Breast Cancer Survivor: Lesley White

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    LUKE REEDER
    Reporter
    NASHVILLE – Loving, caring,
    mom, Scrapper fan, all
    words that describe Lesley
    White but two words that
    truly describe her are fighter
    and survivor. White is a
    breast cancer survivor who
    can serve as an inspiration
    to not give up.
    It started in January of
    2008 when White noticed a
    knot in her left breast, “I had
    had a cyst in that same spot
    since I was 28 years old but
    I noticed it seemed bigger
    than it had been before.”
    But life and her duties as a
    mom got in the way of going
    to the doctor when she first
    noticed the difference in the
    knot. White said it was the
    middle of basketball season
    and her two children Hannah
    and Hunter were playing
    in pee-wee basketball
    so she decided to put off
    going to a doctor because it
    seemed that it was just the
    cyst and nothing else. But
    after basketball season came
    baseball and softball season,
    “Hannah and Hunter were
    really big into softball and
    baseball and during the summer
    Hannah’s team traveled
    a lot for softball so I just kept
    putting it off.” White said she
    drank cokes often and had
    been told that caffeine could
    irritate a cyst so she thought
    she had no reason to stress
    over the knot. “After softball
    ended Scrapper football
    season began and I had my
    yearly mammogram in October
    and I never missed my
    mammogram so I decided to
    just wait till then to have it
    checked out.”
    At her yearly mammogram
    White said she was
    told that something did not
    look exactly right and she
    then had to go back and
    get an ultrasound done to
    get a better idea what was
    happening. “During the ultrasound
    the tech brought
    in the radiologist to read the
    ultrasound and he told me
    that he would not say that
    it is cancer but whatever it
    was it needed to come out
    and he made me get a biopsy
    to see exactly what it was,”
    said White. Three days after
    the biopsy was done White
    went back to receive the
    news she had guessed, that
    the knot was cancer. White
    then opted to go to Dr. Dana
    Abraham in Little Rock, “I
    opted to go to Dr. Dana Abraham
    and she was great. She
    told me that it needed to
    be removed and gave me
    options on different ways to
    have it done and I told her to
    just do a double mastectomy
    because I was done having
    kids.” White is a Scrapper
    fan through and through
    and this trait shined bright
    when her surgery was being
    scheduled. White said that
    she plans everything around
    the Scrappers being in the
    finals at War Memorial, “The
    first date I was given just
    wouldn’t work because we
    would still be playing football
    and my second question
    was if the surgery happened
    on a Monday would I still be
    able to make it to the game
    on Saturday if the Scrappers
    were in the finals? That is
    when Dr. Abraham stepped
    in and asked if she heard
    me right, that I was scheduling
    breast cancer surgery
    around a football game and
    I had to explain to her that
    it wasn’t just football it was
    Scrapper football!”
    Throughout the entire
    diagnosis to the surgery and
    even afterwards White had
    a strong support system.
    Whether it was from her
    family, her friends, or the
    town of Nashville, White said
    she never stopped getting
    phone calls or encouraging
    cards, but one encounter
    that stood out was with her
    brother in law Bob White,
    “Bob asked me right after
    I was diagnosed called and
    said ‘What do you need me
    to do?’ and I said I need you
    to pray that through all this I
    will glorify God. That was my
    main concern that I would
    handle the situation in a way
    that glorified God and that
    was also my prayer throughout
    the whole process.”
    White’s faith in God
    helped her through her
    battle. The two things that
    bothered her were that she
    handled things in a way that
    glorified God and that she
    would be able to make it to
    see her kids through high
    school. She said she did not
    care if afterwards He still
    wanted her to sweep streets
    down here or sweep streets
    of gold as long as she was
    able to see her kids make it
    out of high school.
    The surgery took place
    on December 8, 2008. And
    then chemo started in February
    with six treatments
    in total three weeks apart.
    Even with chemo treatments
    White did not slow down,
    “On Wednesday I would go
    for a treatment and drive
    myself back to the doctor on
    Thursday for a shot to help
    build up my white blood
    cells and on Friday I would
    not be able to get off the
    couch that was my bad day.
    By Saturday and Sunday I
    was feeling better and on
    Monday I was back in the
    chicken houses working,”
    explained White. White said
    that even though it might
    sound weird having cancer
    may have been a blessing.
    It helped her realize that life
    is short and that she should
    not sweat the little things like
    if the dishes or laundry were
    done before she went to
    bed. She went on to say that
    she never missed anything
    her kids did and during this
    process it really brought it
    home how important things
    like family were, “We live in
    a very fast paced society
    and people may not take the
    time to tell you every day but
    going through this process I
    learned that people do still
    care and I learned the importance
    of things like family,”
    said White.
    White had advice for
    women who may be in her
    shoes and noticed an unusual
    knot but decided to
    put off getting it checked out
    because life is getting in the
    way at the moment, “Don’t
    ever put it off. I kept waiting
    and waiting and waiting and
    I have told many a person
    since then to go to the doctor
    now. If you suspect that
    anything at all is not absolutely
    normal all they can do
    is say that everything is fine.
    Just don’t put it off.”

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