Time to heal -- Breast cancer survivor finding balance

Jan. 29—Angela Crook has had the same daily routine for nearly 40 years.

It's a simple routine, according to the owner of City Slickers salon in Beckley.

"I have worked until at least 8 o'clock every night," she said. "I'm a workaholic."

Crook calls what she does — cutting, coloring and styling hair for area residents — work, but said it's never really felt like that.

"I love what I do," she said. "Somebody asked the other day, 'If you had your dream job, what would it be?'

"I said, 'I'm doing it.'"

That's why, Crook said, it was especially difficult when a breast cancer diagnosis forced her to step away while she underwent treatment.

"The hardest thing was for me to tell my customers that I had done for 35-40 years, that I wasn't going to be able to do them for a while," she said.

She was away from the job for five months before returning, cancer-free, to her clients on Jan. 4.

She credits her clients, along with prayer, the support of her friends and family and even her own gut instinct as key factors in her journey.

"I had a prickly sensation was what prompted me to go to the doctor," Crook said.

The 58-year-old said she was tempted to ignore the strange sensation she first noticed in April 2021.

"I only felt it with one pair of pajamas, and I thought it was the stitching or embroidery that was causing it," she said.

Though she had received annual mammograms since her mid-30s, she skipped her 2020 appointment because of Covid-19 concerns.

That, she said, was part of the reason she decided to have it checked.

Crook said her primary care doctor didn't feel anything concerning when she performed an in-office breast exam, but she recommended she go in for a mammogram just to be safe.

Although Crook hadn't received her results yet, she said she "knew something was up" the day of her test when the technician called her back in the room for a second image.

"That was Monday," she said. "On Tuesday morning they asked me to come in for an ultrasound, then a biopsy Friday.

"The following Thursday I found out I had breast cancer."

Crook, who is originally from Cabell County, opted to travel for treatment to Huntington, where her sister and niece work in the medical field.

Because doctors discovered a large mass and possible lymph node involvement, Crook said it was decided that she would undergo chemo first followed by a double mastectomy.

Before she began treatment, however, she followed her husband Kenneth's wish for her to receive a second opinion at the Cleveland Clinic.

"I was so impressed with the doctors there that it turned me around and I decided to do all my treatments in Cleveland," she said.

The treatment path she embarked upon in Cleveland was significantly different than the one she originally planned.

"Based on my type of cancer, the oncologist thought doing chemo first wasn't necessarily as beneficial because the tumor wouldn't shrink as fast," she said.

So rather than undergo chemo — or receive a double mastectomy — Crook was instead scheduled for a lumpectomy with reduction of the right breast to help with symmetry.

"They call it breast saving," she said of the procedure.

On Sept. 5, Crook underwent a 9-hour procedure during which it was discovered she had two side-by-side tumors instead of one large mass. Her surgeons also removed 15 lymph nodes, three of which were positive for cancer.

A plastic surgeon, she said, also performed a lymphatic bypass in an effort to help reduce her chances of developing lymphedema.

Because of the lymph node involvement, doctors said her cancer was Stage 2. She received a cancer-free diagnosis following the surgery but returned to Cleveland Nov. 20 for three weeks — 15 rounds — of radiation designed to help stave off recurrence.

Moving on, she will return to Cleveland for checkups every three months and will undergo twice yearly bone infusions for the next three years.

Although Crook experienced a setback when she developed an infection following her surgery, she said she's feeling "as good as new" now.

"To this day I don't even feel like I had cancer," she said. "I've had many blessings along the way."

Among those blessings, she said, were those who have helped make City Slickers home since 1989.

"My clients and my friends were awesome," she said. "I got so many phone calls, text messages, cards, gifts, flowers and food.

"...It wasn't just that someone sent me a card, either," she continued.

"It was that they let you know that you had touched them in some way and that they were praying for you. That (prayer) gave me peace. It's what got me through."

----Although Crook said she feels fine, today, she has decided to slow down a bit at work.

"I'm trying to leave at 4 p.m. instead of 8 now — partly to give my body time to rest for the next day so I don't overdo it," she said.

The slow-down, she said, is also to allow her more time to spend with Kenneth, her two sons and two grandchildren.

"I'll be 59 this year and Kenneth turned 60 while we were in Cleveland," she said. "Maybe it's time to not work as late. I was somebody who would double-book and do 12 people a day. Now maybe I'll do five or six.

"That's something I'm struggling with because I want to take care of everybody but we do need to take time to heal ourselves."

Crook might not be seeing as many clients a day, but she's still working her "dream job." And though her job is to take care of her clients, she said it goes both ways.

"They say stylists are therapists and it's true," she said. "People sit in our chairs and they tell us their problems. But they help us get through our problems, too.

"I've been very blessed."

Email: mjames@register-herald.com