Difficult journey, but a successsful outcome

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and with more than 190,000 women being diagnosed with breast cancer this year, it is a time to raise awareness of a disease that takes more than 40,000 lives annually.

Joann Antun, a Valley Stream village trustee, knows the rigors of fighting breast cancer very well. In September 2008, while undergoing a regularly scheduled sonogram and mammogram, doctors found something odd in her results. Her doctor, Dr. David Halpern, decided to have her undergo further testing and have an MRI. The MRI showed what the sonogram and mammogram hadn’t. Antun had breast cancer.

“It was a terribly frightening time for me,” Antun said. “Your emotions shut down because you need to get through the process.”

Antun underwent a lumpectomy — a procedure that removes a lump, or tumor from a man or woman’s breast — in November 2008. After the lumpectomy, Antun said surgeons ended up with an extra tissue sample from her breast. What they uncovered in the sample shocked her. Doctors found another cancer. The tumor was completely hidden, she said, and the discovery of an occult cancer made her next decision easier. Antun decided to have a bilateral mastectomy in December 2008 — a procedure to remove both of her breasts. “The decision to have a bilateral mastectomy was easy,” she said. “Dr. Halpern helped me explore that decision, and it was the right thing for me to do.”

Halpern referred Antun to Dr. Randall Feingold, a surgeon who performs breast reconstruction surgery. Antun said that Feingold had a support staff of social workers on hand at his office, and they helped ease her mind during a difficult time. Antun underwent successful breast reconstruction surgery in December 2008.

Every year, Antun said, Feingold organizes a team to walk in the American Cancer Society’s annual fundraiser, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. So far, the ACS has raised about $715,000 this year for breast cancer research and Antun has raised more than $4,000 on her own for the fundraiser. “I’ve never been involved in something as rewarding as this,” Antun said. “I look at women with breast cancer; ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances doing courageous things. It’s amazing.”

This year’s Making Strides Against Cancer Walk will be held at Jones Beach on Sunday, Oct. 18.

Antun said that the earlier the cancer is detected, the higher the cure rate is. She said she counts her blessings everyday that her cancer was caught early. Antun lost her sister-in-law to breast cancer in 2002, she said, so when she started feeling down about her own misfortune, she thought of those women who weren’t fortunate enough to catch their cancer in time. “It was not an easy death,” Antun said of her sister-in-law succumbing to breast cancer. “Anytime I felt sorry for myself, I had to straighten myself out.”

During her own struggle with cancer, Antun’s mother was dying from another illness. Antun lost her mother shortly after she had her lumpectomy last November and said she needed someone to lean on, so she looked to God. “I relied heavily on my relationship with God,” she said. “An event like this strengthens your faith. When you don’t have the strength to turn your head, to know that people are praying for your recovery is a humbling experience.”

Antun said that during her fight against cancer, she brought a close friend with her to every doctor appointment. She noted that though her family members were very supportive, she needed someone who would not have the “same emotional pitch” as her family. And that’s the advice she gives to women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Find someone that can go on the journey with you,” she said. “I recruited someone who was not a family member. I wouldn’t say she helped me make my decision, but when I made my decision, I had thought it through completely.”