Greendale Brain Cancer Survivor Tells Her Story

Pam Steiner was working at a bank as a teller when she got a headache so intense, that she couldn't see. She had never felt a headache like that before.

Thinking it was a migraine, Steiner, who was 40 years old at the time, went home and called her doctor. He told her to go to the emergency room if it didn't get better.

When her husband came home, they went to the hospital.

The doctor had Steiner squeeze his fingers, looked into her eyes and said, “This isn’t a migraine.”

“The doctor said he could see it when he looked into my eyes,” Steiner said.

Steiner was told she had a brain tumor. At first she didn’t realize the severity of the situation because no one told her it was cancer. It wasn't till she was by herself without family that an inexperienced resident let the word cancer slip.

“When they first told me I had a tumor they didn’t say the word cancer,” Steiner said. “I was in the hospital at Froedtert alone and a young resident came in and he said the word cancer. I was like 'What!?' That’s when it really hit me. A tumor was like ‘that really sucks’ but when they said cancer I said ‘Oh My God I’m going to die.’”

That same week she had her first surgery. The doctors were able to get most of the tumor but not all. The surgery was followed by chemo and radiation.

This all happened in November of 1997. Steiner said she spent the holidays bawling her eyes out.

“Cried my eyes out thinking this is my last Christmas,” she said.

Steiner felt some relief when her 12-year-old son asked her surgeon at Foerdtert, “Is my mom going to die?”

Steiner said the surgeon responded, "Not under my watch. She’ll die someday, but not from this. Not under my watch.”

The mother of three had about five surgeries. An infection was found in the last surgery, which prevented the doctors from completing the surgery.

The following Fall Steiner had a successful experimental surgery. She was one of two that survived the experimental surgery out of 10 or 12 individuals.

Steiner says her experience wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. She says her family took it harder than she did.

“When my brother came in it hit me because I could tell he was crying,” she said. “I was like ‘Don’t you cry.’”

Chemo didn’t work for her, and her month of radiation was hard, she said, causing her to lose her hair.

Even though her experience "wasn’t that bad" she says she feels survivors guilt.

Her friend from , an old teacher from high school and some of her friends from a support group had brain cancer at the same time and did not survive.

“I do feel bad,” she said.

Her family to this day is very watchful of her health.

“Now when I get a headache everybody jumps,” she said. "Trust me, when it comes back I will know.”

Steiner and her family have participated in a few cancer walks, but this  Walk will be her first walk in Greendale.