In 2009, her husband was killed.
In 2010, she lost everything in a house fire.
In 2011, when Carla Drayton of Belleville, Illinois found a nickel-sized lump in her breast, a health provider at a Belleville facility reportedly told the uninsured woman to ignore it.
“They told me that it was ‘tissue’ and sent me home with 800mg of ibuprofen,” Drayton said. “I kept telling them, ‘No, this is not tissue; it’s something wrong. It’s something there.”
She looked for other places to have the lump assessed further.
“Doors kept getting shut in my face everywhere I went or they wanted me to fill out a pamphlet which was really thick and they said it wasn’t a guarantee that I would get approved for any type of insurance in order to see what this lump is,” Drayton said. “No one would go into depth on what is this lump. It was in Belleville, it was in East St. Louis. It was everywhere.”
The lump was becoming more painful and she was becoming more prayerful.
Drayton said she woke up in the middle of the night and saw an American Cancer Society television spot about where to call if you had a lump or thought you had cancer.
“I gave them a call and told them the situation and they connected me with the Illinois health district in East St. Louis, and I wasn’t old enough to have a mammogram so they had to do a breast exam on me,” Drayton said. “They said if they find the lump I am speaking of, then it would go from there, the mammogram would be free.”
Drayton said the examiner felt the lump instantly.
That overnight public service announcement was the lifeline she needed to get health services and put to her in contact with the START NOW program, funded for the past six years by the St. Louis Affiliate of Komen for the Cure.
“START NOW means we want the women to get up and be more proactive and take better care of their breast health needs,” said breast health navigator Debra Custer.
Before its inception in 2008, there were significant groups of women who were not receiving breast health services in southern Illinois, Custer said, either because they didn’t know services were available or they didn’t have the money.
“Our program is to empower, educate and also make sure they are getting the services they need in a timely manner,” Custer added.
START NOW offers screening and diagnostic mammograms, patient navigation, and breast health education for underserved/uninsured individuals in Metro East including Madison, St. Clair and Clinton counties in Illinois.
“From that day forward from when I met Deb, she was there day 1; any step I had to go through, she was right there,” Drayton said. “I didn’t have family members here and we are all spread out, everyone in each state and it was really rough on me, so START NOW was just really awesome. They were more than an organization that just helps people with cancer, they are an organization to me that grew into a friendship.”
After a mammogram and biopsy, Drayton said one doctor told her she would need a mastectomy and in another six months, reconstructive surgery.
“I just didn’t want to go through it, I wanted to see if I could pray my way through it,” Drayton said.
And, at 35 years old, Drayton said she “didn’t want to walk around looking like a boy.” She eventually sought another opinion – this time in St. Louis.
As her boss recommended, she eventually contacted Dr. Lannis Hall at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Peters, Mo.
“They were just really awesome. I said, ‘Oh, that was a male’s point of view; let me get a woman’s point of view,’” Drayton said. “By the time I got through speaking with her she introduced me to [surgeon] Dr. Amy Syr.”
A diagnostic mammogram revealed cancer in both breasts. It was recommended she have a bilateral mastectomy.
Drayton said the male doctor who examined her in Illinois didn’t check the other side.
“It never dawned on him to check my other breast,” Drayton said.
“By the time anything happened, [the lump] was 95 percent of my breast, because it was very aggressive,” Drayton said, however, the cancer was still contained in the breasts with no spread to the lymph nodes.
She knew what had to be done, however, considering everything she had endured over the last couple of years, Drayton decided she would do nothing about the cancer at all and have no surgeries, letting nature take its course.
Her breast health navigator didn’t try to talk her out of it. Custer just asked Drayton to sleep on it.
“I encouraged her to think about things, gave her more information about breast cancer, what stage that she had and that this was something that basically she could recover from,” Custer said. “I just let her talk to me. If I can’t fix it or if I don’t have the resources within my organization, we have other links to organizations and resources to make sure they receive the services that they need.”
Custer’s attentiveness and support was a godsend to Drayton, who said she appreciated that Custer didn’t insist she do anything and let the decision be hers. By the next morning, Drayton had changed her mind.
On the morning of her surgery, Drayton’s prayer warrior friend, along with her spiritual mother and father from her church, Miracle Deliverance Temple in Cahokia, Illinois, were with her.
Drayton underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction using muscle and tissues from her stomach. One would think a built-in tummy tuck would be bonus byproduct of having to undergo such a radical procedure, but it comes with its own issues, like residual pain. Removing muscles from the abdomen force the remaining muscles to compensate and do work for which they were not initially intended.
“They were able to save my tattoos, praise God, because they remind me of who I am, my original,” Drayton said, “so it didn’t make me feel so bad.”
Drayton also had a less than pleasant experience in the hospital as well, thanks to an uncaring employee who Drayton said was harsh and unwilling to assist her in moving or tending to her basic body functions. Eventually a friendly, helpful nurse working on the next shift took the place of the inconsiderate worker, Drayton said. She– happened to be a minister’s wife.
When she was discharged from the hospital, women from her church took turns being at her side around-the-clock to get her through the roughest days.
Within about two months, Drayton was back on her feet, praising God for her life and talking to everyone she could about her experience with cancer.
Thanks to Komen funds, which come from community events, private and corporate support, Drayton paid nothing out of pocket for any of her treatment for breast cancer.
Drayton is now a spokesperson for the regional Illinois chapter of American Cancer Society, about the importance of breast health awareness, self-exams and getting mammograms and necessary follow-up care, if needed.
“The no show rate in our area is kind of high,” Custer said about clients they reach out to in the STARTNOW program. Some of the excuses she has heard from women includes, ‘‘I heard that a breast mammogram hurts,” “‘I just don’t have time,” or “‘I am taking care of other family members.”
“They are putting themselves on the back burner, and part of our empowerment is to make sure that they know if you don’t take care of yourself, who is going to take care of their family?” Custer asked. “ [We] help them understand how important they are in the family equation.”
For more information on the START NOW program in Southern Illinois, call 618-332-6130 or visit touchette.org/start-now.htm, or contact the Maryville Metro East Regional Office of the American Cancer Society at 618-288-2320.
