Farmington waitress battling cancer – again
FARMINGTON – Sue Cowan sipped coffee Monday, sitting at a booth at Irving Big Stop as she watched co-workers wait on customers. It’s something she normally would be doing if she wasn’t battling cancer.
Cowan of Starks had just had one of three cancer-fighting shots she gets each week. She knew she’d have to head home soon before the flu-like symptoms hit her.
It takes about four to five hours for the aftereffects of the shot to start; she’d get sick to her stomach and feel tired, and need to go to bed.
It’s a routine she’s settled into since she discovered she had cancer in her bones this summer.
Cowan, 47, had kidney cancer six years ago. Doctors removed the kidney.
Her doctor back then told her to enjoy herself, Cowan said, because most of the time the cancer comes back.
Facing ‘it’
It’s hard for Cowan to say the word cancer. She’d rather to refer to it as “it.”
Cowan has waitressed at the Big Stop on Wilton Road for about nine years. She started serving the public at 17 in her family’s restaurant in Madison.
Last December, when Cowan went to the hospital to have a hernia fixed, doctors discovered cancer on her liver.
They were able to scrape the cancer off, she said. She had a checkup afterward, and all the tests came back fine.
“I was hoping I was cancer-free,” she said.
After time to recover, she returned to waitressing.
Then in August, she was walking around with a bucket of ice, and she thought her back went out.
“I had massive pain,” she said.
She shifted carrying trays and other items to her left side. Soon she started getting pain in her left arm.
When doctors did a bone scan, they found cancer in her left arm, left leg, on the right side of her head and in her spine. Her left arm deteriorated to the point that it broke, and a steel rod was put in to hold it together.
Waiting game
As she watched her co-workers deliver food, she said that she really misses the people.
“It’s hard not to be around people,” she said. “I’ve always worked.”
She went through radiation four weeks ago for her back and arm. She believes the cancer has shrunk some there.
“Now, it’s just a waiting game,” Cowan said.
Doctors are still waiting before doing radiation on her head and leg. They say they’ll learn how fast the cancer is growing from the treatment on her back and arm.
“I try to have a good attitude,” she said.
But it’s hard not knowing how much time she has, she said.
“You kind of hope it’s 10 years but you don’t know,” she said. “So you’re hoping for more time. It’s the unknown that’s scary.”
Everybody’s behind her 100 percent, she said.
A group is sponsoring a benefit supper from 6 to 8 p.m. and a dance from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Elks Hall in West Farmington. The cost is $25 a couple and $15 for individuals, which covers both events.
Cowan visits the restaurant as often as possible and hopes for a cure so she can return to work.
“I’m just hoping for a little bit of time – as much as I can get and hopefully not be to sick,” Cowan said.
Co-worker Claire Levensalor added that Cowan has something else on her side. “She’s got all those Catholics praying for her, she’ll be back.”
dperry@sunjournal.com
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