by PATRICK BABCOCK
Lifestyles Reporter

“I found it in the shower,” Rosalyn M. Arnold said.

After a trip to the doctor, a biopsy and a two-day wait, she got the phone call.

“At that point, I sort of knew,” she said.

Rosalyn was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago, which metastasized 15 months ago into her ovaries.

The event is held in celebration of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month each October.

The diagnosis came as Rosalyn’s daughter, Brittany M. Arnold, prepared to leave for college.

“She got the biopsy a few days after I graduated from high school,” Brittany, junior psychology major, said. “I was still able to be there when she got chemo and radiation.”

Brittany was thankful she had the opportunity to be involved in the procedures.

“Any time a parent is sick it really affects you,” Brittany said. “It was important for me to be involved… it feels like you can actually do something.”

Freshman Spanish major James R. Rickenbaker’s mother died from breast cancer 16 years ago.

“When she was originally diagnosed, I was six months old. I obviously was not cognizant of the fact that she had breast cancer,” Rickenbaker said. “She had a very rare strain of breast cancer, that only one percent of the women with breast cancer have. So that, naturally, was pretty devastating.”

Rickenbaker’s mother died of breast cancer before he was three years old.

“I do remember the day she died,” he said.

“She needed a radical mastectomy, and we hoped that that was all that we needed, but it had already spread to the lymph nodes,” he said. “She fought it for two years - her prognosis was six months.”

Early self-detection is the key to surviving breast cancer, which tends to be easily treatable when caught early, Rosalyn said.

“Know your body,” she said. “If you think that there’s something there, keep going until you get a good answer.”

Despite her struggles, Rosalyn made an effort to live her life fully through chemotherapy.

When she began chemotherapy, she bought a pair of knee-high green socks to wear every session until she was done, when she burned them.

“It made me more grateful,” Rosalyn said. “It made me worry less, which seems like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? And it slowed me down, which is probably a good thing.”

Rosalyn is a branch manager of a Credit Union and a stage manager for a theater production, but did not let the cancer change the way she approached the things about which she cared.

“She had chemo on Tuesdays,” Brittany said. “Wednesdays, she worked.”

“I feel like I’m basically stronger than I would have been after experiencing such a terrible event so early in my life,” Rickenbaker said.

But even in the face of adversity, his mother was still strong, he said.

“She became a lot more weak physically – spiritually, emotionally, she was a rock,” he said.  “She was very strong – to fight something like this for two years with a prognosis of six months is a testament to her strength.”

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