Breast Cancer Awareness Special Section

An old sinkhole believed to be caused by an abandoned coal mine shaft has closed a county road to enable repairs to be made. Greene County Highway Department Superintendent Brent Murray said County Road 1100W ---- between County Roads 100S and 200S in Stockton Township -- was closed on Monday...

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...

Gloria Klass was 37 years old in 1974 and had an eight-week-old baby boy when she found a suspicious lump and her doctor prescribed surgery to remove it. "They lost me two times on the table during surgery. My heart stopped, I lost a lot of blood," said Klass. "They called all my family in. They didn't think I was going to make it."...

Lyons resident Dawn Price was 40-years-old and was following the advice of her family physician to get her first mammogram. The test result left her shocked and changed her life. Dawn found out in October 2008 that she had breast cancer. She hadn't had any symptoms, no pain, no discomfort...

A Jasonville woman will hit the five-year breast cancer survivor mark on Oct. 20, 2010. Teana Miller found out she had breast cancer when she was 46. "One morning I woke up and I had a lot of pain in my breast. I noticed a lump there, called the doctor and made an appointment," Miller explained. "I had a cyst in the other one (before), so I thought it was another cyst."...

JASONVILLE -- When faced with a battle against breast cancer, remaining positive is crucial. "Remaining positive is so important," said breast cancer survivor Marilyn Clark of Jasonville. "Keep a positive attitude, because the medical field is unbelievable. I turned off the news to keep a positive attitude and only read inspirational literature. The 91st Psalm was the best pain pill there was."...

Even while she battled breast cancer -- and nine years after her recovery -- Debbie Johnson remains an educator at heart. As she underwent care, she allowed medical students to witness her 2001 surgery. "Because I was a teacher, I had no problem with that."...

Breast cancer survivor Karen Overman's advice to women is to not do what she did and wait 10 years between mammograms. "My insurance kept changing, my doctor quit, and I guess I was just frustrated," said Overman of Bloomfield. It was early in 2009 that Overman felt a lump and some soreness in one of her breasts but didn't think much about it because it went away. ...

Most women with breast cancer have some type of surgery to treat the main breast tumor. The purpose of surgery is to remove as much of the cancer as possible. Surgery can also be done to find out whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm, to restore the breast's shape after a mastectomy, or to relieve symptoms of advanced cancer...

A woman's choice of treatment is likely influenced by her age, the image she has of herself and her body, and her hopes and fears. For example, some women may choose breast-conserving surgery with radiation over a mastectomy for body image reasons. On the other hand, some women choose mastectomy regardless of the effect on their body image. They may be more concerned about the effects of radiation than how the breast will look after treatment...

It can feel good to be done with treatment, but it can also be stressful. You may find that you now worry about the cancer coming back. This is a very common concern among those who have had cancer. (When cancer comes back, it is called a recurrence.)...