Katy’s
Courage
Katy Huth fights on after tumultuous year and a breast cancer diagnosis
By Bre Offenberger
C
OVID-19 shifted everyone’s perspective in some way, but for Katy Huth, it completely changed her life. Huth, owner of the Yoga Loft and an ER nurse, was already facing the effects of the pandemic. Both her and her husband’s businesses shut down, so she tried to find something positive to focus on. She took it upon herself to practice self-reflection as well as 100 consecutive days of exercise, which got her through October 2020. In November, Huth’s next step was to alleviate her eczema, which was heightened due to the constant stressors of last year, so she visited a dermatologist for the first time. The doctor told her to return in a month for a full assessment. In December, the dermatologist revealed some concerns. She didn’t like the look of the skin under Huth’s left breast, so she asked if she’sd ever had a mammogram.
30 • August/September 2021
“I laughed,” Huth says. “I was like, ‘Well, I’m only 41. That’s not something you do at 41.’ The only thing she said to me was, ‘I’m just concerned about this skin,’ and I was like, ‘It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s been there for a while.’ I said I’m not concerned. The last thing she said to me as I was walking out the door, she said, ‘Please promise to go get a mammogram.’” Huth kept that promise. The OhioHealth Bing Cancer Center booked her for a mammogram the same week. The next day, a nurse called with similar concerns and asked her to come in that afternoon. Huth underwent another mammogram and an ultrasound, and after a biopsy the next week, it was confirmed. “That was definitely the scariest time I’d ever experienced, just waiting for the diagnosis,” Huth says. Huth needed surgery. She found out she was estrogenprogesterone positive and had invasive lobular carcinoma, which means the cancer has spread to the breast tissue. She also had carcinoma in situ with a five-anda-half-centimeter tumor. She needed clean margins of about nine centimeters for surgery, so she was told she needed a total mastectomy on her left breast. Huth ultimately decided to undergo a bilateral mastectomy.
In February, she started chemotherapy, receiving four treatments every three weeks. However, she was allergic to the treatment. “The nurses at the Columbus Oncology were fantastic,” Huth says. “On my third treatment, when I had another reaction, the nurse was with me the entire time, stopped the treatment right away. I cannot say enough about how wonderful my experience was with that.” She is currently undergoing radiation treatment. Huth says the three hardest parts about cancer are the diagnosis, surgery and thought of losing her hair. She planned to accept the hair loss, but her 9-year-old daughter said something that changed her mind. “She goes, ‘Mom, people will make fun of you if you lose your hair,’ because as a 9-year-old, that’s powerful and impactwww.dublinlifemagazine.com
