Angela Tita Antonopoulos has faced many challenges in her life, including raising a son as a single parent and managing a career that has included working in event promotions and as a community coordinator for various nonprofit organizations.
Since spring, she’s been challenged daily as a self-employed social media marketing professional for her company, Olive Drop Management, which was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as business slowed and she lost clients.
Now the 46-year-old Haverhill woman is facing her biggest challenge to date, but it has nothing to do with her career.
Antonopoulos, who is best known by her middle name, Tita, is battling Stage 3 HER2-positive breast cancer.
She was diagnosed in April — around the time the coronavirus was sweeping the country, causing a dramatic change in people’s daily habits.
“I found a lump in my armpit during a self-examination and decided to call my doctor,” she said.
“My oncologist told me that if I had not discovered the lump or if I had it checked six months later than I did, it would have metastasized and I might not be here today.”
She added, “For women especially, it’s important to know what’s going on in your body.”
Antonopoulos started chemotherapy three weeks after her diagnosis, going to medical appointments alone due to the pandemic and making life decisions by herself, although she said she’s been fortunate to have a support system of family and friends who have helped her through some difficult days.
The 1991 graduate of Haverhill High School said she decided early on that the disease wasn’t her fault and that she would not be embarrassed by it or allow it to have power over her.
“I live my life the best I physically can, including raising my 9-year-old son, Christos, a fourth grader with special needs,” she said. “We’ve had many visits to Children’s Hospital over the years and now I’m taking him for treatment at Mass General while I go for chemotherapy treatment at Dana-Farber in Methuen.
“Since February, my life changes almost daily.”
Antonopoulos said she’s come to understand just how determined she needs to be. It’s something she’s shared publicly on social media.
“I know that I am stronger than I used to be,” she wrote in one post. “Never underestimate how strong you are, especially when you do not have any other choice.”
Faced with the prospect of losing her long hair as she began chemotherapy, Antonopoulos did choose to do so on her own terms.
“Before I started losing it, my friend cut it off and left it very short,” she said, adding she sent her locks away to be made into a wig.
To pass the time at her chemotherapy appointments, she has entertained herself with items from home, including a stuffed bear named Boris that her son gave her and an iPad to play music and to read and post about her journey on social media, while nibbling on snacks such as kettle corn, Goldfish, hummus and crackers.
She has also spent time talking incessantly with nurses to gather as much information as she can on her particular disease.
“I learned more about cancer than I ever thought I would and also joined a few Facebook groups for women who were going through the same thing,” she said. “I learned tips such as bringing a blanket and to have Lifesavers on hand for when they flush your port, which leaves the taste of saline in your mouth.”
On July 7, her regimen of chemotherapy transitioned from three kinds of medicine to two, which has allowed her hair to begin growing back, slowly.
The chemotherapy has shrunk the masses located in her armpit and left breast, she said.
She underwent a single mastectomy Aug. 11 at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain, where the process of reconstructive surgery began, but won’t be completed until six months after a six-week round of radiation treatments. Radiation, administered five days a week, is due to begin in October at Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, while the chemotherapy continues until April 2021.
“I’m still dealing with side effects, including skin irritation, pain, bloody noses, digestive problems and a change in taste,” she said.
The treatments and surgery can be an emotional roller coaster, she said, although she refuses to wallow in her situation for very long.
“I allow myself a half-hour a day, as needed, to feel depressed and then I move on,” she said. “Having a really good support system has helped. My parents have been phenomenal, especially on days when I slept for hours and they entertained my son. My friends have been great, too, as I can chat with them at any time, and they help me whenever needed, including cooking meals for me.”
Through it all, Antonopoulos said she’s learned that it’s important to like yourself and to be comfortable with your own company.
“When you’re undergoing treatment, you spend a lot of time thinking about your life, your life choices, how you want to live your life and how you want your future to be,” she said.
“I want to see my son graduate, find a career and be happy in his own life.”
She also has a clear perspective on her future significant other. He has to be very comfortable with himself, she said.
“I am truly a force and only a strong man that can put up with that will survive,” she said.
But above all else she has learned to be grateful to be alive.
“I am alive to live my life to the fullest, and I plan to fight and live a long life,” she said.
“I am a warrior, and cancer may have made its mark on me, but it won’t win this battle.”
ANGELA Tita Antonopoulos calls on her inner titan in face of breast cancer