What You’ll Learn

A woman shares her experience with breast cancer from screening through treatment, including the frustration and fear of waiting for procedures to be scheduled and the difference asking questions and getting information from trusted physician made to her journey. 

Interviewee: I’m from Florida and I had the whole cancer issue last year. Got through it. All’s good. Married, kids are grown, couple dogs. That’s about it.

VIVO: What are your hobbies? Do you have anything that you find inspiration from?

Interviewee: We have a place up in North Carolina that we go to and we love hiking. I try to be really active and this whole past year, a good almost a year, really set me back. So I’m trying to get back to my normal. I’m having to take medication now for it that blocks the estrogen and it’s messed me up a little bit, but fighting my way back. It’s all good.

VIVO: Let’s talk about before this past year and your general feeling about doctors and medical care before all this happened.

Interviewee: Before all this, I was not going to doctors regularly. I’m a real estate agent. I’m really busy. And in my earlier, younger days, I was getting the mammograms from 50 to 55. I was going every year. And then I had this thing where I kept putting it off and putting it off and it had been three years when I went and got the mammogram. So I was extremely lucky that it was small and it had probably started that year, so I got really lucky.

I’m the type I don’t like to go to the doctors much. If I’m sick though, I don’t really go for that. Now, I’m so used to it because there’s been so many doctors and so much testing constantly. I was always the type that was like I don’t need to know. I feel fine.

What came out good from it is I have a 40-year-old daughter, and she was like me too. She hadn’t been getting checkups, so she went and she started getting lots of checkups, and she got called back from her mammogram, scared us to death, but it was nothing. So if anything else, it made my daughter more aware that you really need to screen.

VIVO: Can we start at that day when you finally went for your mammogram?

Interviewee: So I went and had the mammogram and a few weeks went by. A really long time went by, so I had totally forgotten about it. I didn’t even think about it. And then they called me and they said, “We see a little something in your mammogram. We want you to come in for an ultrasound.” And even then I was like, eh, it’s nothing. I’m not worried about it. If it was really bad, they’d have called me right away.

And that’s what I have found. The imaging centers, now that I’ve gotten into this process with my doctor and my cancer doctor, they have a breast center there. You go, you get your mammogram, you get your results right then and right away. The doctor’s right there in the office. I’ll never go anywhere else.

But it was still a few more weeks before they could get me in for the ultrasound. It was crazy. It was a month from the time I got my mammogram until they got me in for the ultrasound. And then from that point, things moved quick. They got me in with the doctor and everything went quickly. And then I had to get the biopsy, of course, and that’s another week wait. I think I waited a week for the appointment and a week for the biopsy. So by this time, it’s a month and a half later and I’m panicking, like get it out, get it out.

And then they scheduled a surgery and that came fairly quickly. And I had a special test done to see if I need chemo and I did not. I scored good on that. It was estrogen-driven. So I had 36 radiations and a lumpectomy and been fine so far. So finished the radiation last January, and I had the scans and everything done about a month ago, and they want me to come back in three months to do it again because they see a lot of thickening there, but it’s probably scar tissue. So I have to go back in November.

VIVO: So when you had your mammogram and the weeks-long wait. Did they tell you what breast cancer you had?

Interviewee: No, they can’t tell you that until they do the surgery. So that’s a whole other thing. You get the surgery, they take it out, they send it to the lab. So it’s another week’s wait of what kind is it? Is it aggressive or not?

Everything turned out to be best case scenario with me. It was the estrogen-driven one, so you take the anastrozole, but you have to take it for five to 10 years, which is a long time. You take it every day. And they say it causes joint aches and hair loss, and I’m feeling it. I really wasn’t at first. I was like, oh, this is no big deal. I’m not feeling anything. But over the last several months, I’m starting to feel it. My hair’s thinning… I can go like this and have a wad of hair. But compared to what it could have been, I’m good. I’m happy that’s all it was.

VIVO: Were there any symptoms that you had before you had your mammogram or was it a complete shock?

Interviewee: It was a complete shock because I couldn’t feel it. I didn’t feel a lump. The doctor said it was the size of a pea. But it was a size of a pea, but yet had still gone to my lymph node, which I thought was weird because I thought, it’s so tiny. She says, “It’s early on. It’s tiny. It’s about the size of a pea.” She says, “It’s very slow growing, though.” Had I gone and gotten a mammogram the year before, like I should have, I don’t know if it would’ve shown up. She says it probably would have been slight. But I’m almost glad I didn’t go the year before because then I might’ve screwed around for another three years and not gone.

VIVO: How did you figure out which doctor you would go to? Did they say, “We will refer you to an oncologist?” Did you find one yourself?

Interviewee: No, I found one myself. I’m a researcher, so I want to look at every little thing. And the Florida Cancer Center, they have an institute and they do research and everything and they have offices all over Florida. They have three offices within 20 minutes of where I live. So I read a lot of reviews and called them and then they gave me the doctor and then I checked her out really good. I did a lot of checking out, but I did find them myself.

VIVO: Did you have a good experience with your oncologist?

Interviewee: Yes. I really like them and I ended up with a great surgeon. She recommended me to the surgeon and the surgeon’s awesome. I’d say she’s 50 or so, and she was an army surgeon, like a combat surgeon. So she was great. She had great views. And then it turns out that I ended up down the road knowing someone who also went to her and no complaints whatsoever. My doctor is great and you have to keep going back so much that you get to know them. I’m happy with where I ended up. Very happy.

VIVO: When you were going through the treatments, radiation for you, how often was it? What was the process for you?

Interviewee: I had to get it every day Monday through Friday. I think I had 36 treatments, and it was a 20 minute drive. But when you go in, it’s two minutes. You’re in there for a minute. I mean, it’s very quick. I have my own schedule, so I was able to come and go.

I think the worst part was holding my breath for the amount of time. You have to hold your breath because they’re doing your breast and they don’t want your lungs getting hit, so you have to hold your breath for a minute. I got a little bit of burn, a little bit of radiation burn, not horrible. As soon as I found out I didn’t need to get chemo, I was like, okay, whatever. The radiation’s nothing.

You lay on the table and I’m literally in there for maybe tops, two minutes on the table. Go in, take your shirt off. And the first time I went in, there’s three people in there and two of them are guys, young guys. I’m like, they don’t give you a gown or anything. Take your shirt off. By the third or fourth treatment, I was like whatever.

The machine goes around and then you get up and leave. I mean, it’s very easy. No checking in or anything. You sit down, they call you in. I had it timed where I would get in there and sit down, and within a minute I was called in and I’m out. From the time I got out of my car, got back in my car was tops five minutes, most of the time. So the radiation was not a big deal for me. I was happy to do that.

VIVO: You would say that the longest part of the process, as far as being most difficult, was the weeks in between the very first part and diagnosis?

Interviewee: Yes, because once you’re in and then you see the doctor, I think I was scheduled for surgery within, they were waiting on the insurance. In fact, I think they were going to get me in three or four days later, but the insurance thing didn’t get kicked in quick enough and I had to wait. I mean, it was maybe tops a week from going to the oncologist, next day to the surgeon, in the surgery. So it was very quick.

They let you heal for a month, six weeks or something, and then you start the radiation. Under the arm was probably the worst part, when they had to take out the lymph nodes. Then they took out a couple more and they were clear, so I was good as far as that goes. But you always wonder in your mind, are they sure it was clear? Maybe they missed one. But you’ll drive yourself crazy if you think like that, I learned.

VIVO: Is there anything that you wish, maybe, that the system offered you that you didn’t get? Maybe more education, maybe better communication on something? Was there any time when you felt like you were being pushed to the next thing and you didn’t really know what was happening?

Interviewee: In the beginning, yes. I went to an imaging center that does every imaging under the sun. You go in, you’re sitting around, there’s 50 people in there, you wait. And I didn’t really realize there was a specialized place, like a breast center, where you can go and you could get your mammogram and you could get your ultrasound. If I’d got that mammogram that day, she says, “We would’ve had you in an hour later getting the ultrasound, and we would’ve known that day that we needed to.” So not my fault, but I wasn’t educated enough to know that’s the case. But now I know and everyone I know knows where to go.

VIVO: When your doctor was telling you things, do you feel like you were educated about what was going to be happening with the lumpectomy?

Interviewee: They were very good, and I ask a lot of questions. I’m always on my phone, I have a gazillion questions, because you go in and you don’t know what to say. So I had my phone. I whipped my phone out. I had written them all down in my notes.

But they were very good. The surgeon explained exactly pretty much how it was going to be, how it was going to feel, how long I was going to be laid up, where I was going to be sore. She was very good. And she even said, “I don’t think it’s going to be bad because it’s very early. No matter what it is, it’s very tiny, small.” So she made me feel better because I myself literally was planning my funeral. I was like I’m going to die. That’s it.

I had a good experience with the whole bit. I didn’t have a good experience from the beginning, up until I ended up in their office. The whole process, I felt like they didn’t care. Like, okay, you see a problem in my breast, why aren’t you scheduling me ahead? Cancel someone and schedule me right away to find out what this is. Not “you don’t have anything available for two weeks.”

In my mind it’s there. If it’s cancer, it’s growing every day. But my oncologist said, “It isn’t that. It doesn’t grow that fast, what you have anyway. It’s not as panic situation as you think it is.” The fact that it was in my lymph node, because they could tell on the ultrasound that there was something wrong with the lymph node too, that it was enlarged. So in my mind, I’m thinking, oh my God, it’s in my lymph nodes. That’s it. I’m done. But you don’t realize that the lymph node’s job is to stop it. Eventually, it’ll go through, but I got lucky there, I feel.

VIVO : What’s some advice that you would give to somebody who is putting off their mammogram?

Interviewee: I would say, don’t put it off and go to a breast center. Don’t go to a general imaging center.

I have a couple of friends. I have a friend who’s in her 50s and she’s never had a mammogram. I’m like, “Are you kidding me right now?” And she smokes. She’s like, “I know, I know.” A lot of it is money. She doesn’t have a lot of money. And I said, “You know what? You don’t need a lot of money. They have months where you can go get it and it doesn’t even cost you anything.”

Participant Profile

• Female Breast Cancer Survivor
• Location: Florida
• Age: Mid-50s to 60s (inferred from having a 40-year-old daughter)
• Occupation: Real Estate Agent
• Treatment History: Diagnosed in 2022, had lumpectomy and 36 radiation treatments
• Current Status: In remission, taking anastrozole (estrogen blocker)
• Key Challenges: Waiting to appointments to be scheduled
• Notable Priorities: Getting back to normal activity levels, hiking, staying active, asking good questions and encouraging friends to be screened