Iditarod champion Susan Butcher being treated for leukemia

01/02/2006

By MARY PEMBERTON  / Associated Press

Iditarod champion Susan Butcher is taking orders from her doctors these days in her fight with leukemia but there's no doubt who is in charge — the same woman who used an ax to fend off a crazed moose on the Iditarod Trail.

This was supposed to be a sort of comeback year for Butcher. She had planned to compete in a 300-mile race this winter, but that plan changed when she was diagnosed with leukemia in early December.

"Now my goal is to try and stay alive and fight leukemia," she said. "No questions asked, that's what I am going to do."

Back in 1985, the moose ended up killing two of her dogs and injuring 13, and likely cost her the win. She was leading when the moose attacked.

But she got her revenge. She came back the next year to win the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the first of three consecutive wins. Butcher's fourth win came in 1990.

Butcher, 51, is in a different race today. She was diagnosed in early December with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a form of cancer that affects about 12,000 people each year.

Butcher was hospitalized Dec. 6 at the University of Washington Medical Center and recently completed her first round of chemotherapy to kill off the leukemia cells.

After more chemo, she will need a bone marrow transplant, if a donor can be found. A bone marrow drive Friday in Alaska attracted more than 1,200 potential donors but it could be more than a month before it's known if there is a good match.

A bone marrow biopsy on Friday showed that Butcher is responding well to treatment, so well that she was discharged Saturday on the condition she return for more chemo in a month. The family has the use of a friend's house in Seattle.

Butcher has other plans. She wants to return home to Alaska and take her dog team for a run.

Will her doctors allow that?

"They haven't managed to dare to come in and tell me what I am allowed to do and what I'm not allowed to do," she said last week from her hospital room. "I think I'm strong enough."

Probably so, if running the world's longest sled dog race 17 times and finishing every year except when the moose stomped her team accounts for anything.

Susan's husband, fellow musher Dave Monson, says Susan's real strength is mental.

"She's broken through the ice and water," he said. "She has been lost in storms, dragged down a hill." But, when faced with an obstacle, "she evaluates it, comes up with a plan and overcomes it without getting discouraged," he said.

Butcher met her future husband in 1981 on the Iditarod Trail. They married in 1985 and she gradually became refocused on having a family. Her last Iditarod was in 1994. The couple have two girls, Tekla, 10, and Chisana, 5, who make daily visits to the hospital.

"They each come over to the hospital every day. We play games. They push my IV cart around so I can walk, and they are good at massaging my feet and helping me feel better," Butcher said.

Several years ago, Butcher was diagnosed with polycythemia vera, a less aggressive cancer affecting the bone marrow. About 10 percent of people with the less aggressive cancer later develop leukemia, Monson said.

Butcher said if she is cured of leukemia she will be free of both diseases.

"It's a big goal," she said. "It is worth fighting for."

Butcher's doctors have said treatment could take seven months.

Butcher and her husband won't talk about her chances of surviving, choosing instead to assume she will beat the disease. The five-year survival rate for patients with AML is about 20 percent, according to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Monson said his wife's chances will improve with a bone marrow transplant.

During her chemo treatments, Butcher daydreamed about land in the White Mountains she and her husband bought last fall. They plan to build a bigger cabin on the land that comes with 300 miles of groomed trails — perfect for mushing dogs — right out the back door.

"I got the cutest, lovingest group of well-trained females. They are easy to handle and I just enjoy them," she said. "They will be waiting for me."

The first round of chemo did a good job of killing off the cells in her bone marrow, both the good and the bad.

"They want to kill the bad but they have to get them all. You don't feel good at all when you don't have any blood cells," Butcher said.

"I made it through. I had some high fevers," she said. "My gut was the thing that got hit the hardest. Some of my lines that go into my body to take in the chemo, those got infected. There were a lot of different infections going on and a lot of different problems.

"So that's what you spend your time doing, thinking about the positive."

Butcher's doctors said there would be days when she wouldn't be able to use an elliptical trainer in her hospital room. Butcher said she didn't think so. So far she has proved the doctors wrong.

"At my lowest point, I managed a minute and 37 seconds," she said.

Butcher said she can't really compare which is tougher, battling leukemia or competing in the Iditarod. She's faced some pretty tough moments on the trail. In 1984, she was traveling at night on sea ice along the coast and the ice began breaking under her sled. Her dogs pulled her to shore and safety, while the back end of the sled continued to break through the ice.

"Running the Iditarod is a choice and something I loved doing and I never considered the things I was going through hardships. I knew they were hard and there were some really tough times.

"There was a lot of pain. I've broken a lot of bones out there, but it was what I loved doing," Butcher said. "I didn't really choose to have leukemia. This is just a battle that was given me."

Monson said watching his wife take on cancer is inspiring.

"It is really moving to watch Susan work so hard to overcome this," he said. "This is her race but all the rest of us are sure doing everything we can to help her win this race."

On the Net:

http://www.susanbutcher.com

http://www.cancer.gov

http://www.marrow.org