When Becky Wright felt a lump in her breast during a self-exam in March 2013, it didn’t worry her.
She figured it was “probably a water-filled cyst,” said the 51-year-old Marysville resident. “I’d been through this a couple of times, not a problem.”
When the lump grew over the summer and started getting uncomfortable, she still wasn’t worried. Besides, her annual physical exam and mammogram were coming up.
She had the mammogram just before Thanksgiving at the Providence Breast Center. She had to wait until the following Tuesday for results but, in the meantime, she had her annual physical on Monday. At her doctor’s office, a medical assistant read a list of questions:
“Do you have high blood pressure?” No. “Do you have diabetes?” No. “Oh, I see that you have breast cancer.”
“And I go, ‘No, no, no.’ I was in shock,” Wright said. “So I came home, I sat in my closet and I cried.” She worried about what this meant for her three daughters, then ages 19, 23 and 26.
For Sheila Davidson, 63, of Stanwood, it was different. When she found a lump two years ago this month, she called her doctor immediately.
“It’s very scary,” she said, “because, unfortunately, breast cancer does run, or did run, in my family.”
By the end of October 2014, she’d had a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy — and received the breast-cancer diagnosis she’d feared.
It was February 2014 when Debbie Anderson, 49, of Lake Stevens, had a routine mammogram that indicated something might be wrong. Nothing showed up on an ultrasound. When further testing led to a diagnosis of breast cancer, however, the news blindsided her.
“It just kind of stuns you,” she said.
Though it was difficult, Anderson, Davidson and Wright agreed to share their experiences with breast cancer in hopes of helping other women.
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women in Washington, according to a 2011 Susan G. Komen report. And the American Cancer Society expects 5,820 women in Washington to be diagnosed this year, according to its Cancer Statistics Center.
In Snohomish County, an average of 535 women were diagnosed with breast cancer each year from 2009 to 2013, according to the National Cancer Institute’s state profiles.
After the shock of diagnosis comes a barrage of information, Anderson, Davidson and Wright recalled. All three pursued treatment at Providence Regional Cancer Partnership, which brings together a team of cancer specialists for each patient.
(The partnership is a collaboration of Providence, Western Washington Medical Group, the Everett Clinic and Northwest Washington Radiology Oncology Associates.)
First, Wright met with a surgeon who told her everything he’d learned about her cancer and what he thought was her best plan of action, as well as options. “Then you meet with your radiation doctor, and then you meet with your chemo doctor, and then you meet with your medical oncologist,” she said.
Having one, or even two, people come with you to take notes, Anderson said, is “one of the best things you can do.” It also helps to jot down questions that come to mind between doctor visits, she said.
A married mother, Anderson said her children — then ages 10, 13, 22 and 25 — played a big part in her decisions about treatment. “They need me to be around a long time,” she said.
Luckily, her cancer had been caught early. She opted for a lumpectomy and drug treatment with tamoxifen, an estrogen blocker.
Her doctor also advised against eating meat, particularly red meat, as her cancer is a type that feeds on hormones, she said. A friend gave her a helpful cookbook, “The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen.” She also recommends “The Plant-Based Diet” cookbook.
Davidson, a single mother of two grown boys, had a lumpectomy and removal of an affected lymph node, followed by chemo and radiation therapies. Her “best friend,” younger sister Brenda Roberts, accompanied her to treatments.
“She was my lifeline, really, and she was always there,” she said.
One thing she wishes, Davidson said, is that the nurse who hooked her up for chemo could have stayed in the room for a few minutes each time, not just at the start of the first session. Sometimes “you have something that you want to question,” she said. “But there’s nobody there to ask.”
For answers, she turned to the Women with Cancer support group at the Cancer Partnership, which is free, as well as the Young Breast Cancer Support Group on Facebook, started by local women. The name is a misnomer, Wright said, because women of all ages can join.
“We don’t have ages, we don’t have family status, we’re just women with breast cancer,” Wright said.
Diagnosed with stage two cancer in her right breast and stage one cancer in her left, Wright chose a full mastectomy followed a few months later by reconstructive surgery and then a hysterectomy.
One practical lesson she learned? Take everything out of the cupboard and put it on the counter, she said. For six weeks after a mastectomy or reconstructive surgery, your elbows can’t leave your sides.
And advocate for yourself, she said. It took her three tries to find a medical oncologist who “listened to me … listened to my husband … listened to my questions.”
Educate yourself, Anderson said. Information is available from the Cancer Partnership and from reliable websites, like that of the American Cancer Society.
She also recommended the YMCA’s free Live Strong program for cancer survivors.
Davidson recommended the free “Look Good. Feel Better” class at the Cancer Partnership — which offers wigs, makeup and tips on how to use makeup—to help recover from the effects of chemo.
The class helps restore confidence, she said, “so you can say, ‘This is me. This is who I am now.’”
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