‘Besides early treatment, positive attitude also helps defeat disease’

A breast cancer survivor underscored the importance of having a positive attitude in dealing with and overcoming the disease.

“You want to keep up that really positive attitude because that is a way to heal. It isn’t just medicine or anything else. It’s your mental attitude that helps you heal faster,” said Clarie S. Kosack.

Kosack, a yoga instructor who was a guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Saipan regular membership meeting yesterday, related how she went back to teaching at their studio despite the fogginess brought by her chemotherapy sessions.

“By the end of the class, I felt so much better and it’s a real example of what physical activity can bring you. I feel better physically, I feel better mentally.”

Kosack, who gets annual mammograms, recounted how she skipped the critical examination in 2005.

In 2006, Kosack felt “a lump and a little pain” in her left breast. She thought it was just because her husband, lawyer Rex Kosack, accidentally jabbed her in that area “when he was talking and gesturing freely.”

“By December 2006, I finally went and had a biopsy done and the results came back positive,” she said.

Kosack, who was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of cancer, was shocked by the findings because she lived healthy by eating right, doing a lot of exercise, not smoking, and “hardly” ever drinking.

“At the same time, I wasn’t too shocked because my mother had breast cancer,” she added.

Kosack refused to get hysterical when she found out about her breast cancer, which was already on its second stage. “When you get the news that you have a life-and-death illness, you don’t have time to cry and say, why me? You go into action right away.”

Kosack said she and Rex decided to go in the University of California, San Francisco since it is one of the top 10 breast cancer centers in the U.S.

Kosack went through three surgeries: lumpectomy, bilateral mastectomy, and reconstruction. She also had six sessions of chemotherapy and one year of herceptin injections.

To keep herself busy during treatment, Kosack did most of the cooking at her in-laws’ house where they stayed.

Kosack disclosed that she also went hiking and kept a journal detailing what happened each day during her treatment.

“If I didn’t keep a journal, I would have forgotten everything. The human brain has a tendency to forget,” she added.

Kosack said the journal, which also contained stick figure drawings, became a book, A Yogini’s Cancer Journey, which was published by the Commonwealth Cancer Association through funding from the Comprehensive Cancer Control Program of the Department of Public Health.

The book, Kosack said, is now used for CCA’s community outreach efforts.

Kosack also emphasized that breast cancer is one of the most curable cancers “if you find it in the early stages.”

“It’s very, very curable but ladies, you have to do mammograms and self-exams. If you see anything unusual, you immediately have a checkup. You want to encourage the ladies in your family to do likewise,” she said.

Kosack said that statistics shows that one out of eight women in the U.S. will get “one type or another” of breast cancer, adding that only 1 percent of men get breast cancer.

“The mortality rate is higher in women,” she added.