Interview With Actress Barbara Barrie

Actress Barbara Barrie talks openly about her experiences with colorectal cancer and her colostomy.
• Article added October 22, 2003

This interview was conducted in 1999 and the timelines below reflect that. Barbara Barrie is now 72 years old (born in May 1931) and was diagnosed with colorectal cancer approx. 9½ years ago.

Andrew • This is Andrew Schorr from HealthTalk Interactive, and we're visiting with veteran Hollywood actress Barbara Barrie. Barbara is probably best known for her portrayal of Brook Shield's Nana on the hit NBC sitcom, "Suddenly Susan." She has been actively working as an actress for the past 35 years and in that time has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy and a Tony and she won an Obie, a Drama Desk Award and a Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

But all of the awards in the world could not have prepared Barbara, now 68 years old, for the ordeal she faced about five and a half years ago when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since that time, Barbara has been through three operations, chemotherapy and radiation, and now has a colostomy. But she still wears bathing suits and leotards and she divides her time between acting, writing – she's written three books – and activism about colon cancer. Barbara, thanks for being with us.

Now, Barbara, I imagine when we watch you now on "Suddenly Susan," if we could look into your eyes, there's more than just all those years of experience as an actress, but also now the life-changing experience of being a cancer survivor. Tell us about that.

Barbara • I was diagnosed with rectal cancer, actually, about 5½ years ago. And as I say in my book,  Don't Die of Embarrassment – it used to be called Second Act but in the paperback version they've changed the title – I had three operations before we got the right one, and as you said, chemotherapy and radiation, and now I have a colostomy, which I find really quite easy to manage. And I'm probably much healthier than I was before, and more active. But it does change your personality, I think. Not necessarily my view of life. My view of life has always been pretty up. I'm an "upper". But it does change one's personality in that I now kind of say what I want and I'm not as careful as I used to be because, I figure, you know, honesty is the best policy.

Andrew • What led to your diagnosis? How did that happen?

Barbara • I was in Charleston, South Carolina, and I was making a movie for television, called "Scarlet." It was a mini-series. I just got very dizzy one day and started to pass out. And I did pass out, actually. I called the doctor there and I got to a hospital that night and the next morning they did a sigmoidoscopy of the lower colon, and there it was! I kind of thought it was there, because I had been ignoring my symptoms for a year.

Andrew • Did you have any bleeding?

Barbara • Oh yeah, I had bleeding and I had lost an enormous amount of weight. And I just ignored it because I had been told all through my life that that [kind of] bleeding was, you know, benign. I had tests and tests and tests and had been on a mild diet all my life. But [that] last year it was really severe and I just ignored it, so that really got me into a lot of trouble.

Andrew • Was there a history of colon cancer in your family?

Barbara • I didn't know it. I had a lot of relatives who died from cancer but in those days nobody talked about cancer. And they certainly didn't tell little kids that their grandparents died of colon cancer or rectal cancer or diverticulosis or any of the bowel diseases that my family is inherently [susceptible] to. After I was sick one, of my cousins said, "Didn't you know about our family history?" And that's how I found out.

Andrew • So, there you find out you have the diagnosis, you're in the middle of making the movie, what happens then?

Barbara • I went back to shooting the last day. I wouldn't let them keep me in the hospital and I shot the last day of the film. I didn't tell anybody about what had happened. And I went back to New York and had another examination and another set of pictures and it was absolutely verified. As soon as it was over I had the first operation, which was not good. The second operation, which was not good. And then for the third operation I changed hospitals and I changed doctors. And then I had a brilliant operation, which is now this colostomy, which is almost undiscernible, it's so small and so flat.

Andrew • Not everyone who has colon cancer and has surgery ends up needing a colostomy. Why was it required in your case?

Barbara • Because the cancer was so low in the rectum that there was no way to hook it up to the colon, to the whole apparatus. There was just no way. I understand now they have new ways of doing it, and that they can hook it up, and that they can make inner pouches and things. But in those days I had two opinions, this is five and a half years ago, and both opinions were that there was no way to hook this up.

Andrew • Would there be any reason to have any kind of re-surgery? Would you want to go through that?

Barbara • Oh, no, I wouldn't go through it [again] for the world, because I am very happy with my colostomy. I'm very fond of it.

Andrew • Now, let's talk about that. Here you are an actress with a very demanding career. You do movies and television shows and you're all over the place and you're writing. With an active life like that, one would think, not being through it ourselves, that this whole idea of a colostomy would be a royal pain.

Barbara • Well, it isn't a royal pain because first of all it has freed me from pain and from sudden emergencies, and I can control it. I literally irrigate it every day, so that it's like giving oneself an enema every day. And that takes care of it for 24 or 48 hours, however long I want to wait until I do it again. It doesn't take any longer than someone else who goes to the bathroom in the morning and reads the paper, which is what I do. And it's very controllable. I can do it in the morning, I can do it in the afternoon, I can skip a day. It's undiscernable. You can't see it beneath my clothes. And I play tennis, I dance, I work out, and I go swimming. It's actually easier for me now than it was before, because I was always in pain and I was always afraid of an emergency.

Andrew • Barbara, knowing that you're a person who is well-known, a Hollywood actress, it's really remarkable that we're talking about this publicly at all. What do you think that says about colorectal cancer? Do you think that this is the kind of discussion that needs to happen?

Barbara • That's why I wrote my book. Because I had to ask so many questions. And I found out that people were really embarrassed to talk about this, the way they used to be embarrassed to talk about breast cancer. If you remember, we didn't say "breast" and we didn't say "cancer" until Shirley Temple-Black made it quite public that she had breast cancer. She was way before Betty Ford. And she's the one who brought it out into the open. My book talks about everything very frankly. Every graphic detail. Because I felt that it was a subject that was definitely in the closet. And I wanted to bring it out so that nobody had to go through a kind of unknowing experience as I did. I had to ask so many questions to find out what was happening. And since the book has been published I've been told by many, many people, including doctors, that they give it to all patients who are going to undergo surgery of this kind. Because we are a primitive, very buttoned-up society in America, and we don't like to talk about anything that has to deal with the rectum, or the bowel, or the anus, or feces. And I thought, "Why not?" I mean, it's a bodily function, and why are we being so secret about it? We talk about sex now. So I thought, "Well, I'll just write this book." And yes, it does have to come out of the closet, but I think it's getting out. I mean, look at Darrell Strawberry, you know, he had colon cancer. And I think more and more people are willing to talk about it.

Andrew • Now, you lecture around the country in addition to your book, and so you meet people who are dealing with this disease. What are they saying to you? Are they finding this liberating that somebody is talking about it publicly?

Barbara • Oh, yes! Oh, God, yes! In fact, since both editions of the book are out, I've received maybe 600-700 letters from people who either say "Thank you for mentioning this, for bringing it out into the open. I've been married for 30 years and my husband and I have never said the word 'colostomy'." Or someone will say, "I'm just like you. I swim, I play tennis, I make love, nothing's changed. My life is better than it was before." Or I have people who say, "I've never gone to the doctor because I'm afraid, but now I'm going to go." It's really opening up a can that I think everybody wanted opened.

Andrew • And, of course, we're talking about, unfortunately, one of the leading forms of cancer.

Barbara • Yes. It's the second biggest killer after lung cancer. And it affects women as well as men. In fact, it's almost 50/50. It may be slanting a little more toward women now. The general misconception is that it is a disease that affects mostly men and that's absolutely wrong.

Andrew • Of course early detection makes a big difference, as we saw years ago with President Reagan, where he was able to have surgery with colon cancer that had not spread significantly.

Barbara • That's our message to the world. I'm the vice-chairman of the foundation called Stop Colorectal Cancer. It's the only disease, the only cancer, that can be detected really before it begins. And the way it's detected is by getting a very early screening called a colonoscopy. That's a viewing of the entire colon and you can see these little polyps. And as they view them, they take them right out, the doctor snips them right out. Those are the polyps that become cancer. So we know that if everybody could obtain a colonoscopy – the recommended age is 60, but 50 is better – we could stop this disease. This disease can be eliminated completely from the list of cancers. But we have to educate the public to go and demand this test.

Andrew • I'll mention that I've had several because I'm well aware that I have a family history of it. That's important for people, too, to ask questions within their family because that can put them a little further at risk and they might have the colonoscopies earlier and more regularly.

Barbara • If you have a family history, you should immediately say to your doctor, "I have a family history and I demand" – the key word is demand – "I demand a colonoscopy." There are other tests, too. There's sigmoidoscopy, which is the lower colon, and there's a fecal occult test, which you do at home. But they are not as all-encompassing as a colonoscopy.

Andrew • Should someone be afraid of this test? I know it's basically where a scope is put way up inside you, but yet they give you various medications so that you don't really feel it.

Barbara • You have to ask the doctor for either Demerol or Valium. And if the doctor says, "I don't give it", then you go to another doctor. It's a completely painless test if you have a tiny bit of medication. It takes about 14 minutes. You wake up quite refreshed. You don't have to stay in the hospital for hours and hours. There is a preparation the night before or the day before, which is kind of boring, but it's not painful. You just have to empty your system completely. And they give you this stuff to do it with. But the test itself is not embarrassing nor is it painful and that's why my book is now called "Don't Die of Embarrassment" because people literally do not get this test because they think they're going to be embarrassed.

Andrew • As you said, it is one of the leading cancer causes of death and therefore you really can be saving your life.

Barbara • Yeah. You can save your life by having the test because, if you catch it early, you will never get the disease!

Andrew • Barbara, let's talk a little bit for the benefit of people who have been diagnosed with colon cancer or their family members. They are very frightened. They may be told, of course, they're having surgery and may not know how radical that surgery is, or maybe they've already had it. Maybe they find out that they will have a colostomy, as you do, and they're thinking, "Well, it's kind of tough to go on." I mean, you're very upbeat about it, but what advice would you give people to get to that place?

Barbara • First of all, I would certainly get a second opinion. There's also, you know, ileostomies, which are sacks that are higher up on the body, outlets that are higher up on the body for bodily waste. And there is the colostomy, which is lower, and catches more solid waste. But I would, first of all, seek more than one opinion. I would certainly not be afraid of it, because a life of pain and swelling and insecurity and disease is certainly less preferable than a nice, neat, little, you know, plastic bag on your belly, which takes care of everything and gives you life! It literally gives you life! If you have to have the operation, you have to look at it as a positive thing. Talk to other people. The United Ostomy Association (UOA) is a very good place to get information from other people who have had the operation. There may be a doctor who says you don't have to have the operation, "I can hook it up." The thing about it, you have to ask questions. The patient must ask questions. If the patient is involved in his own well-being and his own getting well, the doctor is relieved, because the patient does half the work.

Andrew • My understanding is, most patients who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer do not need ostomies.

Barbara • That's true, particularly if the cancer is within a kind of medium place in the colon. They take out the cancer and stitch the colon back together. Sometimes there is radiation and chemo [treatment], sometimes not. But if they catch it early enough, they often don't have to have a colostomy.

Andrew • So, as you meet people around the country who are colon cancer survivors, you must see many, many examples of life after colon cancer.

Barbara • Oh, heavens! I mean if you go to the United Ostomy Association convention – which I did – I was the key speaker one year – you see all kinds of extremely vital people who are active in life, who have gone on to have pregnancies, who have gone on to travel all over the world on motorcycles, on bicycles. I mean, there is no stopping you if you accept it as just another part of your body. You take care of it just the way you take care of brushing your teeth. You just do it. It's no big deal. But, I must say, you do have to have a good surgeon.

Andrew • You're in an industry where people, when they are working, can be incredibly busy. And of course, in many industries in metropolitan areas across the country people are leading ever-busier lives and it seems like there is less time in the day. And that can often lead to a situation where some early symptoms of colon cancer could be ignored. As you said, you'd ignored some for years, or had been told, "Don't worry about it." What would you say to people like that who may be concerned that they have a problem like this and are almost in denial? Don't want to take the time and don't want to know?

Barbara • You can't be an idiot the way I was. My symptoms were only severe the last year, and I had been tested many times, many different kinds of tests. If you want to die then you don't investigate the symptoms. No matter how busy you are you can always find time to say to your employer, "I can't come to work today. I have to have a colonoscopy. I have symptoms." I mean, there just is no excuse for doing what I did, which is to ignore the symptoms.

Andrew • Barbara, as we wrap up, what would you like people who are dealing with colon cancer or are concerned about it, to know above all else?

Barbara • The first thing, I think, is not to be frightened. Because there are wonderful ways of treating this disease. And the second thing is to have a positive attitude. Be involved in your own recovery. That means asking questions, doing what you're told. If you don't like what you're told, then you go on the Internet, you do research, you take other options to your doctor. Be involved in your own recovery. Say to yourself, "I can lick this. This is not the end of the world. This is a do-able thing."

I've heard miracle stories of people who were diagnosed, even very late, and who have recovered. You have to look at all alternate theories as well. My feeling is you have to do exactly what you're told to do, if you agree to it. And then you can look at the alternate forms of medicine: diet, nutrition, whatever. But I do believe that as long as they have chemotherapy and good surgery and radiology, you have to just go ahead and do it. The bottom line is, you have to have hope and you have to be actively involved.

Andrew • As someone goes down this road of being treated for colon cancer, what message would you have for spouses, family and friends and how they can support that person who's going through these treatments and is probably really scared?

Barbara • Try not to be scared. It isn't that scary. You're taking action to beat a disease. You have to have a positive attitude. The fact of the matter is, everyone talks about support. You know, your kids and husband have to support you. They do the best they can. But the fact of the matter is, it's your disease. And you have to be the one who's strong. I think that it's important to be supported, but in the long run, you've got to really be strong.

Andrew • Well, Barbara, we really appreciate you sharing your very personal story for the benefit of others. It's quite inspiring and I know that people reading your book will get even more information and more support. So we thank you for that.

Barbara • Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

The above interview was reprinted in accordance with the copy- right terms of  HealthTalk • Living With Hope   HealthTalk revamped its web site in early 2004 and this interview and its audio accompaniment are no longer available on its site.

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