Volunteers, grant make care packages for breast cancer patients possible

By THERESA HOGUE


Gazette-Times reporter

Comfort comes in many forms, but one of the most tangible is the softness of a pillow.

Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center registered nurse Janice Kane knows how much comfort means to patients coming out of surgery at the hospital, which is why for years she’s been volunteering her time and money making thousands of little hand-crafted pillows for patients.

This spring, she crossed the 20,000 mark in the pillows she and her colleagues have handed out.

But in the past year, Kane has added a very special pillow project to her list. She has become the official breast cancer pillow maker for patients coming out of lumpectomy and mastectomy surgery. Her special pillows fit nicely under sore arms, help protect patients from bumps in the night, and use fancy pink-ribbon fabric, the symbol of breast cancer awareness.

“I’ve been searching the town for all kinds of (pink ribbon) prints,” Kane said.

Kane’s pillows have become a staple in the “Pink Bag Project,” a joint project of the Corvallis Clinic and Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. Thanks to the help of staff members from both the clinic and the hospital, women who have undergone breast cancer surgery receive pink gift bags filled with items that are aimed at their comfort and education as they adjust to post-surgery life.

The seeds of the project were planted by Sue Merrill, former breast cancer health educator at the Corvallis Clinic, who wanted to make sure that every breast cancer patient who left the hospital after surgery was provided with something called a “Softee.” A Softee is a special T-shirt that comes with a hidden pocket to hold the drain that is attached by a tube to patients who have received mastectomies or lumpectomies, the two most common forms of breast cancer surgery.

The shirts are also stretchy enough to pull on over the hips, since women can’t raise their arms directly after surgery, and come with interior pockets to place adjustable cotton breast forms, so that when women return home from the hospital after having one or both breasts removed, the procedure is not noticeable to outsiders.

“They feel more like they’re together,” said Corvallis Clinic Breast cancer health educator Joann Stutzman.

Providing Softees eventually turned into giving women a whole gift package as they checked out of the hospital, thanks to the work of Stutzman and Maureen Murphy, assistant department manager with Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center’s medical surgical units. The two women have worked together to create bags filled with educational materials, Softees, pillows made by Kane, and other breast-cancer related items.

Not only does the pink bag provide a welcome assortment of items, but it’s also a great way for nurses to break the ice with patients as they prepare them for life after surgery.

“It’s a nice way for the nurse to have a way to open the door and have the conversation” about how patients should take care of themselves after surgery, Murphy said. Getting a pretty pink gift bag lightens the mood of what can be a very traumatic experience.

For the last year, the project has been paid for in part by a number of sources, including the Corvallis Clinic Foundation and Samaritan Regional Cancer Center, and nurses and other staff have been chipping in some of their own funds to keep the project going.

Now, a $5,000 grant from the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation WISH (Women Investing in Samaritan Health) giving circle will allow the project to continue with a steadier stream of funding, as well as expand their ability to give pink bag packages to women who don’t have insurance or Medicare, which usually pays for the cost of the Softees.

It will also allow Murphy and Stutzman to add new items to the gift bags, including inspirational cards and books of breast cancer poetry.

“It’s just a wonderful opportunity to serve our community,” Stutzman said. And of course, each bag will always contain one of those hand-made pillows.

Almost every night, Kane goes home, pulls out one of two Singer sewing machines (she already burned through an older machine at around pillow 19,000) and smiles her way through pillow after pillow. After sewing as many as she can, she takes them to the living room and sits in front of the television while she stuffs them, and then finishes them off, only to start some more.

“It’s therapy for me,” Kane said. Because she has two family members who have gone through breast cancer, including her cousin and her daughter’s mother-in-law, Kane takes each pillow very personally. “With every pillow, I think about the patient. It means a lot to them.”