mouth, her first thought was about her children.
“For a moment, I wondered if I was going to die and that my children would not know their mother. I have amazing children, and the thought of not being with them scared me so much,” she said.
But as her mind processed the diagnosis, Welch said she was overcome with a strange sense of peace.
“I have a strong sense of faith, and I just had a sense that I was going to be okay, no matter what,” she said. “I knew I had a fighting chance and I knew that God would take care of me, and if I didn’t make it, my father would be waiting on me in heaven.”
A biopsy revealed that Welch’s cancer was caught in the very early stages. Just to be sure, she sought a second opinion.
“I tried to get as much information as I could on ductal carcinoma in situ, and my sister drove me around to two or three doctors before I ended up with Dr. Susan Winchester and Dr. Michael Beckenstein,” she said.
Welch said her training as a nurse kicked in soon after her diagnosis as she researched her treatment options.
“You have a lot of choices at that stage of a diagnosis. I could have had a lumpectomy in my left breast, or I could have had a single mastectomy,” she said. “But I knew that if you just take off one breast, the chances of cancer occurring in the other breast go up every year, so I made the decision to have a double mastectomy.”
While the choice to have a double mastectomy might have seemed like a radical one to some, Welch said the decision made perfect sense to her.
“I didn’t want to have to worry about the cancer coming back or spreading. I didn’t want that hanging over my children’s heads or for it to worry my family,” she said.
Before her surgery, Welch said, she got a glimpse of how lucky she is to have a strong support network of family and friends.
“There were 10 girls that I went to high school with who put the call out and circled the wagons. They threw me a going-away party for my boobs and cooked and brought food to us in the weeks after my surgery. They were just amazing,” she said.
During the surgery to remove Welch’s breasts, doctors discovered that the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes and that she would not need to take radiation or chemotherapy treatments.
“I was one of the really lucky ones in that it was caught early and it hadn’t spread,” she said. “Sometimes, I feel guilty about that, because I see women who are battling aggressive cancers and trying to get treatments and work and raise their families. Those are the real warriors to me.”
While she was prepared for the medical aspects of having a double mastectomy, Welch said it took about a week for her to really process what she had just endured.
“That first time I saw myself without my breasts was, well, odd. It took me over a week to get over the shock. I wasn’t prepared for how it would affect my body image,” she said.
But Welch said she got help in the body image department from Michael, her husband of 14 years.
“He was so supportive and amazing and made me feel better about the whole thing,” she said.
And while she had her hard days as she adjusted to life after a breast cancer diagnosis, Welch said she had learned firsthand that attitude is everything.
“As a nurse, I had seen that all the time. I’ve seen how a patient’s attitude toward their diagnosis can really affect their treatment and recovery. Doctors will tell you that 90 percent of a treatment’s success is based on the patient’s attitude,” she said.
So to make herself and her family and friends feel better, Welch said she tried to smile as much as she could.
“I tried to look at how lucky I was to have caught the cancer early, to not have to have endured radiation and chemo and to have a chance to go on with my life,” she said.
That chance to go on with her life was what motivated Welch the most during those first months after her diagnosis and mastectomy, she said.
“I just wanted to get down the road, to get past it and get back to watching my daughter play basketball and my son play football,” she said.
Welch was diagnosed in May 2006, had the double mastectomy in July and was lacing up her sneakers for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Birmingham by that October.
“I had always supported breast cancer awareness and research, but I was really determined to do the walk that year,” she said.
Welch said she remembers being struck by the sheer number and variety of women who were participating in the walk that year.
“I looked around and I saw old women, young women, women with hair, bald women and people from every walk of life, and it really hit me how breast cancer affects so many lives,” she said.
As a nurse in Trinity’s women’s and children’s unit, Welch said she tries to use what she learned during her own battle with breast cancer to help other women.
“I see everything from newborns to women who are coming in for breast biopsies or reconstructive surgery, and you have a sense when a patient might be able to benefit from you sharing your story, so that’s what I try to do,” she said.
Welch said she has a lot of lessons to pass on to those patients and other women who are trying to juggle the demands of daily life and often don’t make their own health a priority.
“I learned a lot about myself and a lot about not putting things off–and I’m not just talking about yearly physicals and mammograms,” she said. “As women, we are natural caregivers, but I learned that I had to take care of myself first so that I could take care of everyone else. I learned not to postpone the things that I want to do until it’s right for everyone else.”
A lover of the outdoors, Welch said she now makes it a priority to get out in nature and do the things she loves to do with her family and friends.
“I love to hunt and fish, but before my diagnosis, I would always put off those kind of trips,” she said. “For the last five years, I’ve made it a point to get together and go hunting and fishing with my children.”
In fact, the family has turned its annual turkey hunting trip into a way to honor breast cancer survivors and those who have lost their battle with the disease, Welch said.
“We have a big turkey hunt on some friends’ property down near Selma on opening day of turkey season every year. Everybody wears pink–even the guys–and we dedicate the hunt to someone who’s fighting breast cancer and to all of those who lost that fight.”
The 2012 turkey hunt was dedicated to Welch’s former nursing colleague at Trinity, Tammy Calvert, who died of breast cancer.
“There are so many women–and even men–who are fighting this disease, and I want to do anything I can to draw awareness and honor those people,” she said.
