A Breast Cancer Survivor Shares Her Story

In 2006 and 2007, proceeds from the Celebrate the Valley went to expand services for the Breast Cancer patients, including the Breast Cancer Coodinator position.

“You kind of go through the whole thing—anger, denial, then you get scared, and finally you feel the need to do something but you’re not sure what you should do,” she says. “My biggest struggle was giving up control. You think, "I have an organized life, I make my own decisions," then suddenly I don’t have control over this thing that’s happening to me. You have to put yourself in other people’s hands, but it’s hard sometimes to do.”

Even though she listened carefully to her physician, at times, she says, it didn’t all register. “I needed time to process and digest this information. As I went through this, I learned it’s not all black and white. There are so many different scenarios and variables. It’s not an exact science. The Patient Navigator needs to be someone who can translate clinical language into what this all really means to people in everyday life so they can make the decisions best suited for their situation.”

Patients can also use help in communicating with friends and family. “Cancer doesn’t just affect the patient, it affects everybody around you. The people close to you, your or your friends, it’s hard to explain things to them. It’s a real personal thing. I had to wait until I could get my arms around it before I could talk about it. Many people close to me went to the Internet for answers because they wanted to know what was going on, but were uncomfortable asking me about it. A Patient Navigator could give these loved ones resources to help them feel more at peace with the situation.”

Eventually she became overwhelmed with clinical information and advice from friends. “I think this is true for any surgery: you go to a doctor, and he sends you to another doctor who sends you to another doctor. You get second opinions, and your friends call saying, "I know so-and-so and they said this and that." What I really needed was to speak with people who could help me sort through this information and, based on their experience (such as the styles of different physicians), help me make my decisions.”

"It would be good just to have someone who can answer your questions. If someone could walk you through the questions like: what is chemotherapy and radiation and what does it do to you, or what kind of reconstruction do you want, or what are the pros and cons of silicon versus saline. That would be a great help. You feel like you have to make a lot of decisions on the spot, and many times your reaction is: Oh my goodness, I don’t know, I never thought I’d find myself in this place! I think a Patient Navigator can be a great help with things like that.”

While she thinks the expanded services will be a real step forward in patient care, she is very complimentary about her experience at MVH. “The care I received was wonderful, absolutely wonderful,” she says. “Everybody was very, very caring, definitely supportive and sensitive. In the end, for me, it turned out to be a very positive experience that helped me grow.”