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Highlands Today

Breast Cancer Survivors: Early Detection Is The Key

KATHY WATERS/Highlands Today

Donette Jolly, lead mammography technician of Florida Hospital’s Seascape Imaging, talks about the advances in technology for detecting breast cancer at the Lunch Club Wednesday meeting.

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By MANDY SHEETS | Highlands Today

Published: October 11, 2007

For two years, Nancy Martin checked in women who came to Seascape Imaging for mammograms, but she never got one herself.

"I didn't want my coworkers to see my breasts," Martin said, admitting now that it sounds silly.
During Breast Cancer Awareness month last year, Martin finally stopped putting it off and asked a traveling doctor to perform the procedure. Her first mammogram showed a suspect area and after additional views and a biopsy, Martin learned she had breast cancer.

Because she caught it early, the cancer was noninvasive and she beat it with 33 radiation treatments.
"I was lucky because I caught it early while it was so treatable," Martin said. "I could have gone through a lot more than I had to."

Now she tells all women she knows to get a mammogram, and even gave a speech about the procedure at Lunch Club Wednesday, a woman's networking group.

"My prayer is that everyone schedules a mammogram," Martin told more than 100 woman who gathered at the meeting. "It's so easy and so important."

Joyce Wurtz vouches for mammograms as well, especially since she didn't have one for so long. She found a lump in her breast during a self-examination and then waited a while before she told her doctor about it.

"I was stupid and I waited and waited," Wurtz said. "By the time I got up the nerve to go to the doctor, I had a five-centimeter growth on my chest."

She went through 36 radiation treatments and eight chemotherapy sessions and completed her last radiation treatment in July.

"It was very bad by the time we caught it," Wurtz said. "But I am lucky, because they got it all."
Donnette Jolly, lead mammography technician at Seascape Imaging, said early detection can make the treatment much simpler.

"This is one of the most treatable cancers if it is caught early," Jolly said.

Many people ask Jolly if the procedure, which involves flattening the breast to obtain a picture, is painful.

"People complain that it is uncomfortable, but it only lasts four seconds per exposure," Jolly said. "It's much more painful to go through the chemotherapy and radiation than just having a mammogram, so you have to put it all in prospective."

Susan G. Komen for the Cure recommends women get a mammogram every year starting at 40, have a clinical breast exam at least every three years from 20-39 and every year after 40 and do self breast exams monthly beginning at age 20.

Diana Albritton, a breast cancer survivor, said she is living proof that a positive attitude helps combat the disease, and that hair does grow back.

"Radiation and chemotherapy are just forms of medicine and if you have a positive attitude, you can get through it," Albritton said. "It truly is a journey that deserves a big pat on the back. It gives you strength and power you never knew you had."

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