Darleen - Breast Cancer Awareness
“My story started in…
January 2012. My husband, Evelio and I married later in life, our wedding date is November 20, 2010. I was 41, he was 46. We wanted to try and have a baby together so we started visiting doctors and started making a plan to see if it would be possible. We kept trucking along with doctors and giving samples but in August 2012, as we were fixing dinner, I felt a lump on my right breast. Of course, I had him touch it, ‘Have you felt that there before?’ He replied, ‘No’ so the next morning I made an appointment to see my gynecologist. Went in for the appointment and the Nurse Practitioner examined me, and thought it was probably a swollen gland, ‘Nothing to worry about, probably because of your menstrual cycle’ but sent me for an ultrasound and my first mammogram. I should have had a mammogram a long time ago, my mom had breast cancer and my family history warranted one.”
“On August 7, 2012…
I had my mammogram and ultrasound at Susan Cheek Needler Breast Center on the Morton Plant Hospital campus. The radiologist read my images, and saw something suspicious. She asked me if I would have time that day for an ultrasound guided biopsy, there was a cancellation and I could have it done that day. So I did. Afterwards she asked to speak with my husband and me privately in a conference room. All I remember her saying was, ‘I do not want the rug to be pulled out from you tomorrow so I am telling you what I felt. During the biopsy it felt solid like a tumor and I believe it is going to come back as malignant. I believe you have breast cancer.’ My mind went blank. I heard, ‘chemotherapy is not cookie cutter anymore,’ ‘better outcomes,’ blah blah blah. I don’t think I cried, I think I was in shock.”
“The end of August…
I met with my breast Surgeon Dr Peter Blumencranz. He validated the imaging, and discussed my plan of care. Port placement, six rounds of chemotherapy, surgery to remove my right breast, and 36 rounds of radiation. Why chemo first? Because I have a very aggressive form of cancer (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma) IDC and my tumor was too large to remove. It was the size of a golf ball and trying to remove it first could lead to it spreading. Come to find out it had already spread to my lymph nodes, which made it stage III. The thoughts of having a baby disappeared and surviving cancer became our reality.”
“I finished my chemo…
in January 2013. I had to wait until my blood work stabilized prior to my mastectomy. On Valentine’s Day was my surgery, and I started radiation in May 2013. Chemotherapy continued until October 2013 and at my last treatment, I looked around the Infusion Center. All different types of people, different ages, nationalities. Cancer does not discriminate. It was at that time that I decided I wanted to go to nursing school, work in an oncology unit, and pay forward all the care that was given to me. I knew I wanted to work for BayCare, all my doctors were BayCare doctors.”
“In April 2014…
I enrolled at Galen College of Nursing. My clinicals were at St Anthony’s, I knew I wanted to work there. I graduated in October 2016. I had taken my boards before graduation and passed, so I really was a registered nurse when I walked across the stage for my diploma. I applied to BayCare, Largo Medical, and Palms of Pasadena. I had my Palms and St Anthony’s interviews on the same day. Palms was the first one to offer me a job in their bariatric unit, and my interview with St Anthony’s was for the oncology unit. I held out for the offer from St. Anthony’s and I accepted.”
“When I think back…
about everything that happened with me, I really can say that God put me in a path that I could not deny. Everything happened for a reason, cancer happened for a reason, and I am a nurse today because of cancer. I work at BayCare and St. Anthony’s because of cancer. But most importantly, I fulfilled a promise I made to myself and that was to pay forward what my BayCare doctors and nurses did for me when I had cancer.”
When I met Darleen…
We were both working on the Oncology floor at St Anthony’s Hospital. She was just starting her career as a nurse, and was doing an amazing job. She is caring, kind, smiling, sarcastic (in a good way), and a great nurse. It is an honor to know and work with her.
Please make sure you do your monthly exams, it could save your life!
