Published: October 14, 2009 11:41 pm      

Positive attitude, faith helped in Altoona teacher battle cancer

Doreen Fogle’s advice to women battling breast cancer is to have faith and maintain a positive attitude.

The 39-year-old wife and mother of three children was conducting one of her routine self-breast examinations in May when she noticed a lump in a breast.

Fogle, an Altoona resident and English teacher at Bishop Guilfoyle High School, went to her gynecologist, who ordered ultrasound and mammogram examinations. Those results came back as being suspicious.

A biopsy performed on the lump showed that the mass was cancerous.

The next step was finding a surgeon.

Fogle said she was not happy with the answers to her questions from the office of the surgeon she found, so she turned to her mother, Sharon Georg of Meyersdale, for advice.

Georg, a breast cancer survivor, suggested a surgeon in Johnstown or one at the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center in Windber. Fogle made an appointment with the surgeon in Johnstown.

In the meantime, Fogle said she had talked to many people about her disease and everybody recommended that she go to the breast care center.

Fogle said she did research about the center and its surgeon, Dr. Dianna Craig. Fogle and her husband decided that Craig would be the best choice because the doctor specializes in breast-cancer surgery.

Fogle asked her gynecologist to schedule an appointment for her with Craig. It happened to be the same day as the other appointment. She canceled the other appointment.

“It seemed to me that it was a sign from God that Dr. Craig was the right choice,” she said.

“And I have had no regrets.”

Fogle had a mastectomy in mid-June.

The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, and she is taking chemotherapy treatments at Altoona Hospital. After two more of those treatments, she will start radiation treatments.

Fogle said the doctor and nurses at the Joyce Murtha Center have become her friends.

“They really care about you,” she said.

Fogle said her husband of 19 years, Jim, has been her rock through her battle.

“This has brought us so much closer,” she said.

Their three children – Jimmy, 14, Tessa, 11, and Liz, 8, have been wonderful in helping her through her battle, she said.

Support from the remainder of her family, friends, co-workers plus students and their families, and her church, Trinity Lutheran Church in Altoona, also has been wonderful, she said.

“I wish that this had not happened to me, but so much good has come out of it,” she said. “It’s the outpouring of love that has come from everyone. That means a lot.”

Fogle said her advice to women battling breast cancer is to have faith and maintain a positive attitude.

“You just think about all the possibilities, and you sort of bounce back between being angry and devastated,” she said.

“But then there comes a point when you have to come to grips with it. This is what it is.

“You come to a point when you make peace with it. You accept that God will get you through it.”

Fogle is confident that she will recover fully.

“I have three incredible children,” she said. “I have every intention of being there when they learn to drive a car and of being there to take photos at their prom. I want to cry when they graduate, be there when they get married and become a grandmother.

“My grandmother is the best grandmother in the world, and I want to be that type of grandmother. That’s what I intend to do. My prognosis is that I will be here to do so.”

Fogle’s advice for people is that one never knows what can happen.

“Life can change in an instant,” she said.

“So I would encourage everyone to appreciate every moment. I would encourage them to spend time with their children and to not put off doing things that they want to do.”