Bigger Than Pink!

FOREWORD

BY

Larry J. Geier, MD
Medical Oncologist

I first met Lori Lober in 2003 at a symposium focusing on the prevention and early detection of breast cancer.   She was one of many women there that day, many of whom were breast cancer survivors.  But for some reason she stood out among the crowd, and her questions and comments after my presentation were right on the money and greatly appreciated.  We both came away from that encounter with the feeling that, “Gee, he/she really gets what this is all about.”  I knew that she and others had created the “Touched By Cancer Foundation” in Kansas City to help current and future cancer patients in a variety of ways, and I sensed in her a level of energy and commitment that I couldn’t help but admire.  However, I really had no idea until I read this book just how admirable a woman she truly is.

On the surface, the book is an accounting of her trials and tribulations in fighting Stage IV breast cancer, including the things that went wrong, and the things that went right.  Since her cancer was invisible to the mammogram, there was an unfortunate delay in her diagnosis.  She had difficulty identifying a team of doctors with whom she could communicate in the way that she wanted, and that she could trust would be providing aggressive state-of-the-art care.  But ultimately she achieved an amazing result, in that she is cancer-free now four years out from her diagnosis.  That accomplishment is remarkable in itself, no matter what the path to get there.

But this book is much more than a mere chronicle.  It is a window into the person Lori really is, a woman with great spirit, and a remarkable will to survive.  She didn’t just beat the odds to get where she is today, she refused to accept those odds, and was determined to do whatever it took to give herself the best chance to beat the cancer.  This included not only the best and most aggressive therapy that traditional or “Western” medicine had to offer, but also a combination of complementary types of treatment not routinely used in cancer care.  Among these were such things as acupuncture, reflexology, herbal medicine, colonic cleansings, and therapeutic touch and massage.

Most of us American-trained physicians know little or nothing about these alternative treatment modalities, and tend to have a certain level of mistrust of them because they don’t seem sufficiently “scientific” for our liking.  That usually means that we haven’t yet figured out a way to measure them scientifically, and thereby “prove” a cause and effect relationship between the treatment and a beneficial outcome.  In my opinion, we even tend to be somewhat arrogant in our view, daring to call what we do with surgery and medicines “traditional,” while designating treatments that have been used successfully for centuries as “alternative.”  Some of us are perhaps more open-minded, and prefer to “integrate” the best of both worlds whenever possible, for the maximum benefit of the patient.  I certainly don’t claim to adequately understand how some of these modalities work, but I have indeed seen them work in many patients--.helping to control pain, to relieve stress, to improve nutritional state, to maintain energy, and to apparently bolster the immune system.  I honestly don’t know if they help to fight the cancer directly in some way we can’t yet define, but I know all too well the limitations of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, and frankly, I can use all the help I can get.  I do prefer to know when my patients are considering such therapies so that I can help to guide them the best I can, but I know I still have much to learn.  To that end, this book has been quite helpful, and I have learned much from Lori’s descriptions of the various treatments she included in her program, why she chose them, and the benefits she received.  It might be that a different combination would be effective in different patients, but these are surely a good place to start.

Presumably you are reading this book because either you or someone you care about is battling cancer.  If so, I believe you will find it to be both instructional and inspirational, a rare combination.  Lori alludes to Lance Armstrong and how she found his book to be inspirational to her, but I believe if their positions were reversed, he would say the same thing about her writings.  Lori once asked me if I thought she was truly a “cancer survivor” since she had Stage IV disease and is still taking active therapy.  No one can say for sure whether she is truly “cured” or is living in harmony with her disease, but it is certainly true that for some people cancer is best viewed as a chronic illness requiring chronic management.  Either way, in my view Lori is the absolute personification of the phrase cancer survivor.  I find her spirit and determination, her ability to integrate the best of traditional and alternative medicine, tailored to her own needs, and her willingness to give to others without hesitation, all to be remarkable, admirable, and truly inspiring.

Larry J. Geier, MD

Medical Oncologist