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Music has played a big part in Angelina Sierra-Winward’s family, from her dad playing mariachi to her two brothers mastering the piano, keyboards, guitar and trumpet. She taught herself to play a little piano by ear.
Cancer, however, has struck some dark chords to disrupt her family’s happy harmony. Her dad died of pancreatic cancer. Her mother died of ovarian and uterine cancer. Her grandma died of breast cancer.
So when Angelina was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 58, it was only natural she would put her pain, endurance, and need for comfort to music. Combining her love for music and poetry, she wrote the song “Part of the Journey” to bring hope to others and honor her treatment at MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center.
“I am here to tell you my story
Of how Cancer came for my body.
It knocked at my door
Something I could not ignore.”
Diagnosis: Facing the Music
“Because of my grandma’s breast cancer, I always do a self-breast exam at the first of every month,” said Angelina, a retired preschool teacher from Urbandale, Iowa. “However, I noticed my cat kept sniffing and hissing at my right breast, so I did a second self-exam that month and discovered a lump on my right breast.”
Her nurse practitioner confirmed the lump, and after a mammogram and ultrasound, Angelina learned she had cancer in her right breast. The day was May 7, 2021.The cancer had spread to one lymph node under her right armpit and she was stage 2B. Despite her grandmother’s death from breast cancer, Angelina was told her cancer likely was due to her other risk factors --menopause, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Previous testing had confirmed she is not a BRCA gene carrier.
“What do I say to the Cancer that I could taste inside me as it grew?
Tormented me at every chance it could?”
Yet, somehow, I faced the Cancer, the giant growing within me.”
Tuning in to Treatment
Angelina’s treatment began with four cycles of two types of chemotherapy and steroid infusion. A nurse navigator recommended oncologist Dr. Angela Sandre, who also would help Angelina with her high anxiety. Her treatment was aggressive because her tumor continued to grow during chemotherapy.
Anticipating she would lose her hair, Angelina had her head shaved at a salon who did it at no charge. “I looked like Uncle Fester with the bald head, but the chemotherapy hurt and I felt like this was the answer,” Angelina said. “I only wore a wig once, but I loved my scarves.”
In early September 2021, she finished her chemotherapy around the time of her birthday. Feeling on a high note, she called her favorite restaurant and, because it was during COVID, requested a table away from others. Instead, the restaurant hosted her and husband, Gary, in the afternoon with the entire restaurant to themselves.
A month later, it was time for her lumpectomy. Before surgery, however, she had another hurdle to jump. She had to get her A1C level down. She consulted with a trainer, and over three and a half weeks, she successfully reduced her A1C from 13 to 6.2 with exercise. Dr. Tiffany Torstenson a surgeon at MercyOne Katzmann Breast Care in Clive, Iowa removed Angelina’s breast tumor and four lymph nodes.
“When the pain gets so hard.
I close my eyes and imagine the future of what could be.”
Angelina’s next phase of treatment was 25 radiation treatments.
“My faith helped me get through my treatment,” she said. “I cried and got angry at the cancer, determined to get it out of me. It helped to document my cancer journey on Facebook and connect with Facebook friends and survivors from my workout group. People need to know it’s OK to talk about your cancer and about being a survivor, to wrestle with survivor’s guilt and to worry if the cancer will come back.”
The sweet music of recovery
By February 2022, Angelina had completed treatment and was cancer-free. While the cancer was gone, she had gained 25 pounds during her fight. Dr. Richard Deming got her into the Above + Beyond Cancer program, where she lost weight on the right exercise program and worked with a lymphedema therapist. The program, founded by Dr. Deming, is free to cancer patients and cancer survivors.
“I love Dr. Deming and the programs he has introduced,” Angelina says. “He is a rock star.”
Dr. Deming, who has led cancer survivors on medical missions and inspirational mind-body-spirit pilgrimages to Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro and Machu Pichu, finds inspiration in the courage and compassion of his patients and their family and encourages others to pursue lives of meaning, purpose, passion and compassion.
Angelina has done exactly that, writing her song “Part of the Journey” to capture the transformational time in her life. Her music therapist, Madi Pote, from the Richard Deming Cancer Center, ended up singing and recording Angelina’s song.
“Love life, be right, fight the right fight.
That’s what I say, that’s what I say.
Love life, be right, fight the right fight.
‘Cause no one can do it for you.”
You could say Angelina is making her own kind of music and living her best life.
As part of a bucket list of being a survivior, she traveled to Buffalo, New York to watch the solar eclipse and got up close to Niagara Falls on the Maid of the Mist boat. Then, she traveled to Arizona to attend several graduations including a grandson and niece. While there, Angelina and Gary purchased a small motorhome to help complete another bucket list item of taking more road trips. She takes care of wildlife in her backyard and even put peanuts in plastic eggs at Easter tor the wild animals.
“I try to take more things in,” Angelina concludes. “The other day, I was looking at the clouds and noticed the formation of a cancer ribbon,” she concludes. “To me, that’s God’s way of saying ‘I’m there for everyone.’”
