Mrs. Myrtle Beeman was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1960 at the age of 36, just two months after her youngest child was born. At the time, she had five children from six years old to two months. While she was at a doctor’s appointment for her oldest daughter, who was suffering from a hernia, she mentioned to the doctor that she’d been bleeding for 6 weeks since her baby had been born. The doctor examined her and found a growth on her cervix. The doctors immediately sent her to UAMS in Little Rock to have the growth removed. Ironically, at the same time she was in the hospital, her daughter was in for her hernia repair surgery. Mrs. Beeman and her daughter stayed in the same room until the nurses found the little girl curled up in her mother’s bed for comfort. The daytime head nurse decided that this behavior was disruptive and would be prevented by moving the child down the hall away from her mother. Mrs. Beeman and her daughter were highly distressed at this turn of events. The little girl would cry for her mother at night and made her mother sick with worry since she could hear her down the hall. So the night nurses decided to move their beds into the same room at night and then move them back into separate rooms in the morning so the daytime head nurse would not know. Mrs. Beeman giggled as she told me this, saying that it was sneaky but it was the best for both of them.

After Mrs. Beeman had her surgery, her reproductive system was packed with a cobalt implant for several weeks. While she was having her treatments she stayed with an uncle that lived nearby and she would walk to the hospital each day during the week. On the weekends she would catch a bus back to Searcy and spend the weekend with her family. She recounted doing her normal chores that had piled up during the week, like housework and laundry. After her brief visit, she would then go back to Little Rock to continue treatments. When asked what side effects she felt while on her cobalt treatments, she answered that there was only one day she didn’t feel like walking, so she caught a bus. She told me that after the treatments she was not able to have any more children and the treatments threw her body into an early menopause.

While she was sick, her mother took care of her children. She commented on how proud she was of her 5 year old daughter who was such a big help in taking care of her baby brother, since her six year old sister was recovering from surgery, too. Her husband worked tirelessly helping with the children and going to work. She said times were hard for her family since they didn’t have insurance and her husband had a hard time finding a steady job.

About 7 years later, in 1967, she was going to have gallbladder surgery and in the pre-surgery testing they found a spot on her left lung. They diagnosed it as cancer, but not the same kind as before. It was decided that the bottom lobe of her left lung would also be removed while she was in surgery. After the surgery, she was required to take breathing treatments. The first time they brought the breathing machine into her room it malfunctioned and blew the medicine all over the room, scaring her and the staff. The doctors encouraged her to cough to keep the fluids in her lungs broken up. During the interview, she asked me a rhetorical question, “Do you know how hard it is to cough after lung surgery?” I had to admit that I didn’t, but I could imagine it would be very hard. Her doctor gave her some encouraging words. He said, “You have to fight this. God will give you the strength. Did you know that you were praying on the surgery table before you were fully asleep? I think God has answered your prayer, so fight!”

That leads us to the advice Mrs. Beeman gives to other young women and cancer patients that are going through their fight with cancer. She says, “Depend on God and He will help you get through it. Never give up!” She went on to say that her faith in God has helped her through many tough times in life. Mrs. Beeman loves being with her family and is thankful for all the help they have given her. She still helps her son with his cattle on the farm by riding her Kawasaki Mule ATV out into the field to count and check on the herd.

Mrs. Beeman said she wants to be a help to the American Cancer Society in any way she can. She does that by talking to other cancer patients in the hospital, giving them encouragement by telling her story and asking them to do what she did: FIGHT! She is looking forward to this year’s Relay for Life. She said it will be her fourth year to go and she will be proud to make the Survivor Lap again with her family cheering her on.