{"id":26369,"date":"2015-10-07T08:31:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T15:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/fairbanks-native-three-time-cancer-survivor-shares-story\/"},"modified":"2015-10-07T08:31:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T15:31:33","slug":"fairbanks-native-three-time-cancer-survivor-shares-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/fairbanks-native-three-time-cancer-survivor-shares-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairbanks native, three-time cancer survivor shares story"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014<\/strong> Becky Zaverl is one of those rare people who can make you feel you\u2019ve known her your entire life, even though you just met her. With direct blue eyes and an ever-ready smile, Zaverl is so warm, vibrant and upbeat it would be easy to assume she\u2019s never experienced misfortune.<\/p>\n

The truth is that Zaverl is simply in love with life, in the way only a three-time cancer survivor can be.<\/p>\n

Zaverl is the driving force behind the Fairbanks Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K family walk, a fundraising event. A kindergarten teacher and mother of three active little girls, Zaverl took time out of her busy schedule to tell the News-Miner her story.<\/p>\n

Zaverl, formerly Becky Roberts, was born and raised in Fairbanks. She was only 12 years old when an \u201cannoying cough\u201d prompted a trip to the pediatrician for an X-ray. The night before the appointment Zaverl noticed a lump above her collar bone but assumed it was a pulled muscle. Neither she nor her family were prepared for what the X-ray revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a mass in my chest the size of two of my fists put together,\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n

It was 1988 and medical care in Fairbanks was not as advanced as it is now, so Zaverl was sent to Children\u2019s Hospital in Seattle. A biopsy of her lymph nodes revealed the awful truth \u2014 she had stage two Hodgkin\u2019s Lymphoma.<\/p>\n

Since treatment would require a lengthy stay in Seattle, the Roberts\u2019 \u2014 Becky, her parents, and her younger brother Max \u2014 stayed with a relative in Capitol Hill while older brother Chad stayed in Fairbanks with friends.<\/p>\n

At the time the protocol for treating the disease involved \u201cmass doses of radiation therapy,\u201d according to Zaverl. Doctors warned the Roberts\u2019 that the radiation therapy would probably cause future health problems but there was no other viable option for saving their daughter\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Doctors radiated Zaverl from her nose to her chest over the course of six weeks, a process which caused her to lose the hair on the bottom half of her head and to develop weeping burns in her armpits. Since doctors wouldn\u2019t radiate her until the burns healed \u2014 which took a week each time \u2014 Zaverl began hiding them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said I had to have 25 treatments before I could go home. The burns was oozing out and I couldn\u2019t lift my arms and finally the doctor had to see it. I said, \u2018This doesn\u2019t hurt as much as you telling me I can\u2019t go home,\u2019\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n

After the upper-body treatments were finished Zaverl was sent home to rest. She returned a month later and doctors removed her spleen and took measures to shield her ovaries. Zaverl then underwent a second grueling round of radiation to her abdomen, which caused constant and debilitating nausea.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery smell made me nauseous. I\u2019d barf in the car, in the hallway going home,\u201d Zaverl said. \u201cI remember one of the worst days was Halloween. I\u2019m upstairs in my bed, just sick as a dog, and I\u2019m hearing the doorbell ringing. \u2018Ding-dong, ding-dong, trick or treat, trick or treat!\u2019 I just cried.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaverl said at the time she really didn\u2019t understand how serious her illness was.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 12 years old I really didn\u2019t think I was going to die \u2014 I really thought it was just a nuisance. I was kind of mad at everything,\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n

Treatments finally ended and the family returned home to Fairbanks right before Thanksgiving. She flew to Seattle twice for checkups and then got on with her life. She went to Lathrop High School and started dating Adam Zaverl, the man she would end up marrying. After high school she attended college at Washington State University, and returned to Fairbanks after earning a teaching degree.<\/p>\n

It was about this time that Zaverl started having trouble breathing. A chest X-ray revealed her left lung had collapsed because the radiation treatments had thinned the lining. Chest tubes were installed and the lung reinflated, but it collapsed again. A CAT scan showed spots on the lung so a second scan was ordered. Zaverl feared she had lung cancer and was relieved to find out it was \u201conly\u201d a pulmonary embolism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat can kill you, but I didn\u2019t know that at the time!\u201d Zaverl said, laughing.<\/p>\n

The embolism eventually dissipated after a year of blood thinners. She married Adam, her high school sweetheart, and they had a baby girl. A year later Zaverl was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThyroid cancer takes a long time to grow, so it\u2019s a great cancer to have,\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n

Zaverl underwent two surgeries to remove both thyroids and was started on a lifetime regimen of thyroid medication. She became pregnant again with a boy, who was stillborn, and almost two years after that she delivered two healthy twin girls.<\/p>\n

The twins were in diapers and Zaverl had just finished chairing the 2010 Relay for Life when a mammogram revealed she had cancer in her left breast.<\/p>\n

Zaverl\u2019s doctor told her the cancer was in its very earliest stage but a biopsy had revealed it was \u201ca 10 for aggressiveness.\u201d He suggested a lumpectomy followed by radiation treatments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018What?!\u2019 You\u2019re telling me this was caused by radiation, but you have to give me radiation to cure it?\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n

Zaverl didn\u2019t want to live with the possibility the cancer could return so she made the decision to undergo a double mastectomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of women feel differently about this, but I said, \u2018just take them. I don\u2019t have time to worry. I\u2019ve got little kids, I\u2019ve got things to do,\u2019\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n

Zaverl opted not to have reconstructive surgery, and said that, while she felt like a 12-year-old boy when she first saw her body after the mastectomy, she eventually felt liberated.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, after about a month or so, I felt like a badass. Maybe it was because I was flat chested and wearing these wife beater tank tops,\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n

The feeling eventually wore off and Zaverl began to miss \u201cfeeling like a woman.\u201d She dislike the way her clothing hung on her but she also disliked wearing a \u201chot, heavy\u201d prosthetic bra. After \u201ca lot of soul-searching\u201d she made the decision to have reconstructive surgery.<\/p>\n

Zaverl is happy with the results and is now healthy and cancer free. She is very active in local cancer charities and is \u201cpumped\u201d about the upcoming Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. She and her family have Sunday night dinners at her mom\u2019s house every week and like to spend time together at their cabin on the Salcha River. Zaverl said she\u2019s dedicated to \u201cleaving this world a better place\u201d and feels extremely lucky to have her family and to be surrounded by friends and family that support her.<\/p>\n

Most of all, Zaverl said, she doesn\u2019t take anything for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing this has taught me is that I\u2019ll never know how long it\u2019ll last. I\u2019m fortunate to have every day,\u201d Zaverl said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014 Becky Zaverl is one of those rare people who can make you feel you\u2019ve known her your entire life, even though you just met her. With direct blue eyes and an ever-ready smile, Zaverl is so warm, vibrant and upbeat it would be easy to assume she\u2019s never experienced misfortune. The truth is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":26370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-26369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26369"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=26369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}