In 2022, when Iris Bugbee, MS, CCC-SLP, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 34, she had a lot to think about besides cancer. Working full time as a speech language pathologist and caring for her then-two-year-old daughter, Mila, occupied her days. She took nearly six weeks off for surgery, but she worked throughout the rest of her treatment, just reducing her hours.
Bugbee, who lives in Fuquay Varina, North Carolina, and was treated at Duke Women’s Cancer Care Raleigh, fit radiation appointments in between patients. She works with adults and older people who have speech or swallowing issues. “I would go to work, travel to Raleigh, and then come back and see the rest of my patients,” she said. “I was going through treatment and doing what I could for my patients and then what I could as a parent at home. I didn’t think a whole lot about my own treatment or diagnosis.”
One year after her mastectomy, when a nurse called asking if she’d be willing to participate in a clinical trial of a new, structured support program for young adult cancer survivors, Bugbee said yes. She wanted to get stronger physically, and she saw it as a good way to get motivated. She had exercised regularly before surgery but had not been exercising at all since. She had developed cording syndrome (inflammation, scarring, and hardening of the tissue that can happen as a side effect of surgery), and she was having trouble with range of motion in her right arm. Cleaning, picking up her daughter, and even typing at work were challenging. T
The program encouraged her to plan and set goals, to start slowly to regain strength and to go easy on herself. “When I started this program that’s when I began walking and stretching and building off of that,” she said.
The sessions also helped Bugbee begin to process all that happened to her. She said that the support group, which was held online, felt less like a mandatory class and more like a chat with her peers. “It was nice to see the perspective of other cancer survivors who are in the middle of this part of their life – raising a family or in the middle of their careers,” she said. “Hearing everyone’s experiences and their challenges made me feel like, ‘Okay, yeah, I’m not the only one.’ The two psychologists who ran the support program were inviting and gentle, and they just made you want to share."
The clinical trial was led by Caroline Dorfman, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Duke Cancer Institute. Read more.
This article was originally published in the Fall 2024 Breakthroughs. Read more about DCI's breakthrough research and patient care in this biannual magazine.
