My Story
Director Business Development
Carrollton, TX
6 years, 6 months since her MammoSite treatment.
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My story begins with my routine, annual mammogram in late December, 2003. A few days after my appointment, I got a call from the imaging center where I have gone for mammograms for a number of years. They asked me to come in for an additional mammogram because the radiologist that had reviewed my mammogram saw something that needed to be confirmed or dismissed. After the review of the second mammogram, the radiologist recommended a needle biopsy. A few days after that test, that radiologist called me (I was sitting in an oceanside café in San Juan, Puerto Rico) to tell me he had “good news and bad news.” The bad news was that the test showed that I had ductile carcinoma in situ (DCIS) but the good news was that it was 100% curable because of the early stage of detection. As someone with no breast cancer in my family who was always in a low risk group, this news came as quite a shock.
As soon as we returned home, my husband and I started researching breast cancer and DCIS in particular. While there was certainly some concern, we did not have to make split second decisions on the course of treatment. I talked with friends and made a lot of calls as well as doing some research. I settled on a doctor who had treated a friend’s wife and although she didn’t survive her cancer, he totally believed in this doctor. This doctor suggested a reasonable treatment program and we made the appropriate arrangements. I debated whether or not to seek a second opinion and finally decided that although I trusted this doctor and had never sought a “second opinion” for anything in the past, maybe this situation warranted it. I started calling recommended surgical oncologists and just by happenstance, got an appointment (I was looking for an appointment right away—before my already scheduled surgery) with the associate of a female doctor whose name I had been given. As I sat in the waiting room before my appointment and before I ever met the doctor, I was mad. I had to wait over an hour to see this doctor and almost left before my name was called. That would have been one of the worst mistakes of my life. Once in the examination room, this new doctor won me over completely with his earnest attitude and genuine interest in me as a person. When he suggested that I could have radiation in 5 days instead of 5 to 7 weeks, I was sold. At the time, I was serving as the President-Elect of a very large, international professional association and was required to do a lot of travel to represent that organization. There were others who would have gladly filled in for me but as the first (and so far only) woman Presidential Officer of that organization, I wanted to meet all of my commitments myself. We set up a new surgery date and then I had to call and cancel the original one.
I had my lumpectomy and after the surgery, I was told that although the needle biopsy had not identified any cancer, I did in fact have some invasive cancer but that it had been completely removed by the surgery. The surgery to insert the MammoSite catheter was scheduled for a month later. At that time, a little extra tissue around the location of the invasive cancer was removed as the catheter was inserted. I started my MammoSite radiation treatment within a few days. There was no pain, no side effects and very little disruption to my life. It was strange having a small tube coming out of my side during the treatment, but I considered it a small inconvenience. Since I have very fair skin, to this day I am grateful that I did not have to undergo traditional radiation, as I was afraid of external skin damage and scar tissue from that. I did not have to undergo chemotherapy and as of this writing, I am cancer free.
I will always be thankful that I discovered MammoSite and I recommend it to everyone I can. It made my cancer treatment easy (if you can ever say that about any cancer treatment). It also allowed me to minimize the time needed for treatment while providing me with a great treatment option.
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This profile is solely the words of the person who received MammoSite Targeted Radiation Therapy to treat breast cancer. Note that this profile is specific to this particular person, and experiences will vary.
