10-Year Cancer Survivor: 'I Just Never Felt this was the End'

This Thanksgiving marks the earliest that the holiday will fall on November's calendar — the 22nd — and it's always a moment for people to count their blessings surrounded by family.

For Sue Tomaszewski — who lives in Greenfield, but is also a former Muskego resident and an employee at the Muskego Post office for the past 26 years — the day will be especially poignant as it will mark the 10th anniversary of her breast cancer diagnosis, and the beginning of her survivor's story.

"For me, it really started in August of 2002 when I felt things just didn't look right. I didn't feel a lump, there was just a dimpling that looked wrong," Tomaszewski said. "However, I didn't make anything of it and waited until my checkup in November."

From there the timetable sped up as her doctor sent her to a surgeon the same day as her exam, where an ultrasound was done. Within two days, she had received the call no human being wants to get, confirming she had an aggressive form of cancer. Surgery took place two weeks later.

That Thanksgiving, Tomaszewski said, "There were a lot of prayers around that table."

While the surgery to remove her invasive globular cancer, "satellite tumors" and 13 lymph nodes was successful, Tomaszewski lost her breast, and was faced with months of radiation and chemotherapy.

"Can you just imagine — your breast is gone, the chemotherapy means your hair is gone? I mean they do a great job to provide you with a form so no one can tell outwardly that you've changed, but at the end of the day you see yourself in the mirror as you're changing, and it's a hard thing to face," she said.

Much like the 70 percent of women who are diagnosed each year with breast cancer, Tomaszewski didn't have a family history, never smoked and drank only "a glass of wine here and there.'"

However, Tomaszewski credits a positive outlook and the ability to heal for getting her through the early years of treatment, and then reconstructive surgery. She said the sick time she accrued with the post office was part of what helped her to rest and recover while combating the after effects of chemotherapy.

"They give you anti-nausea drugs, but those made me sick, and it took no time at all to lose my hair," she said. "I also went through a period where I would look at other women and get angry because of how they could show off their cleavage, but I got over that."

Tomaszewski said support came from family of course, but also from friends made along the way, sharing the same struggle.

"It was something," she said, "I met this woman and it turns out we lived no more than two miles apart in Greenfield. And my doctors were absolutely the best, I'm just so thankful they were there.

"I guess if I had anything to say, it was that I maintained a positive attitude through this. I just never felt this was the end of my life. I suppose you need to go through the rain sometimes to get to the sun."