Breast cancer awareness has become personal for Mahomet Curves.
Nationally, the Curves organization wants to help women “Punch Out Breast Cancer” with $10 punch cards, which can be purchased as gifts or in memory of a loved one. All proceeds from the fundraiser go to breast cancer research.
Locally, the Mahomet Curves wanted to honor and help Mahomet resident and Curves member Laura Dahl, who has been battling Stage 4 HER-2 Positive Breast Cancer for nearly four years.
Curves will continue to raise money to help Dahl travel to receive clinical trial treatments until Nov. 2. Currently, Curves has over 30 raffle items on display in the store. Curves members and the Mahomet community are invited to buy raffle tickets. All proceeds go to a separate account for Dahl.
Throughout the month of October, the Mahomet Curves will also donate all new-member registration fees to Dahl. New members also receive a free month of membership with their registration.
“Our members have been wonderful,” said Curves owner Jan Smith. “It’s amazing that a lot of them don’t even know Laura, but when we make it personal, they all come together.”
After a year of nursing her fourth child, Dahl felt thickened tissue, which she believed to be dried up milk, on the left side of her left breast. In the winter of 2009, Dahl was also training for her first half-marathon in Disney World in Jan. She thought the soreness and fatigue she felt came from the training.
At her yearly visit, the doctor suggested she have a mammogram when she returned from Disney. The mammogram showed a lot of calcification, and Dahl was diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer.
Upon the suggestion of the radiation oncologist, Dahl was scheduled for a breast MRI, which showed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). With lower back pain, Dahl also had a bone scan, which showed the cancer had spread to her skull, scapula, sternum, iliac, and right femur.
On Feb. 5, 2009 she was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of HER-2 positive, Stage 4 cancer.
After a second opinion, Dahl was put on a standard of care in March, which included Herceptin. Dahl believes the Herceptin, along with radiation treatments, cleared up most of the legions she had from the neck down. Her liver, adrenals, ovaries and lung were clear of the legions by the end of the treatment in Sept.
In the first two months of her diagnosis, there were no indications that Dahl had brain cancer. Dahl said after her first brain scan, she was diagnosed with “an unremarkable brain.”
“I wish I could have that diagnosis again,” she said. “That was the last brain MRI I had that was clear.”
In July 2009, Dahl was also diagnosed with metastatic brain tumors.
While Herceptin is a powerful drug, it cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier. In Dahl’s case, the cancer has found a safe haven inside her brain.
Dahl received radiation treatments for her brain metastasis, and while the treatment worked for a while, they reappeared in the fall.
“I’ve tried different treatments that worked for a while, and then the cancer beats it, and finds a way around,” she said. “Then I try something new.”
Dahl has been under a standard of care until the fall of 2011 when she began to look at clinical trials. Dahl was approved to start a clinical trial through Dana-Farber Cancer Institute specifically for HER-2 positive patients with brain metastasis in May 2012.
She flew to Boston once every four weeks to take the oral drug, and then returned home to her husband and four children. Dahl really liked the doctors, and had high hopes for the drug to cure her. Like other treatments, the drug worked for a while, but over time, the effects subsided.
“By that point, I knew they would come back,” she said. “I was prepared. I didn’t get upset anymore. But I was so upset when that drug didn’t work. I thought that was going to be it.”
Dahl has also participated in a clinical trial through the William Harvey Research Institute which attached an enzyme to the cell of the drug to help it penetrate the blood-brain barrier. This was a traditional chemotherapy, and Dahl had substantial side effects with it.
She received treatments on Thursday, and slept through Friday. To help her get through, friends brought dinner to her house Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Dahl is now on a new FDA approved trial out of the University of Chicago. Her local doctor is able to oversee her care, so she is able to stay local. Dahl has not seen many harsh side effects with this drug, but because there is a risk of seizures, she is not able to drive.
Through clinicaltrials.gov, Dahl is able to research her next steps in her fight against cancer.
“You have to educate yourself as a cancer patient,” she said. “With Stage 4, you have to be on top of clinical trials, and what will be the next one. It’s better for you to go (into the doctor) with your information.”
Dahl said her dear friend, Jennifer Smith, who passed away from breast cancer a few weeks ago, called herself a professional cancer patient because she was constantly learning about what the cancer was doing to her body and the best way to treat it.
“When you’re Stage 4, you know there is no cure,” Dahl said. “So there is only treatment after treatment after treatment. For me, I like to be prepared.”
While Dahl was busy raising her children and training for the half-marathon, she didn’t think much about “Pinktober.” Now, Dahl is a proponent of prevention and a cure for breast cancer, particularly Stage 4 breast cancer.
Dahl said it’s important for women who have a familial history of breast cancer to advocate for a mammogram, even if it’s not a direct family line. While cancer ran in her family through smokers, a few cousins on her mother’s side died of breast cancer in their forties.
In Dahl’s case, the mammogram was hard to read, and didn’t pick up the tumor. She encourages women who have a positive mammogram to also seek a breast MRI.
“Another thing people need to be aware of is that they may not feel anything,” Dahl said.
Inundated with pink on athletic fields and bumper stickers, Dahl said people need to be aware of the product they purchase and where the money actually goes.
“We already know breast cancer is out there,” she said. “We need money for research and prevention.”
Through Dahl’s research she’s learned that the number of women who have died from Stage 4 breast cancer has not changed in 25 years. She was also shocked to find out that Stage 4 breast cancer is the lowest funded research.
“I want people to be aware of Stage 4 cancer,” she said. “Stage 4 cancer is what kills people. You don’t die from Stage 2 cancer; you die from Stage 4 cancer.”
Dahl likes organizations like the Metastatic Breast Cancer Coalition, which has a deadline of curing cancer by 2020. She also likes the work that Stand Up To Cancer does in making sure research topics are not overlapping between organizations, and pushing for a shorter time frame in research implementation.
The support of family, friends and the Mahomet community has overwhelmed Dahl throughout this process. In the beginning, Dahl received cards, letters, visits and meals. Family came to stay with her during the first year of treatments.
Now, friends continue to support her family through meals, when needed, they clean her home sometimes and help drive the kids around when she is on driving restrictions.
Dahl said she’s never asked why she was the one who got cancer because she knows things just happen. But she is glad that her children and husband are not the ones who are sick.
“I have a very strong faith that has carried me through without question,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d be here if I didn’t have that. It’s getting easier and easier just to give it to God. I do what I need to do. I just say, okay what do I need to do, and he guides me. I know he does. And I know He’s with me. He lifts me up when I need it. It’s just been a remarkable relationship.”
Dahl uses her faith to teach her children (ages 15, 13, 8 and 6) about the presence of God in their lives.
“With God, that’s how we manage whatever we’re given,” she said. “I encourage them to pray. It’s a chance to strengthen our faith. If nothing else comes from cancer, it has strengthened my family’s family. And that’s a really good thing.”
