I thought she was a goner.

That January, my mom, Gale Hassell, writhed in pain in the neurological intensive care unit of Allegheny General Hospital. She’d been through two 12-hour surgeries to clear clots that blocked blood flow from her brain.

The doctors weren’t optimistic – her condition was unique – and my three teenaged sisters and I worried as events beyond our control unfolded.

She was awake the morning after the second surgery, but had a vacant look in her eyes as we explained we were her children.

“You poor things!” she said, not knowing who we were.

There isn’t a word that describes the feelings of sadness, fear, hopelessness and helplessness I felt then: My mom didn’t know she was my mom.

Even before that frightening moment, we’d been through a lot for four kids. Fewer than six months before her illness, my dad collapsed at the deli counter of Brookfield Giant Eagle and died of a massive heart attack.

A couple months after his funeral, my mom discovered the pencil-eraser-sized lump in her left breast that turned out to be cancer.

The subsequent chemotherapy brought her condition – lupus anticoagulant – to light, and she developed the blood clots.

As the 20-year-old “man of the house” I had to make life-and-death decisions for my mom. We opted to trust the doctors, whom we talked with several times a day – and to pray a lot.

Things turned out in our favor. Mom has made a full recovery – and found love and remarried, to boot.

The American Cancer Society recently named her one of its “Voices of Hope.” As such, Mom will be sharing her story at cancer society events in the months to come.

Having lived through it, I can attest to the power of her story. It’s concrete evidence that cancer is no longer a death sentence.

In the early 1980s, when my Aunt Alberta was diagnosed, the “C” word was dreaded and meant almost certain death. That’s not the case today.

Mom accepted her diagnosis without fear. She was already grieving after suddenly losing her husband of 22 years that hot August morning in 1995.

Without her life-partner around, my mom fought the cancer like she had nothing to lose.

A registered dietitian and self-described health nut, she sought treatment immediately. She constantly questioned and cajoled her doctors as they proceeded with treatment that included surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the latter of which is suspected of spurring the blood clots.

She thought she simply had the flu that January, but after a week of not feeling well and a weekend where she couldn’t get out of bed, my sisters and I carried her to the car to go to the emergency room. They treated her for the flu-like symptoms and it was only after a physician ordered a precautionary CT scan that the severity of her condition was discovered.

She was flown to Pittsburgh where neurosurgeons did two tedious angiograms to clear her blocked veins. She was incoherent and in severe pain for the better part of the week before Super Bowl XXX – the one the Steelers lost to the hated Dallas Cowboys.

I could have cared less about the game that week we spent at the hospital, watching Mom moan in pain when the morphine wore off and assuring visiting family, friends and people from our church that we thought she was going to be OK.

When they’d visit, her condition seemed grim and I know many feared her imminent death.

One morning we got the call to come to the hospital, without further explanation. We arrived to find mom in a “normal” room – and in a straight jacket.

“Thank God you guys are here! Help me get out of here, they’re holding me against my will!”

I remember the edge in her voice like it was yesterday. Mom was back!

She appeared to be fully recovered. The problem was she didn’t remember any of the things that led up to her being in a strange hospital an hour’s drive from home.

She thought she was imprisoned in a foreign country.

We filled her in about those events and convinced her she needed to listen to the doctors and cooperate with the nurses.

She made a slow but steady recovery – something the doctors in Pittsburgh and Sharon still marvel at – and was fine until April 2001.

I was living on my own then in Greenville when she called one afternoon with tears, choking her voice. She’d been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Here was go again, I thought, as I fretted about the future. It wasn’t until I started writing this account that I learned she planned her funeral before the abdominal surgery.

The morning we spent at Sharon Regional was gut-wrenching, but things went well and my mom pursued alternative treatments because of her adverse reaction to chemotherapy.

So far, it’s worked. Aside from short-term memory problems – at age 59 who knows what causes them – she’s made a full recovery and leads an active life, working part-time in the Wilmington Area School District cafeteria.

Mom’s been a cancer survivor for eight years. She’s found new love and been happily married to Doug Hassell for six of those years. They live in Volant.

She shares her story with anyone who will listen and is always ready to give a word of encouragement to others living through cancer treatment.

She’s also working to become a motivational speaker and learned a couple months ago that she’d been named a “Voice of Hope.”

As her son, I’m kind of biased, but she’s always been my beacon of hope. My family’s been through a lot these last 14 years. I’ve gone from being an aimless 20-year-old wannabe writer to a veteran reporter and my sisters have careers of their own. Mom has rebuilt her life and I feel her story is inspiring enough to share with Herald readers.

Her experiences prove that cancer – and other health problems for that matter – needn’t be a death sentence. Although I wouldn’t want to relive them, my mom’s cancer story bonded us as a family and taught me that life’s battles can be overcome – with medical advances, love and faith.

Tips from a Voice of Hope

As one of the American Cancer Society's Voices of Hope in 2010, Gale Hassell will be sharing her survival story at Relay for Life events and other ACS functions.

Here are some tips she has for those diagnosed with cancer:

�??? Keep a good attitude and remember that cancer is not a death sentence.

�??? Talk with your physician. Ask questions and take notes during appointments. Find out everything you can about the kind of cancer you have and the treatment options for it.

�??? Have a friend or family member accompany you to appointments to provide support. They may ask questions you might not think of.

�??? Keep a sense of humor throughout treatment. Remember there will be good days and bad days.

�??? Pray, pray, pray. Prayer works. I am living proof of that.

�??? �??? �???

Before Mrs. Hassell became a cancer survivor, she worked as a registered dietitian. Here are some health tips she�???s compiled:

�??? Drink 6 cups of green tea each day.

�??? Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and limit red meat consumption.

�??? Eat food rich in Omega 3 fatty acids including fish and flax seed.

�??? Always eat breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day. I recommend 1/2cup of oatmeal with 1/4 cup of ground flax seed, 1/4 cup walnuts and 1/ cup fat-free milk.

�??? Exercise at least 30 minutes a day.



E-mail Gale Hassell at: hassell1976@yahoo.com