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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011

PAINTING LENAWEE PINK

THE DAILY TELEGRAM, ADRIAN, MICHIGAN

SURVIVOR PROFILE: STEPHANIE WEYENBERG

By Renee Lapham Collins
Daily Telegram Special Writer

Telegram photo by Renee Lapham Collins

Stephanie Weyenberg, who is now cancer-free, stands in the doorway of her downtown Adrian store, Maple City Floral/Vine Street Flower Shop.

ADRIAN Stephanie Weyenberg didnt have a family history of breast cancer, she had breast fed all three of her children and shed never had an abnormal mammogram. When I was a young mother, I learned that breast feeding greatly reduces any chance of breast cancer, she recalled. We had no cancer history in my family. So when Dr. Abdul Arshad at Bixby Medical Center told her she had cancer, I was shocked. Weyenberg, owner of Maple City Floral/ Vine Street Flower Shop in downtown Adrian for the last 19 years, had an eraser-sized tumor on her right breast and a mass on the left side measuring 2.4 centimeters or about an inch. A biopsy revealed the mass on the right side was a rare granular cell tumor, which, Weyenberg said, is usually benign. Dr. Arshad said he wanted to take the (benign) tumor out because he didnt want to find out in five years that he should have done it, Weyenberg said. When I went back after the surgery, I wasnt prepared for them to tell me I had cancer on both sides. Weyenberg remembers her husband wasnt with her at that first appointment because they weren't expecting a cancer diagnosis and I tried to zone in on what the doctor was saying, but it took some digesting. I didnt feel any different from December, when Id had the first mammogram, to that moment,

she said. I had been in relatively good health and I felt fine. Sentinel markers revealed that while the cancer had not spread any further on the right side, it had spread into the lymph nodes in her arm. She had a lumpectomy to remove all the tumors and the affected lymph nodes. Then I went to see Dr. (Rex) Mowat to start my chemotherapy, she said. Its bizarre how bad I felt when chemo started, then I lost my hair. But I didnt allow myself to have any pity parties. Weyenberg, a Grand Rapids native, moved to Adrian when she married her husband Martin 41 years ago. The Weyenbergs have three children; Adam and Bethanne Weyenberg live in Tennessee with children Max and Macy while daughter Erin and her husband Joe live with their son, Eden, in Adrian. Youngest son Bret and his girlfriend Courtney Taft round out the Weyenberg clan. In 2008, Weyenberg participated in Paint the Town Pink and discovered the health department offered free mammograms for women without insurance. My husband had lost his job

and health insurance so I went to the health department in December and they sent me to Bixby for my mammogram, Weyenberg said. Bixby called me the next day to get a repeat mammogram. She was officially diagnosed in May 2009 and finished her treatments nearly a year later, on April 2, 2010, which happened to be Good Friday. I renamed it Great Friday, Weyenberg said. She had all of her treatments at the Hickman Cancer Center and said it was the best experience. They are great there, Weyenberg said. They are all just fabulous. Throughout her treatment, Weyenberg said she worked to stay positive. Staying positive is key, she said. For whatever reason, I had cancer and I had to use my energy to get better so I turned my why me? into why not me? I had a phenomenal support system friends, family, church, my fellow downtown merchants and neighbors. Today, Weyenberg is participating in a clinical trial and is cancer-free. She is a strong advocate for mammograms and encourages women to get them regularly. I was just walking with a couple of neighbor ladies the other day and I asked them if theyd had their mammograms, Weyenberg said. One had just had hers and the other was planning to schedule one. Im all about mammograms.

HOPE for a CURE!

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