Breast cancer diagnosis served as wake-up call for local woman
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 31, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Rosalyn Lomax leads a group of children, including student Caroline Suddarth, left, in song during Mid-Week Manna at First Presbyterian Church earlier this month.
A debilitating case of vertigo and nausea led to Rosalyn Lomax being diagnosed with breast cancer.
"One physician had apparently noticed some lymph nodes and had inquired about the date of my next mammogram, so my own doctor scheduled an earlier mammogram," she said.
That was 2007. Mrs. Lomax, then 62, was diagnosed with DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ. It was detected by a combination of a mammogram, a biopsy and an MRI, she said.
She lost both parents to cancer, but there had been no history of breast cancer in her family.
Her own treatment plan included a mastectomy and removal of three lymph nodes. She said she considers herself fortunate that nothing was found in the lymph nodes and she did not require chemotherapy or radiation, but took the drug Tamoxifen for five years.
The retired English professor at Wayne Community College has been married to Fred Lomax for 46 years. The couple have three children, Fleming, a dancer with Asheville Ballet, and sons Fred IV and Matt, who live in Greensboro and Charlotte, respectively.
Mrs. Lomax has always been active in the community -- at her church, First Presbyterian, on the Community Soup Kitchen board, co-chair of its Chili Challenge this year, and participates in the Goldsboro Writers Group and in theater and music programs.
Her own cancer journey, though, served as an unexpected wake-up call.
"I truly believe God had prepared me for slowing down," she said. "The traumatic vertigo/nausea episode two months before the surgery brought me to a rare halt."
The hardest part was not going through her own battle, though, she said.
"My newlywed son broke his femur just a week before my diagnosis, and I couldn't be in Greensboro with him until the day after his emergency surgery because of some of my own tests," she said. "Seeing his suffering during the next weeks was far worse than enduring my own.
"My husband also had delicate eye surgery six weeks after my mastectomy. Our combination of crises was rather emotionally overwhelming for the whole family."
The experience turned out to be filled with many silver linings -- a new awareness of the power of prayer, reminders of the love and generosity of friends and family and the caring network of those who had gone through similar experiences.
Now 69, Mrs. Lomax has chronicled some of her experiences through poetry.
"'And the Fish Keep Swimming' is about my dazed reaction to the diagnosis as I stared at a computer screensaver with colorful fish that kept going despite the devastating news my husband and I were hearing, but it's also a reminder that life goes on all around us and for us as well, so we just keep going," she said. "Life goes on with the help of faith and family and friends. Being thankful for every day is a good idea, no matter what is happening."