Editor’s Note: October is breast cancer awareness month. This story is the first of a month-long series on breast cancer.
Vanessa Song Baban considers herself blessed and tries to make the best of every day she’s given.
Going through breast cancer made every day even more precious to the Evans woman. In February 2018, a sharp pain in her left breast jolted the then 55-year-old from a deep sleep.
“I’d never felt such pain,” said Baban, who recalled putting her hand to her left breast upon waking.
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Over the next few days, she wondered about the pain, checking to see if she could feel the culprit. It wasn’t long before she did indeed feel a lump.
She’d never had a mammogram; she never thought about breast cancer.
“I believe in taking care of my health. I play tennis, and I eat well,” said Baban, a Korean immigrant who has called Augusta home for about 50 years. “I wondered how could I get cancer?”
After she found the lump, she called her primary care physician who told her that pain was rarely associated with cancer but recommended a mammogram to be on the safe side.
“It was my first and only mammogram,” she said.
Not thinking she had cancer, she went to the appointment alone.
The next few days would be a whirlwind. At the appointment, they took multiple images, and then recommended an ultrasound. After that, they wanted to do a biopsy.
Baban said she didn’t worry.
“They kept saying they didn’t know,” she said.
On March 19, 2018, she met with a breast surgeon, Dr. Alicia Vinyard. Baban had a definitive answer — not one but two tumors, both cancerous. One tumor was HER2-positive: the other HER2-negative. The diagnosis was invasive ductal carcinoma.
“No lymph nodes were cancerous,” Baban said.
Baban had options and chose a double mastectomy.
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She said she had known women who had only one breast removed and years later the cancer recurred. She didn’t want to risk it.
Before she had the surgery, however, Baban underwent a type of chemotherapy referred to as the Red Devil.
“I was supposed to do six rounds of chemotherapy,” she said. “But I almost died twice. The chemo was so harsh.”
Baban never went alone to her chemotherapy sessions. She always had at least six friends with her. Having them there made the time go by easier. Her daughter, Hannah Rogers, came home from Clemson University to be with her mom. She never returned and is finishing up her master’s degree in nursing at Augusta University.
Baban tried to reach out to others who were having chemotherapy when she was. She said she hated to see people there alone.
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Baban had long black hair, but she lost it all during chemo. She said it didn’t affect her as much as people thought. She tried to look for the positive in her hair loss. She found it. When she was sick, she didn’t feel like caring for her hair anyway. Bald, she had one less thing to worry about, she said.
After five rounds of chemo, her doctor told her that she was done. There wasn’t a magic number, and her body had said ‘Enough.’ That was in July 2018.
When her appetite returned, Baban said she drove down Washington Road and hit as many fast-food places as she could. She just wanted to eat.
“I had a good time eating,” she said, laughing.
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In September, she had an 18-hour DIEP Flap surgery which combined her double mastectomy with her reconstruction. Doctors were able to save her skin and nipples. While one surgeon removed the breast tissue, another surgeon removed abdominal fat. A third physician worked to connect the blood vessels.
“I got a flat stomach and perky boobs,” she said.
She chronicled her cancer journey through a Facebook page called Vanessa’s Journey AKA Kicking Cancer’s Butt.
“I want to be very transparent,” she said. “If I can help someone by opening up.”
That October, she formed a team for the Miracle Mile Walk, a fundraiser for University Health Care System’s mobile mammography unit. She had to be carried across the finish line, but she completed the event, raising the second highest total that year.
She’s three years cancer-free and has a new lease on life.
“I think I’m more compassionate now,” she said.
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Baban volunteers with Augusta Health’s patient and family advisory councils, and she delivers meals-on-wheels. She took up golf, a sport she loves, but admits she’s not very good at. And at the end of 2020, she married her longtime partner, Dr. Babak Baban.
“Every day is a good day,” she said.
Even though she’s cancer-free, she still has lasting effects of the chemo. Parts of her body have chronic pain, and she has neuropathy.
“I’m not 100 percent, and that’s OK. I make the best of it,” she said.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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