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At 8:15 a.m. in a studio classroom at the University of Maine’s Class of 1944 Hall, walls of waving mirrors reflect students dancing in synchronized movements. The dancers are quiet, but the beat of instructional music and shifting feet bellow off the metal ceiling. One girl stands out in the crowd, a yellow Livestrong bracelet wrapped around her wrist and a pink bandanna covering her head. Lacy Greenlaw has more steps than Ellen DeGeneres when dancing and more to think about than four-day chemotherapy treatments. She’s got school, dancing, cooking and friends on her mind.
Chemo, Greenlaw will tell you, has one great benefit: She no longer has to think about shaving her legs.
Greenlaw’s cancer was diagnosed April 9, 2004, just days before her 19th birthday. Severe lower back pain led her to seek treatment. After two misdiagnoses, a morning MRI discovered a grapefruit-sized mass in her pelvis. Ewings sarcoma is a rare form of bone cancer that generally forms in the pelvic bones, in the middle of the long bones of the legs or arms, or in the chest near the ribs. It is caused by chromosomal changes that occur after birth.
In the first week of May, Greenlaw began two chemotherapy regimens. The four-day treatment requires Greenlaw to remain in the hospital. Though treatments are scheduled every three weeks, they are performed about every four weeks when her white blood-cell count is high enough to fight infection effectively. Blood work is done weekly to determine the count. Another treatment takes just two days and is performed as an outpatient procedure.
Greenlaw is currently in cycle 12 of 14 scheduled chemo treatments. Chemotherapy drugs decrease the chance the tumor will spread or grow in other areas of the body, such as the lungs or bone marrow. She hopes to complete the treatments before the beginning of her junior year.
In September 2004, Greenlaw began radiation treatments while starting her second year at UMaine, where she majors in communication sciences and disorders. For 15 minutes everyday, Greenlaw received radiation to reduce the size of the tumor. In December, radiation treatments ended, and the mass is currently about one inch in diameter. Greenlaw has a CT scan every two weeks to monitor the tumor.
“I would have gone crazy if I stopped school,” Greenlaw said. “Being in school and being with friends keeps me busy. It makes me feel like I’m not always in the hospital.”
Nevertheless, she said school is more difficult now. Greenlaw gets colds easily and misses many classes. Her professors have found ways to work around her four-day absences during her chemotherapy treatment.
“Last semester was very hard, and last spring, when I had to leave school early after the diagnosis,” Greenlaw said.
She missed the end of the semester, including final exams. Doctor’s notes and the completion of course work over the summer staved off academic probation.
Between chemo and academics, Greenlaw gives herself a break. A self-proclaimed addict of the Food Network on television, she occasionally steps into the kitchen and pulls together a meal idea from one of the shows.
“I love to cook,” she said.
Food is not an issue for Greenlaw, unlike many other chemotherapy patients. In the beginning, she would get nauseous after treatments, now medication controls that. Greenlaw says that she now gets cravings for French fries and mashed potatoes after treatment.
“Surprisingly, the hospital French fries are pretty good,” she said.
An online introductory food science and nutrition course has prompted her to change her major to food science and nutrition.
“I want to go to culinary school and open a specialty foods store,” she said
At the Bagel Central in Bangor, she and her friend Emily Klemenz eat lunch each Monday after their afternoon math class.
“Their cannolis are really good,” she said.
Klemenz drives Greenlaw home from class most days after a short walk to the parking lot filled with talking and laughter.
“Emily has been my saving grace,” she said.
Greenlaw wears her pink bandanna to class, to lunch and everywhere else she goes. She is comfortable with how she looks, although she said it’s funny not having hair.
“People who don’t understand are most uncomfortable with it,” Klemenz said. “She had long, thick hair. I would wash her hair and the clumps would just fall out.”
“Losing my hair was the hardest part,” Greenlaw said. “It made it so real.”
Greenlaw sometimes walks down store aisles smelling the different shampoos. “I can’t wait to buy shampoo again,” she said. “I thought about buying a wig, but they’re expensive and uncomfortable. And it gives me more to look forward to when my own hair comes back. When I was losing my hair I didn’t even want to look in the mirror. My mom would always tell me I was beautiful.”
Greenlaw’s prognosis is good. Chemotherapy and radiation have suppressed the cancer cells.
“I will be glad when it’s over,” she said.
She said she looks forward to a big party when the end does arrive.
“I used to be a pessimist,” Greenlaw said. “Now I don’t look on the down side of things.”
Greenlaw is optimistic. She will begin her junior year in the fall and is already excited to get back to normal college life.
“I’m very excited,” she said. “It will be nice to come back to school and not worry about treatments, hopefully.”
Bangor Daily News