Recovering from surgery to remove a malignant tumor from her skull–her third battle with cancer in three years–state Sen. Penny Severns on Tuesday wanted to talk politics, not cancer.
She craved news from the Capitol where, just blocks away, fellow lawmakers were casting an important vote on education. She chatted about her state Democratic Party’s endorsement process.
And the Decatur Democrat thought about the upcoming campaign for secretary of state, the office she wants. She is running against Cook County Recorder of Deeds Jesse White and Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy for the party nomination.
“This is just a bump in the road,” said Severns, 45, waving a hand toward the mass of bandages swaddling her head. “After a while, you start to recognize that things could have been a lot worse. I’ll be back on my feet before you know it.”
Her doctors at Springfield’s Memorial Medical Center have been encouraging. They say that although the nickel-sized tumor was malignant, they are relieved that it was attached to her skull, not her brain. In a Saturday morning surgery, they say, they removed all of it.
But difficult facts remain.
Breast cancer runs in her family. Severns’ twin sister has had the disease, and their younger sister died of it in 1992. Severns was first diagnosed in 1994 during her unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor. Before last week’s recurrence, she had seen the cancer spread to her lungs.
It is another challenge for Severns, and it is a battle others in public life have faced.
Former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas, who died this year, ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, promising that his health would not be an issue if he were elected. Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, who also has battled cancer, has faced questions about his decision to run for re-election next year.
Their situations cause some to question whether public figures should seek office when they are seriously ill. When state Rep. Bernard Pedersen (R-Palatine) died of cancer shortly after last year’s election, Democratic critics asked whether it had been right for him to run for re-election under the circumstances. His family said Pedersen had expected a full recovery.
But any time a cancer patient experiences a recurrence, medical experts said, it is serious.
“A recurrence in bone is, by definition, advanced-stage disease,” said Dr. Jane Winter, an oncologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University, adding that she does not know any details of Severns’ medical history, and cautioning that each case is different.
Severns’ breast cancer spread to her lungs in December 1995, and a few months later she received a bone marrow transplant. A treatment that strong is meant to knock out any remaining cancer cells.
But the cancer’s recurrence after such treatment indicates that the disease is behaving aggressively in Severns, said medical experts interviewed Tuesday.
Severns knows she faces rigorous radiation and chemotherapy treatments. But her neurosurgeon, Dr. Brian Russell, said she should be able “to continue whatever pursuits she chooses,” and Severns doesn’t see any point in shifting gears.
“I’m not going to put myself in jeopardy, but the worst thing I could do would be to put the brakes on,” she said. “The best thing I can do right now is plow forward and get on with my life.”
Severns has been considered an up-and-comer in the party almost since she joined the state Senate in 1987. Her knack for the spotlight helped win her the party nomination for lieutenant governor alongside Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch three years ago.
That’s when she was first diagnosed with cancer.
Late last week, she suffered a throbbing headache she thought was a migraine. Twin sister Patty Severns Love, a registered nurse, insisted she talk to her doctor.
Saturday morning, Severns underwent surgery to remove the tumor on the left side of her head.
She was barely out of the operating room before she was trying to work a crowd.
“We saw them wheeling her down the hall, and she looked up and said, `Well, hello,’ ” Love recalled. “The physician was shocked. She was supposed to be out.”
It wasn’t long before friends say she was cracking jokes and talking politics. As the Illinois House geared up for Tuesday’s vote on a controversial education package, Severns joked that a lawmaker “would have to have a hole in the head” not to vote for it, said Terry Mutchler, an aide.
Politics, Severns said, gets her through these things.
“For me, it has always served as a way to be focused on something positive, something other than my health,” she said.
