Dorothy Erlanger: Triathlete survived ovarian cancer

One can almost feel Dorothy Erlanger's fatigue as she describes what she went through during the Rumpass in Bumpass International Triathlon on April 17.

At 60, she can outlast many half her age. As a 10-year survivor of ovarian cancer, she has special reasons for seeing any challenge through.

Her blog entry:

"Swim, 0.9 miles: My swim seemed to take forever. WHERE is that next buoy?? Finally I finished up and staggered out of the water, not from tiredness, but from numb feet and some balance issues trying to get my legs under me, literally and figuratively…

Transition — which means getting to where your bike is racked, get the wetsuit off, helmet on, out of the transition area and onto the bike. This took way too long, over twice my normal time…. Bike: 25 miles. I just seemed to struggle to get my pace up and maintain at the level I thought I should be at. Mentally discouraging.

Run: 10k, 6.1 miles Here's where the 'head games' took over. I did the first half roughly on the pace I wanted, and then struggled through the second half dropping drastically on pace, slower by the mile."

And that was just the warm-up.

Erlanger, of Goochland County, has her sights set on doing the same grueling exercise three more times this year, competing in triathlons this month, and in September and November.

Her Triathlon Triumph Trifecta, as she calls it, is a victory march of sorts, a celebration of being alive 10 years after being diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer and an effort to raise awareness of ovarian cancer and dollars for cancer research.

"The reality is 75 percent of women diagnosed with cancer at that stage are not here," said Erlanger.

Most ovarian cancer is diagnosed after it has spread, which makes it more difficult to treat. One reason for the delay is that symptoms don't always set off red flags. Abdominal bloating, one of the signs, could have been anything.

"I would eat a little bit, half of what I would normally eat, and feel really full," Erlanger said.

"I would feel acutely tired at the end of a day.

"I had some odd menstrual symptoms. I just thought I was going through early menopause."

Her doctor thought so, too, but told her to come back if she didn't get better.

Three weeks later she returned. By that time her clothes were getting so tight around the abdomen she was only wearing skirts with elastic waistbands. The doctor sent her for an ultrasound. It showed what appeared to be an ovarian cyst or noncancerous growth.

Blood tests were also done, and one of them came out abnormal, Erlanger said. The doctor recommended surgery to remove the ovary.

"She, at that point, in my book, probably saved my life," Erlanger said. "Because she said 'I want to have a gynecological oncologist do the surgery with me because he looks at this every day.' One of the biggest predictors of survival, particularly in advanced ovarian cancer, is that a gynecological oncologist do the surgery because it gets staged properly."

An examination of the tissue showed cells were cancerous and were in a couple of lymph nodes, a sign that cancer cells may have traveled to other tissues. Officially it was Stage 3, advanced ovarian cancer.

Chemotherapy followed. Six rounds over four months. After it was over, her tests showed the cancer was gone.

"But like many people when you come out of cancer, you are obsessed. I was also pretty down. I just could not get into things," she said.

She happened to see a notice about triathlon training for people 50 and older. A self-employed businesswoman, she was used to challenges.

"Why not try that?" she recalled thinking of the triathlon. "I can swim. I had a bike I had from college. I can walk a 5K," she reasoned.

She started training. She did her first triathlon, and hasn't slowed down.

"Fifty percent is training. The other 50 percent is what's going on in your head."

The races offer many analogies to what cancer patients go through, Erlanger said.

"Deciding on a goal and saying 'OK, I'm going to take that first 100 yards.' …Doing things a little bit at a time. Because it doesn't matter what you are doing, it matters that you are out there trying.

"I had one race where I was literally on the phone with my coach ready to quit before I started the race," she said. "He said, 'You cannot look at the next 50 miles or the next 10 miles.' He said you have to look at the next 100 yards. Then you do the next 100 yards. And the next. I did that whole race that way. And it worked."