Wasserman Schultz reveals cancer secret

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) revealed over the weekend that she has been successfully treated for breast cancer — all while serving in Congress, campaigning for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and being a mom. From the Miami Herald:

Wasserman Schultz, 42, a mother of three from Broward County, Fla., said Saturday that she successfully battled breast cancer for the past year — and is going public with her story in hopes of alerting young women to its prevalence. She’ll introduce legislation Monday that calls for a national media and education campaign targeted to women between 15 and 39.

"I wanted to be able to not just stand up and say ‘I’m a breast cancer survivor,’ … I wanted to find a gap and try to fill it,” said Wasserman Schultz, who underwent seven major surgeries, including a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery while balancing motherhood, Congress and her roles as a chief fundraiser for House Democrats and popular political surrogate, first for Hillary Clinton and then, Barack Obama.

"I had a lot going on last year,” she said with a laugh, sitting in the living room of the Capitol Hill townhouse she shares with two other members of Congress while she’s in town. "I’m a very focused, methodical person and I wasn’t going to let this beat me. I wasn’t going to let it interfere with my life.” …

Her bill calls for a national education campaign, aimed at informing young women about the risks and encouraging them to conduct routine self exams. It also would give grants to organizations that help younger women with fertility counseling and body image.

Wasserman Schultz discovered a lump in her breast through a self exam, two months after her first mammogram at 40. Though the cancer was detected at an early stage, she also learned that as an Ashkenazi Jew, she was at a greater risk of having the cancer recur in healthy breast tissue, prompting her to have both breasts removed. She was also at increased risk of ovarian cancer and had her ovaries removed — the day after election day. Her final surgery was in December — almost a year to the date of her diagnosis.

Because the cancer was caught so early, she didn’t have to go on chemotherapy or radiation but will have to take the cancer drug Tamoxifen for the next five years.

She told only a few people she was sick, and didn’t even tell her kids the full details:

She said she decided to keep her cancer private, mostly concerned that her young children (then 8-year-old twins and a four-year-old daughter) would worry needlessly, particularly with a mother who was also constantly on the go. They knew she was undergoing surgery — but she didn’t tell them the cause.

"I knew from my doctors that if I went through their recommended course of treatment that I would get through it and I’d be fine, that I could come out the other side and confidently tell my children, `Mommy’s fine,”’ she said. She planned to tell them Saturday night.

She scheduled her treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Maryland, during congressional recesses, so as not to miss votes in Congress.

And she says that keeping her illness to a small circle of family and friends allowed her to "maintain control” over a situation that she couldn’t control.

"I didn’t want it to define me,” she said. "I didn’t want when you wrote a story about me, I would become `Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is battling breast cancer,” she said. "I didn’t want that to be my name because I knew I was going to be fine.”