Katie's Healthful Journey through Breast Cancer

01:33 And then we actually postponed our wedding in the middle of the pandemic as well due to the pandemic so that stunk um and then I found out I had breast cancer so it was a rough year for us you know

02:02 Is that about the time where you started to feel ill or have a symptom?

02:10 So it was about six months after the pandemic started – just a couple days after my 30th birthday and I was drying my hair getting out of the shower and I noticed a divot in my breast when I had my arms above my head drying my hair and i immediately called my then fiancee into the room and said, hey is this normally like this what’s going on? How long has it been like this? And to be honest I don’t even remember his response I think he told me that it you know – oh that looks kind of weird but no big deal. You know I felt a hard as a rock lump and I was pretty concerned my gut just told me something was wrong but this was not normal and so my stepmother is a nurse and I saw her a few days later for my birthday celebration and I asked her to look at it feel it and she said oh that’s definitely kind of weird

03:15 You know maybe it has something to do with your menstrual cycle, keep an eye on it for a week or so and if nothing resolves then contact your doctor about it so I was immediately super alert to it and about a week later it had not gone away so I contacted my doctor through my chart and because of the pandemic you know a lot of doctors weren’t seeing patients in the office so I sent them a message and I said hey I felt this lump it’s very strange it’s hard as a rock it’s pretty large could you look at it? She responded back and literally had me in there the next day which was amazing. I’m forever thankful that she listened to me and took my concerns seriously and she you know she helped me with my diagnosis so she had me in there the next day

04:16 She felt that she said yeah it’s a little concerning but it could be totally something innocent called a fibroadenoma so I immediately Googled it and that would basically be a non-cancerous lump that can be removed in surgery but you know it’s non-cancerous so it should be fine

04:38 My doctor sent me for an ultrasound and so I went I think a couple of days later for a breast ultrasound that came back inconclusive. They said you have very dense breast tissue but you know there is this one area here that’s very concerning to us so we’re gonna have you do a mammogram as well. The mammogram also came back inconclusive so they had me do a breast biopsy which is not very pleasant

05:06 They literally stick a needle into your breast and pull tissue out of it

05:12 So a couple weeks after that on October 14th

05:17 For that procedure, they used a local numbing agent similar to when you get your wisdom teeth out and stuff like that

05:26 And the first couple of pricks that he did you know you could hear it kind of sounded like like an ear piercing gun and so I could hear it but I could not feel it but then one of them he went a lot deeper than the numbing agent went and I felt it through my entire core

05:46 It was crazy but you know I mean in the grand scheme of things now that was probably you know the least of my pain it was confirmed about a week later on October 14th 2020 I got the call

06:01 Unfortunately we did find cancer in your right breast

06:06 It rocked me a very emotional couple of days we found out that it was about a seven centimeter tumor which is very large and they told me it was stage one but I think it was more like stage two because it was also in my lymph nodes

06:24 So i went through chemotherapy first before surgery to try to help shrink the tumor

06:33So i did six rounds of a very common chemo cocktail for breast cancer called TCHP (Taxotere, Carboplatin, Herceptin, and Perjeta) and I did not tolerate it very well, I don’t think so anyway after my first session I ended up in the hospital with colitis for six days

06:52 It was just very hard on my GI system in general and then after my fourth cycle I got COVID-19 as well in January and so then I had to be treated for COVID in addition to the chemo so that was a tough point but I finished and yet both the COVID symptoms

07:16 Was it a severe case of COVID?

07:18 It was not severe at all pretty mild actually all I really had was chest congestion and then loss of smell

07:25 They had me admitted to the hospital and they treated me for it with Remdesivir just as a precautionary as measure just because my chemo put me in an immune compromised state so they wanted to be you know on the safe side

07:43 I didn’t know at the time when they started the treatment that it was a five-day treatment so I was admitted for just about an entire week so that stunk but it resolved pretty quickly and then I finished chemo on March 2nd

07:59 I had a bilateral mastectomy on April 13th  and here’s where the complications begin and this is fun

08:14 The idea of going on to chemo is scary for many – could you talk about your experience and how you mentally processed and who you reached out to and who maybe supported you through that

08:31 My husband has been my biggest supporter throughout this entire journey and my family my parents my sister my best friends

08:40 They have been incredible throughout this entire journey

08:44 I really struggled mentally with the fact that I needed chemo. I really broke down when I found that news out and not just because you’re literally pumping poison into your body – for me it was my hair. I was so attached to my hair and it was a part of me it helped make me feel feminine it was part of my identity and the thought of losing my hair just seemed traumatizing to me but you know

09:15 My husband and I actually ended up getting married two and a half weeks after my first chemo and my hair had really started to fall out the few days right before the wedding and I ended up having to wear my wig for the wedding because my hair was just too far gone and we shaved my head the next day and it was kind of empowering

09:43 I remember I was sitting on the ledge of the tub and he had the buzzers and he was buzzing my head and I kept asking whether my head is round

09:54 I’m like please tell me that I have a nice shaped head and you know looking in the mirror for the first time after that I was emotional but it kind it was kind of empowering that I took that step instead of just letting all my hair fall out

10:24 In retrospect as hard as it was leading up to that decision it really it really is just your hair and I’m still me. I still rock cute headbands and you know a lot of times I didn’t even bother wearing my wig when I went out and about because it felt like I was masking who I really was you know. I might be sick and I might have no hair but I’m still Katie and I’m still strong and lively and enthusiastic about everything so it was that was a big a big emotional but also really empowering time yeah and it’s incredible to me you found strength in something that you were incredibly attached to and you had viewed previously as part of your identity but I could also see your point very clearly you took that decision you made the choice and it was yours not the illness and that’s a great sentiment

11:47 Because my cancer spread all throughout my right breast and up against my chest wall and all the way out through my nipple, a lumpectomy was not really an option for me. I know it is for a lot of women who just have the tumor but my cancer had spread all throughout my breast

12:09 So basically it was a decision between a single mastectomy and a double mastectomy

12:15 Right from the get-go right when I was diagnosed my immediate gut instinct was do a double mastectomy get rid of them

12:23 They’re poisonous to me at this point… I don’t want to take my right breast and then five years a year down the line I have to do this all over again with my left breast

12:38 My thought process was the less breast tissue that I have the less chance for recurrence that this comes back so it was kind of a no-brainer to me. I know a lot of people really struggle with that decision but for me it was so easy

14:10 My surgery was on April 13th. I stayed one night overnight in the hospital and my father actually came to visit me that night and I was in high spirits. I felt good you know, I could move. I was already itching to get up and go for a walk because I knew that that was extremely important in your road to recovery is getting up and getting moving

15:32 So they ended up finding two micro mets [metastases] in my lymph nodes after the surgery so I ended up having to do another surgery to do a full axillary node dissection where they removed the rest of my lymph nodes from that right side. That surgery caused me to develop a seroma which is like a pocket of fluid on top of my right tissue expander so that was kind of crazy. I had to have an emergency surgery to place another drain

16:06 I actually just got that drain taken out last week after five weeks

16:11 But we are we’re plugging along. I should be starting radiation at the end of July so I’m still very much in the middle of active treatment but I feel stronger and stronger every day

16:31 Speaking of the micromets, when you found that out, how did you feel how did you process?

16:38 And then with the removal of more lymph nodes

16:48 So your lymph nodes; your lymphatic system is all throughout your body and it helps drain fluids from your extremities basically so anytime you have an infection whether small or large your lymph nodes are what helps pull that fluid in and circulates it around so that your body can you know absorb it and fight it. With the removal of all of your lymph nodes from your axillary it leaves your right arm basically really susceptible to infection and if you do get excess fluid in that arm you can develop what’s called lymphedema which is an intense swelling of that extremity so I’m on high alert now for any swelling or infection or cuts or anything like that on that side

17:48 It was a really low blow when I found out that I had cancer in the lymph nodes because that meant that I needed radiation which if they did not find it in the lymph nodes I would not have needed radiation and I would not have needed the additional chemo that I’m doing right now as well. It is preventative chemo so it’s you know just to prevent a recurrence to get any tiny little cancer cells that were not taken out during surgery but it just really extended my journey after I thought that I was almost done

18:30 Now I’m finding out that I’ll be on chemo until probably next spring so it stinks – it’ll end up being like a year and a half two years by the time I’m done with this journey but you know – I’m here, I’m alive and that’s something to be celebrated you know

18:51 Every single day I wake up and I’m here and a lot of cancer patients can’t say that

18:59 I’m still able to work full-time. I am still able to go on adventures with my family – go sightseeing, go on vacations and it really helps you

19:13 You know you stop taking life for granted and it’s kind of crazy you know it puts your life in perspective

19:20 It flipped my world upside down but it  has taught me a lot. It’s taught me how strong I am and you know just how much the little things matter

19:37 You know just daily life with my husband, with my stepdaughter laughing

19:44 I try to laugh every day and you know some days are harder than others and sometimes I’ll have a little pity party when I get bad news but I dust myself off and I remind myself that I’m still here and you know I have a long life ahead of me. I want to make a difference in people’s lives and I’ve shared my journey a lot with friends, family, acquaintances because I feel compelled to share this information and share all the knowledge that I’ve learned because if I can help one person with early detection of this I will feel like this happened to me for a reason

20:51 And the the spirit that you bring to your journey – you are facing another year of chemo, you have radiation on the horizon but speaking to you now I see strength, I see confidence, I see happiness in spite of of all these things that you are living through

21:16 What advice do you have for others?

21:36 Concentrate on your support system however big or small that is and lean on them when you need them. I would also say to really take advantage of the little things in life – go for a walk by the beach and just look at the leaves changing color in the Fall and appreciate all that this world has to offer because you don’t know you know how good it is until some of that stuff gets taken away from you and really wake up every day and you know remind yourself that you’re alive and you’re here and you’re fighting. Never lose that drive. I think it’s important to have a why: why are you fighting so for me – it’s my future my future with my husband – we want to have kids someday so you know my future children I want to be able to see my stepdaughter grow up and I want to see her get married and graduate high school and you know to me I would never want to lay down and let it take over my body because I have so many more things that I want to accomplish in life and if you just remind yourself of that whether mentally or in a journal it makes a big difference it makes a big difference to your mindset I think you know your why you’re living your purpose by sharing your journey your stepdaughter has a wonderful role model in you and now if she wants to know what are you going through how are you managing you have a video now