A Network Of Caring For Breast Cancer Survivors

By Kaaren Valenta

By nature, Chris Dzujna is a very private person. But after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, the  Sandy Hook resident wanted to tell the world about the disease.

“I want to stand up on a soap box and help educate women about breast cancer so more will survive,” she said. “The healthier I get, the louder I get. Breast cancer is serious, scary, and we want to get on top of it.”

A Connecticut native, Ms Dzujna grew up in Fairfield. Soon after she graduated from high school, her mother died from a kidney disease, leaving her and a brother, who went to Vietnam, to help raise their siblings, including a five-year-old sister. Later her father died from colon cancer.

Chris Dzujna married, and later started college, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in elective studies at the University of Bridgeport. She began her career in the public relations department of Park City Hospital in Bridgeport, then wound up as administrative assistant to the chairman of a pharmaceutical company in New Canaan. She and her husband, George, an agent for MetLife, lived in Monroe before moving to Newtown in 1991.

Describing herself as a typical baby boomer, Chris Dzujna said she decided three years ago, when she turned 50, to leave the corporate world go into business for herself. She and her two partners now have three consignment shops in Fairfield, one that features clothing, the other two household items and collectibles.

Last year she began to experience a strange feeling in one breast, a feeling that something was wrong, so in the fall she scheduled a mammogram, and then an ultrasound.  All tests came back negative.

“I’ve had cysts in my breasts before, so when I went to my surgeon in November for a checkup, and he found a lump the size of a walnut, I thought it was a cyst,” she said. “He tried to aspirate it, then did a needle biopsy. Then the dreaded phone call came.  It was malignant.”

Following her doctor’s advice, she first had a lumpectomy last December to remove the tumor. A sentinal node dissection subsequently was done and several lymph nodes in her breast were diagnosed as malignant.

“In December and January I had a series of tests – CAT scans, bone scans, brain scans, blood work – and all came back negative,” she said. “I saw an oncologist, a radiologist, a plastic surgeon. I talked to other surgeons at Yale and Greenwich Hospital. The general consensus was that I had to have a mastectomy. It’s a very difficult time. You feel like the doctors have you half buried once the reports start to come in.”

But she wasn’t alone in her time of crisis. Besides her husband and her business partners, one of whom is a breast cancer survivor,  Chris Dzujna had the support of a St Vincent’s Medical Center “We Share” volunteer. Anne-Marie Thim, also a breast cancer survivor, helped Chris through her mastectomy surgery and many post-operative chemotherapy treatments with advice, compassion, and handholding.

“It would have been a lot harder without Anne-Marie,” Ms Dzujna said. “She was very calming and supportive. It was consoling to hear from someone who had been through this. She could translate all the technical terminology into layman’s terms.”

Ms Thim, a former president of St Vincent’s Breast Cancer Committee, was at Chris Dzujna’s side for both surgeries. Her support was also crucial for Ms Dzujna’s husband, who cared for his wife while dealing with his fears.

“Ann-Marie helped my husband tremendously. She sat with him while they waited for me to come out of surgery,” Ms Dzujna said. “She had such a positive attitude and was so uplifting.”

After the surgery, Chris Dzujna learned that the cancer was self-contained and had not entered her chest wall. But because the cancer had spread so quickly to the nodes, and because of her age, the doctors decided she needed aggressive chemotherapy.

“I’ve been through the most aggressive chemotherapy. A lot of patients call it the red devil because the drug is red,” she said. “I get a mixture of two drugs, cutoxan and adriamycin. I get very tired, weak, for days after my treatments. I feel like if I walk from one room to another, I need to take a nap. Ten days after the chemotherapy, if my white cells go down, then I am on an antibiotic for five days to build up the white cells. Then I have the next treatment.”

The drugs also caused her to lose her hair, so she promptly bought a wig to match her naturally red hair and went on with her life.

On April 25 she started her second regime, a drug called taxol.  She expects to lose the rest of her hair, including her eyebrows and eyelashes.

“I am prepared for it,” she said. “I want to stay positive. A support system is critical in surviving cancer, and a positive state of mind goes a long way in battling the disease.”

June 27 is the finish date for taxol, after which she will be mapped out for radiation. She has decided not to have reconstructive surgery immediately.

“If breast cancer returns, it usually comes back on the scar line,” she explained. “Women who have reconstructive surgery don’t have that scar line. So I intend to wait. My husband has been so supportive. He is a doll. If I decided never to do it, it wouldn’t bother him.”

When her treatments are completed, Ms Dzujna, a former St Vincent’s Foundation employee, also plans to join the “We Share” volunteer program to help other women battling breast cancer. It is important to have support in dealing with a serious illness that can strike without warning.

“My life is never going to be the same again,” Ms Dzujna said. “I always had lists, calendars. Now I live with short-term goals. I try to live for the day, to stay in the minute. We all know we will die, but when something like this happens, it is really in your face. But I have strong faith.”

As a breast cancer survivor, Chris Dzujna believes she has an obligation to reach out to other women, the way Anne-Marie Thim helped her.

“I don’t need attention, I don’t need stars, I don’t need to be a hero,” she insists. “But I do need to do everything I can to help other women. We need to educate women about breast cancer so more will survive.

“And we need to trust ourselves,” she said. “I just felt something was not right – and I was right.”

St Vincent’s “We Share” program is supported by Swim Across the Sound, an organization that underwrites more than 33 programs and services that help prevent cancer through education and early detection, as well as providing support to cancer patients and their families. For info about events or services, call St Vincent’s Foundation at 203-576-5451.