Goessel woman takes different path in battle against cancer
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, Leann Toews knew one thing: It was her body, and she would decide what kind of treatment she'd receive.
It's now 2002, and Toews has been free of cancer for five years.
"I've been clean ever since," she said. "I feel really blessed."
This Friday, Toews and dozens of others who've fought cancer and won will participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. The relay beings Friday night at 7 and continues through the next morning at the Marion High School track.
But Toews, who lives in Goessel, will be the first to admit that she hasn't taken the ordinary route in her battle with cancer.
Then again, her family's encounters with the disease haven't been exactly typical, either.
Toews' family has known what it's like to face cancer — she's had aunts, uncles, and friends who faced it but ultimately lost the battle. Her grandmother died from breast cancer when she was 52.
And Toews, too, was 52 years old when her doctor, Stephen Cranston, told her that the lump in her left breast was malignant.
At the time, Toews was teaching English, forensics, and drama at Goessel High School. Her husband, Jerry, also taught at GHS, and her two daughters, Katrina and Annikan, were students at Bethel College.
One of Katrina's roommates was the daughter of an Iowa doctor, and the Toews family asked him for advice in dealing with the cancer. He referred them to Dr. Rudy Falk, a physician outside Toronto, Ontario, who specialized in alternative methods of treating cancer.
Toews was interested, and she and her husband made plans to travel to Canada. But first, she underwent surgery to remove the tumor. Cranston took out the tumorous growth, and he also removed 22 lymph nodes under her arm. Two of them were malignant, she learned later.
At this point in the treatment of cancer, most individuals would undergo intense chemotherapy and radiation to make sure the cancer is gone.
Toews took a different route — with the approval of Dr. Cranston, she and Jerry flew to Canada for treatment with Dr. Falk.
"You have to decide what's best for you," Toews said.
They traveled to Canada three times, at six-week intervals, for Toews to get treatment. She was given very low doses of chemotherapy along with a special kind of acid — hyaluronic acid — that some doctors believe targets the chemo directly to the tumor.
She also took anti-inflammatory steroids and underwent microwave treatments.
Because the chemo dose was so low, Toews didn't experience any negative side effects — none of the nausea, hair loss, or weight loss that normal cancer patients undergo.
And because of that, Toews kept plugging through her normal schedule of teaching part-time at Goessel High. Toews was determined not to let cancer interfere with her existence, even when that meant going to her afternoon classes with a drainage bag under her arm after the initial surgery.
"I didn't want to disrupt my life in any way," Toews said.
January of 1998 came, and her treatments were complete. Toews then returned to Goessel, where another doctor, Jorge Wong (now practicing in Newton), convinced her to undergo traditional radiation treatment.
She spent some time considering the decision — after all, it was her body — and then went ahead with six weeks of radiation at the Halstead hospital.
And Toews has been cancer-free since. She undergoes yearly checkups and mammograms to make sure the cancer hasn't returned.
After all, it was a mammogram that initially detected the cancer, Toews said.
Through her entire experience, Toews learned much about the way people deal with cancer — and the way people view those fighting cancer.
From the very beginning, Toews made it a point to be up-front with her illness. She got up in front of her church family to tell them the situation and ask for their prayers. She found talking very therapeutic, she said.
Some well-intentioned people sometimes find themselves feeling awkward around cancer patients, not sure of what to say. So she appreciated the candor of her teen-aged students.
"Teen-agers don't have that social stigma," Toews said.
Although Toews' experience with alternative medical treatment was a success, she realizes that it's not an option for everyone. The costs of alternative treatment aren't usually covered by insurance, she said.
"People without the means don't have this as an option," she said.
On a sad note, Rudy Falk passed away in March of 1998 — just a few months after Toews' treatments with him ended.
"His practice ended with his death," she said.
Ultimately, a person facing cancer must make his or her own treatment decisions, Toews said.
"You have to decide what's best for you," she said. It should be an individual choice."
