My name is Don Burrows. The woman in the photo is my wife, Karin. She wanted me to take a shot of her just before one of her radiation treatments. When you look at the photo, please turn your head so she is laying on her back.
In August, 2004 I was out of the country on business when Karin found the lump. On her birthday. She went to the doctor that day, and he said that he was not as concerned with the lump as he was with the mass he could feel beneath it.
I was home the next day and we began an 18 month marathon. Karin was diagnosed with BRCA-II and agreed to be part of a research study to learn more about the disease.
She had one round of chemo, then a double mastectomy, then radiation, then some more chemo.
Because of the BRCA-II and because she is of Swedish extraction, the oncologyst strongly recommended she have an oopherectomy after her body had recovered from the previous regimine.
The reason he wanted her to have the oopherectomy is that for people (men and women) with her history, there was a significant - I think it was 85% - likelihood that the cancer would reappear "down there." And then she would really be in trouble.
She had the ooph.
It is now August, 2009 and Karin just CELEBRATED her 65th birthday amid family, friends and three of the five grandkids (all of whom are boys.)
The reason I selected the picture is because I love the determination, the grit, in her eyes.
Marysville, WA
