FIRST-HAND ADVICE AND INSIGHT TO HELP CAREGIVERS COPE
A DISCUSSION WITH
C A R R I E WA R D In 2018, Carrie Ward and her family were still reeling from her husband’s health issues when the news got worse. She learned she had two different kinds of breast cancer and would require multiple surgeries and treatments. Then, after beating her cancer back, as 2021 ended, Ward learned it had returned. In both battles, her fears and worries have loomed large, but her friends, family and the faith she found after the initial diagnosis are proving much bigger.
JOY: Please share a little bit about your initial cancer diagnosis and treatment and your recent diagnosis. Ward: I had been having peeling of my right nipple for about two years. Nothing had shown up on my mammogram, but I decided to change my OBGYN in 2018 and had my first visit with her in May. This appointment was 10 days after we returned from my husband’s check-up after he’d had a benign brain tumor removed. The OBGYN advised it was not normal and ordered a diagnostic mammogram. The mammogram did not show anything, but I was referred to Dr. Strickland because the radiologist believed I could have Paget’s disease. It was Paget’s disease, a rare form of breast cancer. An MRI showed I had two masses in the right breast as well as the Paget’s disease in the nipple. I had my double mastectomy with tissue expanders placed in September 2018. We waited anxiously for the pathology report to come back, and I was shocked to find out that the two masses (that went undetected in the right breast
32
JOYTOLIFE.ORG
PHOTOGRAPHY BY NANCY FIELDS / BIG DREAMZ CREATIVE
real
