LOW SAYS CANCER JUST `PAUSE IN LIFE'

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Lauchette Low experienced a ~"pause" in her active life a year ago. She was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"I've always been one to try to make the best of a bad situation," Low said. "I try not to worry about what went wrong but instead think of how I'm going to change it."

Low, who was 51 years old when she was diagnosed, operates two businesses. She owns Kids Wear Again in downtown Cape Girardeau and is co-owner and vice president of My Daddy's Cheesecake here. She is also active with Vision 2000, especially the Smokeless Class of 2000.

Breast cancer slowed her down for a short time, but Low said, "The happiest year of my life was last year. I think it has been due to daily contact with God. And when you get to live longer, the sky seems bluer and the leaves seem greener."

In fact Low feels she has been so lucky, she and her husband, Joe, have begun telling their story to men's civic groups as part of the American Cancer Society's local speakers' bureau.

"I said I would speak about my cancer as long as I speak to men's groups," Low explained. "Women already know about it. They read about it all the time. Every single month there are articles in leading magazines about it. Women know it all."

Men, however, are not as informed, she said, and they should be.

"Gentlemen, listen carefully. You could save the life of your wife," she tells the men with whom she speaks.

One in nine women will have breast cancer. In 1991, she said, 44,500 women will die of the disease and 175,000 women will be diagnosed.

"But the good news is that most deaths from breast cancer can be prevented through early detection," she said.

Women cannot prevent breast cancer. "You can't eat right or stop smoking or do anything to prevent it," Low explained.

"For the past 13 years, I have been kind of a health freak. I ran an ultra-marathon and have done aerobics for eight years. I eat the right foods, and I never felt better in my life. Then I got breast cancer."

Low said she first felt a lump in her breast when she was 30 years old. It was a benign tumor. Over the years, she had several tumors and cysts removed. Then, in 1989, she felt another lump. A mammogram didn't show the tumor. But when she went to her doctor, he felt the lump also.

"On Tuesday, my doctor felt the lump. One Wednesday I had the biopsy. On Thursday I went back to the doctor. On Friday they were off, and on Monday I was back home."

Low had a double mastectomy in December 1989. "There are several types of breast cancer," she explained. "My cancer is the kind that mirrors. If you have it in one breast, chances are you will have it in the other breast."

"My daddy died of cancer," Low said. "After my biopsy, I said to my doctor `How long do I have?' He explained that breast cancer doesn't have to lead to death.

"My first thoughts were how am I going to die gracefully and with dignity," she said. After she realized death wasn't imminent, she said, "I started to think how am I going to live with dignity. I wanted to be a good role model for my daughter."

The couple have two children, Joe Low III, and Julie Low Katinas.

"I had chemotherapy, and I only lost half my hair. And I never got sick. I was really lucky, but each case is different and not everyone is so lucky."

Low stopped exercising for just three weeks after the surgery. "I wanted to go right back to aerobics and walking." She exercises at least three times a week at Human Performance Center.

She said discussions of breast cancer and breast examination often make people uncomfortable. "In olden days, women were seen as mothers and sex objects. Today women are more than their breasts. Women have so much more to offer.

"I'm trying to make the best of the situation. By talking to men, I am encouraging them to ask their wives about self-examination and about mammograms."

Low feels lucky to be married to her husband, Joe, a speech professor at Southeast Missouri State University.

"He is such a support. He's really a pessimistic person," she said. "But when I was diagnosed with cancer, he turned into the most optimistic person."

She said they went through all the aspects of surgery and treatment together.

When Low speaks to groups about breast cancer, her husband also speaks. "He speaks with men about how to cope and how to encourage," she said.

She also outlines the steps for early detection for the men in her audiences, so they can urge their wives to follow these recommendations.

She said monthly self examination is the first step. Cape Girardeau has three mammography units; each teaches self examination.

Women over age 35 should have yearly mammograms. Only 30 percent of women who should have mammograms have them.

If a self-exam or mammogram show anything suspicious, women should visit their doctor. "Even if the mammogram comes back okay, if you felt a lump, you should see your doctor."

Low had her surgery and all her treatments in Cape Girardeau. "We never felt we could get better health care or medical advice," she said. "We knew we were getting the best."

Her doctors are Dr. Bob Hunt and Dr. Stan Sides.

"This town has the best medical people for its size. The doctors and nurses and just everyone I came in contact with, even cashiers, were so kind and sensitive.

"We want to pay back those who cared so much by bringing more awareness to this disease."

Low said people often complement her courage through it all.

"I don't have courage without daily contact with the Lord," she said. "He has given me the strength to come through this."