Sara Gelser - Sarison Communications + Design

24
Reconstructing
a body
Rebuilding a life
by Heather Burton
What a difference a year can make. Last fall
and winter it was doctor appointment
after doctor appointment; chaos, stress
and big decisions. This year, normalcy—
family dinners, kids’ homework, playing in
the back yard and laying low. For Corvallis
resident Alisa Schoening it was goodbye
cancer, hello family fun.
Schoening, 36, mother of Zachary, nine
and Katarina, three was diagnosed with
breast cancer in June of 2007. With no
family history and only in her 30s, the
unexpected challenge turned her
life—and her family’s life—upside down.
“I did self-checks every once and a while
not thinking I’d find anything, and I
remember wondering, ‘what exactly am I
looking for?’” says Schoening. “I once asked
my gynecologist and she told me if there
was a tumor, it would feel like a rock.”
Schoening instantly remembered that
analogy early last year, when an itch
caused her to brush her breast and she
felt, what she remembers vividly, as a
rock-like lump.
That split-second discovery would
ultimately lead to a cancer diagnosis and
many months of appointments,
treatments and recovery.
“First I had a lumpectomy and then
chemo,” says Schoening. “Then I had a big
decision to make—either start radiation or
have a mastectomy. I chose to have a
double mastectomy with reconstruction. I
wanted to put all this behind me.”
During her surgery at Good Samaritan
Regional Medical Center, two surgeons
worked simultaneously during the four
hour-long procedure. Dr. David Faddis, a
cancer specialist, removed her breast
tissue while plastic surgeon Dr. Todd
Willcox implanted expanders that would
be used to slowly expand the skin
covering her breasts for future implants.
“I will tell you that when I woke up, I was in
a lot of pain,” recalls Schoening. “I
remember wondering if I had made the
right choice. But the pain went away and
the decision I made turned out to be the
right one.”
After the surgery, Schoening regularly
visited Dr. Willcox at Samaritan Plastic &
Reconstructive Surgery in Corvallis to have
her expanders filled with saline until they
reached the right size for a silicone
implant to be inserted. And on many of
her visits, one or both kids came along for
support.
“Alisa is an amazing woman and a great
mom. She’s always positive and never let
her cancer change her sunny outlook on
life,” says Cathy Boertje, Dr. Willcox’s
medical assistant. “Every time she came
into the office, we enjoyed her and
especially those adorable children of hers.”
“Katarina would come with Alisa when she
would regularly have solution injected
into the expanders,” continues Boertje.
“She did great seeing the needles and put
everyone here in the office in a great
mood with her cute personality.”
Schoening says nine-year-old Zachary did
really well during her experience because
they could talk openly and he understood
what was happening. She fondly
remembers how much he loved to rub her
bald head every night before bed. But, for
Katarina, many sympathy “tummy aches”
accompanied her mom’s battle and as for
the hair, she had a different perspective.
“She told me daddy was not allowed to cut
my hair again,” chuckles Schoening.
Schoening had her final surgery last May
to replace the saline solution that had
slowly expanded her breast skin with