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By Sierra Kondos

Special to The News

 

Catherine Lewis, 50, beat stage two breast cancer during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Now cancer-free for three years, she emphasizes the importance of regular self-examinations, early detection to women of all ages and to live life without procrastination because tomorrow isn’t promised.

Lewis’s life took a left turn when she discovered a knot on her breast at the end of 2018.

“You never know when it’ll come because I had just had a mammogram in May and the doctors said it was benign,” she said. “And in September, the knot appeared on my right breast. I called my mom because I’m a mom’s girl, and I told her, I said, ‘Mom, I have a knot on my breast.’ And she was like, ‘You need to go get it checked.’ So, I called the Gift of Life to go get it checked, and then I went in.”

Once the biopsy came back, Lewis was given positive cancer results.

“When I went to see her,” she said, ‘You know why you’re here,’ and I say ‘No,’ and she told me I had stage two breast cancer.”

The Port Arthur native said she “dropped a few tears” then proceeded to begin the process of becoming cancer free.

“Hey, it’s life,” Lewis said. “I went through process. I went through chemo, then I went through radiation. I’d rather chemo than radiation, but I told my mom, the chemo was, you just lay in the chair all day, practically, and get your medicine, then the radiation burned you up. So, that was horrible.”

Lewis said her treatments were complicated by COVID-19, weight gain from steroids,

nd daily life challenges with her children.

“Well, it was a lot, because at the time I had the breast cancer, it was Covid, so I was going through a whole lot with that,” she said. “And once I began the treatments, I did the steroid pill, and that added another 150 pounds to my body. Then the swelling happened, and I had to put it in my head, “You got to fight! Also, my two kids, ages sixteen and 9, and keeping up with their daily activities helped me keep going.”

She informed her children about her cancer diagnosis and the changes it would bring, including losing her hair and gaining weight.

“I told her when, when I first found out I had it,” she said. “I sat both of my kids down and I told them I was like, ‘Mom is about to go through breast cancer, I’m about to lose my hair,

I’m about to put on a bunch of weight.”

Lewis’s daughter initially worried about her mother cutting her hair, but eventually accepted the situation.

“I explained to my daughter that it’s a process I must go through,” she said. “Once she seen me go through chemo, she was like, ‘Mom, you okay?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m fine. And then it was just an everyday thing, you know, you swell, you hurt, but you take it one day at a time.”

Despite beating cancer, Lewis has new health issues like arthritis.

“I never had that before,” she said. “I suffer with a lot of swelling and the joints on my body hurts. Sometimes my right arm, it’ll get so stiff, and it will hurt me so bad. So, I can’t move it. Sometimes I feel like I call my mom and be like, ‘Mom, I just want to cut my hands off. They hurt me so bad.’ So, before all this, I never experienced any type of pain like that, but it’s the worst pain ever.”

Throughout her continuous struggles, Lewis has adopted a more adventurous lifestyle, seizing opportunities to travel and explore new places.

“I just tell my little girl to pack a bag, and we go,” she said. “So far, I drove myself to Mississippi, which was strange, but I did. I drove myself to Florida. I just look at life a whole lot different now.”

Lewis encourages others to do the same and stresses the importance of timely medical checkups.

“Make sure y’all get yourself checked,” she said. “Some women, they’ll feel it or not, but don’t go get it checked, and when they do go get it, check it be too late. It be stage four. If you catch it in the beginning, you’ll be okay. I tell everybody, leave it in God’s hands. He got the last say so.”

Julie Roger’s Gift of Life is located at 2390 Dowlen Road, Beaumont Texas 77706.

For early detection to avoid advanced stages of cancer contact Gift of Life at 409-833-3663.