Cancer patient takes message to center ice
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Nancy Sleeper pauses before singing the national anthem at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena in Rapid City on Friday, Feb. 10, 2010. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Journal staff) #nosale
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- Nancy Sleeper
- Interview with Nancy Sleeper, who sang at national anthem at the Pink at the Rink Rush game.
Nancy Sleeper hopes to save at least one life - preferably more.
"I'm shooting for a dozen," she said.
As a breast cancer patient, oncology nurse and woman, Sleeper encourages people to take control of their health.
"I want people to know if they suspect something, have it checked," she said. "Trust your intuition. Don't let your head get in there and muck it up."
That was her message Friday night, when Sleeper sang the National Anthem during the Rapid City Rush's Pink at the Rink night, a fundraising game that benefits Regional Cancer Care Institute. She also sang last year, nearly bald from her chemotherapy treatments.
Her hair is back now, but her battle isn't over.
The cancer is back.
Sleeper had a chemotherapy treatment Friday, then put on her pink Rush jersey over a "Puck Cancer" T-shirt, pinned a pink daisy into her blonde curls, and walked out onto the ice in front of the roaring crowd.
Sleeper nailed the high note, but off the ice, let some tears fall as she was surrounded by friends and Rush players bearing dozens of roses and a teddy bear with a Rush jersey.
On Thursday, Sleeper, who turns 46 in March, will undergo a mastectomy, during which doctors will also remove her ovaries as a precaution.
"None of this is going to save my life," she said. "It's really a matter of when. It could be next week, it could be several years. We don't know. But I know I want to be old enough to complain about my wrinkles."
Six days after her surgeries, Sleeper plans on being at the American Cancer Society fundraiser, Bras for a Cause, at Dublin Square in Rapid City.
Anyone who has watched Sleeper's battle with breast cancer in the past year has no difficulty believing that she will be up and around for the event, said Sleeper's friend, Heidi Hershly, formerly with the American Cancer Society in Rapid City.
"She's amazing," Hershly said.
Sleeper was 39 years old, working for an area lawyer in 2005, when she decided to fulfill a lifetime dream to work in medicine. She started by getting her license as a nursing assistant. For four years, she worked in a nursing home while at the same time serving as a caregiver for her husband's mother, who had cancer.
While working as a nursing assistant, Sleeper began her studies to become a nurse. She passed her boards on May 27, 2010.
It turned out to be a great day and awful day all rolled into one.
"I found out I passed my boards in the morning, and we found a lump in the afternoon," Sleeper says of the breast cancer that has become such a pivotal part of her life.
She got the official diagnosis 20 days after finding the lump, just a month after having a normal mammogram.
As she began treatment for the breast cancer - a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation - Sleeper decided to move forward with her nursing career. But her fragile immune system, a side effect of the chemotherapy, made working with sick patients difficult. A friend had a solution - there was an opening on the oncology floor of Rapid City Regional Hospital.
She arrived at the interview "uber bald" and started working with cancer patients shortly after, she said. She missed just one day during her courses of chemotherapy and radiation and said the job has kept her busy and happy.
"I love it," she said. "It's where all the cool bald chicks hang out ... I love cancer patients."
Hershly said patients clearly relate to Sleeper and find her enthusiasm and attitude contagious. "You give hope Nancy," Hershly said.
In July 2011, after nearly a year of treatment, doctors gave Sleeper a clean bill of health.
Sleeper immediately began preparing for her wedding to Dennis Whetzal. The couple, who have been together for 10 years, married on Oct. 1 in Rapid City.
Four days later, they left for their Mediterranean honeymoon.
During the cruise portion of the trip, Sleeper said she began noticing pains in her back. She assumed it was the ship's hard beds.
When she got back to her Rapid City home, she opted not to see a doctor right away, assuming it would go away. During that time, she also developed a rash on her breast.
When she did finally see her doctor, six weeks later, a cat scan showed "something funny." Further tests showed that cancer was either back or had never left and had eaten a hole in her sternum and affected the fourth rib.
The rash turned out to be a metastasis of cancer to the skin. "I'm poo pooing this away," she said. "I had never heard of skin mets."
While Sleeper tries not to dwell on the "what ifs," she can't help but wonder about those precious six weeks. Would it have made a difference in the course of her cancer, which is now considered incurable?
Sleeper said her own hesitation to listen to her instinct is pushing her to share her story.
"I want people to know if you suspect something, have it checked" she said. "Don't ever wait to see if it will ever get better."
Hershly, a five-time cancer survivor herself, chimes in with similar sentiments. "It's OK to get a second, third and even fourth opinion," she said.
Such a doctor visit could just save your life, Sleeper said. And that, after all, is Sleeper's ultimate goal.
"Shut your head off and listen to your body," she said. "And just go get it checked."
Contact Lynn Taylor Rick at 349-8414 or lynn.taylorrick@rapidcityjournal.com.
Read more: http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/cancer-patient-takes-message-to-center-ice/article_8313e042-5469-11e1-9063-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1m5X1iSp5
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