5/10/07

For Shannon Allan, cancer was a lesson in faith
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

Today, a busy wife, mom and businesswoman, Summerton’s Shannon Allan is cancer free. For her, thyroid cancer was a faith journey.

A tiny, thin white scar across Shannon Allan’s neck is the only visible remnant of her battle with thyroid cancer.

In 1996, while getting ready for work and nine months pregnant with her first child, Allan noticed a lump in her neck.
“I was very pregnant and there were strange lumps every where, but I knew this one was different,” she said, explaining how she first discovered she had cancer.

At her next regular appointment with her obstetrician, Dr. Bobby Ridgeway, she pointed the golf ball-sized lump out.

“Dr. Ridgeway thought it might be a swollen gland and put me on an antibiotic,” Allan explained. On the tenth day of the medication, she delivered her daughter, Addison, now 11 years old.

The golf ball was still there and Dr. Ridgeway was concerned. Three days later, Allan underwent an ultrasound on her neck that was followed by a needle biopsy, which came back negative.

“Dr. Ridgeway explained that a needle biopsy is like testing a rotten apple … if you don’t hit a bad part you get a negative result. He referred me to the Medical University of South Carolina and in July, I had surgery to do a tissue biopsy.”

Like with many biopsies, Allan’s mass was sent to pathology while she was still on the table and when the results came back, her entire thyroid gland was removed. What was scheduled as a quick biopsy became a seven-and-half hour procedure.

There are about 12,000 reported cases of thyroid cancer each year and it accounts for one percent of all cancers. It occurs two-to-three times more frequently in women than in men, and occurs more frequently in Caucasians than in African Americans.

Because Allan’s tumor was very involved, a second surgery was scheduled three months later. This time, Allan would undergo a course of oral radiation with iodine, which goes directly to the thyroid site.

The downside of this two-week treatment is that it caused Allan to be radioactive and therefore in total isolation.

“Remember, I had a 12-week-old infant and here I was in a lead-lined room and no one could come near me,” she said. “It was no fun at all.”

Two weeks after her “glow-in-the-dark” episode, Allan had her second surgery to remove 28 lymph nodes. Five or six of them were positive for cancer, but for Allan’s doctors, that was a low – and manageable – number.

Today, 11 years later, Allan is cancer free, according to her medical team.

She undergoes annual check-ups that include a total body scan, something many cancer survivors are familiar with.

Allan says being a cancer survivor has been the greatest faith lesson of her life.

“I clung to the verse, Romans 8:28 … ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’ I was given a purpose by God and because He did, I am obedient,” Allan said.

Today, Allan stays very busy as a wife to Troy and mother of two (Addison and Gavin) and the owner of a successful catering business, Creative Catering.

“Everything that has happened to me has been a part of God’s plan for my life,” Allan said with a smile. “Even if it had turned out bad, I knew it was part of His plan. My life is to glorify God in all I do. It’s a great life.”