A Journey of Faith, Strength, and Humor

By Chaney Ferguson
Editor, The Times of SWLA




In June of 2006, Melissa Viator received the news she had been waiting for. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was dreaded. Viator had been going to doctors for months with the only diagnosis being that she had calcifications in her breasts.

“I kept going to the doctor and they kept telling me it wasn’t cancer.” But Viator knew something was wrong.

After insisting on a surgical biopsy since her tumors were too small for a needle biopsy, cancer was confirmed.

“When I got that call about my diagnosis I had a ton of boys at my house. I called my husband and said we can’t go home because we have all these kids at our house, where are we going to go? We need to talk about this.”

She remembers every detail of that day.

“I can tell you the music that was playing as we sat in the swing at our camp and cried, prayed and gave it to God in that moment,” said Viator.

The next ten months proved to be a journey that Viator never would have anticipated.

“When I finally got my diagnosis that is when I went to MD Anderson, and it was calcifications that had turned cancerous. They never grew. My type of cancer doesn’t grow into large tumors, and many women keep watching the tumor and if it isn’t growing from mammogram to mammogram then they feel like it isn’t cancer.”

In Viator’s case they weren’t growing large, but they were spreading. By the time she was diagnosed she was stage two and her lymph nodes were positive which changed the whole diagnosis.

“When I got to MD, they found the cancer in one breast and they wanted a biopsy in the other breast, but I told them forget the biopsy I wanted them both gone. So I did a double mastectomy, and actually that was the precancerous cells that had already gone into my other breast so I was thankful I did the double mastectomy.”

Viator also did reconstruction with the surgery at the same time which a lot of people don’t realize is possible.

She completed all of her treatment on March 29, her wedding anniversary.
“I told my husband I got new boobs for our anniversary.”

Throughout those ten months, life never stopped. Viator owns her own business, Threadworks, and she continues to be thankful for her workers dedication during her time of need. She admits only checking in a few times during her treatment and recovery.

“I would open up my Bible and with God leading me I found a verse talking about handing leadership over. At the time I had a girl who was 22 working for me, and she worked full-time. She stepped up to the plate, and everyone that worked for me was great.”

Viator says people sent her Bible verses all the time to help encourage her and give her strength.
“My daughter would send me a Bible verse every day and it would always pertain to that day. I would write them down and keep them on an index card in my back pocket and I would pull them out and read them all the time or be at a stop light and pull them out and read them. Without that I don’t know how I would have gotten through it.”

In the beginning of her diagnosis, Viator went to the Look Good Feel Good program put on by the American Cancer Society.

“They teach you about when you are going to lose your hair, how to tie the scarves and camouflage having no hair.”

Viator had ordered a few wigs to try when her hair started falling out. Once she tried on the wigs her son swayed her in a different direction.

“My son was so funny he told me I looked like Tina Turner and would say won’t you please just go bald. He was a freshman in high school and I was afraid I was going to embarrass him. I didn’t want him to be the one with the bald mom because he is the big football player.”

The program helped her tie the scarves around her head and apply makeup in the right way to create eyebrows and eyelashes.

“Along with that program, I met a lot of people that were going through it at the same time which was really important. It was somebody else to compare stories with. It is kind of scary to go at first because you feel awkward but it was a neat program and I met a lot of great people. You can bring somebody to the program with you so you are not walking in by yourself.”

Viator also received encouragement through two books she was reading. Praying Through Cancer by Susan Sorenesen and Uplift by Barbara Delinsky.

“The way the Sorenesen book is compiled, I think it goes along with you on your journey because so many times it ends up being what you need to hear that day.”

When Viator started to lose her hair the book said to shave it and take control of the situation.
“When it came time to shave my head I was wailing in the shower because it was coming out in clumps and my husband was outside the shower saying “you said you were going to shave it like the book said” I was like, “I know.” He kept telling me to quit pulling it out. I was in there just crying and pulling it out and he kept saying stop it, you promised. It was hard on him,” said Viator.

She said the book gave her so much insight, and that each of the stories let her know what each step held for her own journey.

“The night I shaved my head, it was scary. We took pictures. My sister came over and her husband shaved my head. Most of the time—once a woman actually shaves her head and they start going through that process—it is really the easiest thing even though going into it feels like the most difficult. I keep my bald pictures out around my house because I never want to forget what that was like.”

Viator says that shaving her head and even going through the chemo was not the most difficult aspects of the cancer.

“I was having a grandbaby and I couldn’t pick her up when she was born. I had just had my surgery and that was probably one of the hardest things. To watch my daughter have that baby and know I couldn’t help her and I couldn’t pick up the baby. It was things like that that was much harder for me than the chemo and losing the hair.”

Now after experiencing her journey through breast cancer, Viator spends much of her time talking with other women starting their own journey. She received so much encouragement from the books that she buys them in bulk to hand out to friends.

Viator says she wanted her store to be a place where women can find support.
“There are times when women get diagnosed and their friends will come and just write down their name and number and leave it at the store for me to contact them,” said Viator.

She calls the women to offer encouragement and even acts as a sort of guide for what they will be experiencing in the coming months. Viator knows that many women might not know what to ask or say, but she wants them to know she is always available to talk.

Viator says she learned so much through surviving breast cancer. It was a time to grow in her faith, spend time with her mother and it provided her with a story that will help others.

“It’s not a journey I would ever want to go through again, but it is not a journey I would ever want to give up.”