7 minute read
A BREAST CANCER SURVIOR
Breast Cancer:
Survivor’s Story
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Cancer affects millions of people around the globe every year. In October, special focus is put on breast cancer awareness, an illness that affects both women and men. For women, it is estimated that one in eight will develop breast cancer in their lives. On average, every two minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States.
For the month of October, the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks and the National Breast Cancer Foundation encourage everyone to screen and seek out education on early detection and treatment of breast cancer.
An important part of education comes from sharing experiences of living with breast cancer. Kristee Hinson of Lebanon, Mo., encourages women to follow medical advice on screening for breast cancer after her experience learning she had breast cancer at the age of 43.
Hinson, a native of Stockton, Mo., was going about her regular life keeping up with her four sons when she discovered a lump. “It felt large. I waited about two weeks before even mentioning it to anyone,” Hinson said. “I began to notice it got larger and I could easily see it. My nipple also began to invert. I had always remembered for years my gynecologist telling me to watch for that.”
A challenge for women is that they might be reluctant to discuss the specifics of signs of breast cancer beyond a lump. The Mayo Clinic adds these additional signs or symptoms of breast cancer: (1) change in size, shape, or appearance of a breast; (2) changes to the skin over the breast, such as dimpling; (3) peeling, scaling, crusting, or flaking of the pigmented area of skin surrounding the nipple or breast skin; (4) nipple inversion; or (5) redness or pitting of the skin over the breast, like the skin of an orange.
As is recommended by cancer organizations and doctors, Hinson made an appointment with her doctor to discuss the discovered lump. “She sent me for a mammogram, I hadn’t yet had one.
Then they did an ultrasound,” Hinson said. “The doctor called me back in for an MRI. Then I had a biopsy. My official diagnosis was Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Stage 2b.”
A year after beginning her breast cancer journey, Hinson is a survivor and healthy.
Celebrating completing two rounds of chemo, her halfway point in chemo treatments to battle breast cancer.
“As soon as I found the lump, I immediately knew I had cancer. I just knew deep down.”
The diagnosis was a surprise to Hinson. Her maternal grandmother was the only family member she knew of who’d had breast cancer, and that was when the grandmother was in her sixties.
The next step in the diagnostic process was identifying the type of cancer. There are many different kinds of cancers found in breast tissue. Hinson’s prognosis was good. “My oncologist told me that if I was going to get breast cancer, this is the one to get. She told me from the beginning that this was curable with a very low chance for recurrence. I didn’t have the genetic markers for the BRCA gene. My cancer was hormone receptor positive,” Hinson said.
Armed with this information, Hinson and her medical team began their fight. “I had a mastectomy on July 1, 2021. My port was placed a few weeks later,” Hinson said. “I had four rounds of chemotherapy each three weeks apart. Then I had 25 radiation treatments five days a week.”
For the five weeks of her treatment, Hinson was fortunate to have groups of friends and family help care for her and her boys. Anyone who has been through cancer treatments or has cared for a loved one going through the process knows that it truly is a battle that can’t be overcome without help. “I had people bring meals, groceries, clean my house, and send cards and letters of encouragement,” Hinson said. “I had a whole group of ladies clean my house for me on my very first chemo treatment.”
Hinson shared her immense gratitude for the gift cards to restaurants and grocery stores and gift baskets filled with things to get her through treatment. She was surrounded by kindness in friends sharing snacks, books, chap stick, and cozy socks. “I had flowers delivered. I had friends take turns driving me to my daily radiation treatments,” Hinson said.
Having the support team was important to Hinson because the treatments were exhausting. “Chemo treatments would wipe me out for about a week and a half. I would finally start to get some energy back and it would be time to go for another one. I lost weight, lost my appetite. My mouth had sores and everything tasted awful. All I could do was rest.”
As she went through her treatments, Hinson marked the milestones. “About two and a half weeks after my first chemo treatment my hair began falling out,” Hinson said remembering a turning point for many cancer patients. “That day I sat on the edge of my bed and kept running my hands through my hair and it came out by the handful. I knew that I had to shave it because I couldn’t handle losing it slowly. I had someone come to my house to shave it off. I sat outside on my deck. We bagged it up and threw it away. That was that.”
While overcoming the physical demands of chemo and radiation treatments can be overwhelming, the emotional cost must also be acknowledged. “I was scared from day one,” Hinson said. “That’s why I put off calling the doctor immediately. I wanted to ignore it. Once it became official, the fear became reality.”
“You think that it could never happen to you and then it does. I was worried about the scar. I still am,” Hinson said. “I opted for a reconstruction. Stage one of the reconstruction happened at the time of mastectomy. It’s definitely not perfect and I am very self-conscious about it. While I’m not currently married, that does cause me embarrassment and anxiety, especially for my future relationships.”
More than a year after her diagnosis, Hinson is on the way to winning her cancer battle. “I just recently had my port removed. All of my labs are good. They won’t say cancer free officially until some more time has passed,” Hinson said. “I still see my oncologist every three months for checkups. It will be less as more time goes by. Because my cancer is hormone receptor positive, I will take medication for the next seven to 10 years to lesson my chances of recurrence.”
After her experiences, Hinson encourages others going through cancer treatments not to be afraid to ask for help and accept it when offered. “It was such a blessing to have so many people care for my family. I couldn’t have made it without everyone. Don’t worry about what you can’t do during treatment, you have to take care of your body. You are fighting something that is trying to kill you. So, you can’t worry about whether your house is clean. Your job is to trust your medical team and to follow their care instructions. It’s so important to find a good support system: family, friends, church family, counselor.”
Finding these resources in our area is made easier by the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks (BCFO). Based in Springfield, the BCFO works to help Ozarkians battle breast cancer in many ways. They provide education on breast cancer detection and access to free mammograms. For those battling breast cancer, they provide additional information, support groups, financial assistance, and more. If you or someone you know could benefit from these resources, the BCFO can be contacted at 417-862-3838, or information about the organization can be found on their website at www.bcfo.org.
Having been through this journey and joining the more than 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, Hinson looks back and is thankful to have made it through the surgeries and treatments. “There were some excruciating days. But to be on this side of cancer is truly a blessing,” Hinson said. “I highly encourage everyone to get your mammogram. They aren’t scary. They aren’t that painful. It’s so important. Also, self breast exams. If something doesn’t look or feel right, call your doctor. That’s what they are there for.” n
Hinson enjoyed a summer trip this year to the Gulf Shores, Alabama with her boys, (left to right) Micah, Noah, Eli, and Jonah.
