Reconstruction: 75 Real Stories
75 stories match reconstruction. 74 of them mention surgery.
Stage IV HER2-Positive Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Olivia’s Survivor Story
Olivia Franz was 27 and breastfeeding her 4-month-old son when she noticed a painless lump in her left breast in mid-October 2020. An initial ultrasound suggested mastitis, but the lump and swelling grew during a week of antibiotics. A second ultrasound and…
Read this storyStage I Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Survivor Story
Melissa Berry was 42 when routine high-risk screening found Stage I triple-negative breast cancer. Breast cancer ran strongly on her mother’s side, and Melissa had learned she carried a BRCA mutation. Because of that, she was being followed closely with MRI…
Read this storyStage I Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Survivor Story
Melissa Berry learned she carried a BRCA gene alteration at age 32 after several women on her mother’s side of the family developed breast cancer. The result initially frightened her, but it also led to intensive screening with MRI, mammography and ultrasound…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Stephanie’s Survivor Story
Stephanie was 50 when she found a lump in her right breast on July 2, 2018. Mammogram and ultrasound confirmed the lump, and it was removed in early August. The lump itself was benign, but the pathology also found lobular carcinoma in situ, which raised her…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Tara’s Survivor Story
Tara was 50 when routine breast imaging found invasive lobular carcinoma. She had dense breast tissue and a history of many mammogram call-backs, so screening had often been difficult to interpret. Shortly after her 50th birthday in August 2022, a routine…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Renée’s Patient Story
Renée first had cancer at 18, when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Treatment had to move too quickly for fertility preservation, and she was told it would likely cause infertility. She received intensive chemotherapy, total-body radiation, and…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Lucy’s Survivor Story
Lucy E. was diagnosed with grade 3 triple-negative breast cancer 3 days after her 24th birthday. She had found a breast lump and pushed for biopsy even after being told it was likely fibrous tissue. She already knew she carried a BRCA1 mutation, which made…
Read this storyHR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Annette’s Patient Story
Annette La Fontaine was diagnosed with ductal breast cancer in 2021 after finding a lump while showering. She had been through years of intense stress, including family illness, separation, and the pressures of COVID, and she describes reaching diagnosis…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Maiv’s Patient Story
Maiv noticed a slightly raised area and then dimpling in her left breast while losing weight. She contacted her general practitioner quickly and was referred for examination, mammography, ultrasound, and biopsy. About two weeks later, in approximately June…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Feyama’s Survivor Story
Feyama Ashby, a quality and compliance coordinator in MD Anderson’s diagnostic labs, noticed pain in her sternum that extended into her right breast. She initially thought she had pulled a muscle while working out, but the timing lined up with her annual…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Christal’s Survivor Story
Christal Love was 39 when she was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer, described as aggressive hormone-positive, HER2-negative disease that had spread to her lymph nodes. She began treatment locally with chemotherapy. The first cycle used Taxol. During a…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Daneen’s Survivor Story
Daneen had surgery for lobular carcinoma in situ at age 32 and was monitored closely afterward. Tamoxifen was discussed as a preventive option, but she and her husband were trying to have a child after years of infertility and unsuccessful IVF. In June 1999…
Read this storyInvasive Ductal Carcinoma: Simone’s Patient Story
In late 2021, Simone Saint Laurent received a mammogram after pandemic-related screening delays. Suspicious calcifications led to a biopsy and a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. Her doctors recommended removal of both breasts and testing nearby…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Jo’s Survivor Story
Jo was 56 and receiving twice-yearly ultrasound and annual mammography because of dense, cystic breasts. During 2021, several suspicious areas in the left breast were biopsied and found to be benign. A technician later noticed an area in the right breast, but…
Read this storyStage 0 Breast Cancer: Moira’s Survivor Story
Moira, from New Zealand, had stage 0 breast cancer found through routine mammography in 2022. She had no symptoms, and the diagnosis surprised her because it was her second breast-cancer diagnosis, about 10 years after the first. Despite the shock, she felt…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Valiente’s Patient Story
Valiente, a mother from Colombia, found a painless lump in her right breast. Evaluation by oncology and breast specialists, including MRI, confirmed Stage III breast cancer. The diagnosis led her to make major lifestyle changes, including exercising twice as…
Read this storyStage I Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Kim’s Survivor Story
Kim Brisky had worked at Cleveland Clinic Martin Health for 24 years, but being a nurse did not prepare her emotionally for her own Stage I breast cancer diagnosis. After a diagnostic mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy, she learned she had ductal carcinoma that…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Hillary’s Survivor Story
Hillary Robinson was 52 when a routine medical exam found something abnormal in her right breast. She had been busy with family, community work and her family’s manufacturing business, and she had put off yearly mammograms. An ultrasound and mammogram showed…
Read this storyStage III Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Barb’s Survivor Story
Barb’s invasive lobular breast cancer was found after a routine mammogram in November 2016. She had no symptoms and no family history of cancer, so she did not expect the call-back to become serious. Second-look imaging led to ultrasound and biopsy, which…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Tamara’s Survivor Story
Tamara Bumpus discovered a lump in her right breast in 2016 while undergoing testing before an elective procedure. A mammogram found the lump, and biopsy confirmed breast cancer. Genetic testing then revealed just how deep breast cancer ran through her…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Mariann’s Survivor Story
Mariann Lotenero was treated for triple-negative breast cancer with a double mastectomy at a California hospital. Afterward, she was deeply grateful to be alive and said she did not have cancer anymore, but survivorship brought a different problem. Her…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Marilyn’s Survivor Story
Marilyn Alejandro-Rodriguez was approaching 40 when her primary care doctor reminded her to schedule her first screening mammogram. She felt healthy and had no breast symptoms. The baseline mammogram showed a subtle area behind the right nipple. Marilyn was…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Ana’s Survivor Story
Ana was 47 when she noticed a lump in her left breast while showering. Part of the nipple also pulled inward and retracted again when she tried to move it. When referral through her health insurer was taking too long, she sought help from a nonprofit…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Jane’s Survivor Story
Jane Gremling was 66 when a routine mammogram found cancer in her right breast. Her diagnosis came only 6 months after her husband, Ken, had been treated for breast cancer in the same breast. Jane had consistently attended screening mammograms, allowing the…
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