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Shields Is A Two-Time Cancer Survivor: She credits her husband, church family for helping with her recovery
Rural Linton resident Mary Shields is one of the lucky ones.
She's a two-time survivor of breast cancer -- all within the last five years.
Shields, who's married to Fred Shields, owner of Shields Hardware in Linton, says her first diagnosis of breast cancer came five years ago and came after she did her routine annual mammogram at Greene County General Hospital in Linton.
The cancer was detected from that test.
Surgery followed and a "meatball-sized place" was taken out of her left breast at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis.
She went through radiation treatments at Hux Cancer Center in Terre Haute and seemed to be progressing well when she noticed what appeared to be a bruise on her left breast a little over a year ago.
Mary was concerned and saw Dr. Fred Ridge at Ridge Medical Center in Linton.
"Dr. Ridge saw and knew something didn't look right ... he got right on top of it," Mary said.
He conferred with oncologists and found out that Mary had an extremely rare form of cancer called epithelioid angiosarcoma -- a rare aggressive form of cancer that occurs in about 1 in 4 million cancer patients.
"It turned out that what I had was the result of my radiation," Mary said.
Being so rare made treatment difficult and risky. She had a mastectomy on her left breast and underwent chemo therapy.
"They picked the closest thing to it they could find and that's the treatment I was given. They decided if there is just one cell remained, it would spread quickly, the consensus was to remove my breast," Shields recalled.
She had intensive chemo treatments until January at the Hux Center and had a real rough time with it.
There was extreme nausea for weeks and she had seizures for the first time in her life.
Her chemo sessions lasted six hours at first and she said "It was awful."
She was later prescribed a special "cocktail" chemotherapy combination that had to have special approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The second medication agreed with her much better.
Mary admits these were very scary times, but times when she relied on her faith and the prayers of others to over come this dilemma.
Her husband was also very supportive and took her to every one of her treatment appointments.
Her family at Saron United Church of Christ and many in the Linton community offered a hand, prayers and helped to prepare meals during her recovery period.
There were days when Mary wondered what her future might hold and it was troubling to her because she might not get to see her only grandson, Braxton, the almost 2-year-old son of her son Levi and daughter-in-law Tina Shields, of rural Bloomfield.
One of the hardest parts of the whole ordeal was losing her hair.
"I would have never guessed this was as devastating as it was. Losing my hair was devastating," Mary said in explaining her hair has grown back and is dark and curly now.
She has now returned to work as secretary at Saron United Church of Christ in Linton.
"I made it through it and I am doing very well. I am back to my normal routine," Mary told the Greene County Daily World. "I'm feeling very well and very blessed. I thank God for everything."
She explained that many friends and members of her church family offered up prayers for her during her battles with cancer.
"I truly felt their prayers. It was something that I had never experienced before."
Mary says all women should be aware of the signs of breast cancer and should go yearly for a mammogram.
"They should absolutely get a mammogram," she said without hesitation. "I guess people are scared of what they are going to be told."
In Mary's case, it was the early detection through a mammogram that saved her life.