Athena's Story: How a Mammogram Delay Turned Out to Be a Blessing
Athena Bressel-Garrett is a Breastcancer.org community member in Altadena, California, USA.
While I've always taken scheduling of my annual mammogram seriously, this year, 2016, I'd just started a new job, and delayed my mammogram by about 3-4 months. But, I figured that was no big deal. So when my long-time general practitioner called and said, "Athena, your test indicates you have breast cancer," I was stunned. But, I acted quickly — following his recommendations — and saw a wonderful surgeon in Burbank, CA, Dr. Deanna Attai, who explained that I was a perfect candidate for a clinical trial. This would be a lumpectomy, and intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT). One dose of radiation during surgery, and that would be it! So when I spoke with the surgeon about my case she said, "You know, if you had come in 3-4 months ago, we probably wouldn't have even detected the cancer. So, in this case, it was fortunate timing that my delay in scheduling actually resulted in early detection of the cancer. While all the various procedures before the surgery were not fun, I know they were necessary to ensuring that they pinpointed the cancer so the surgery could be precise and effective.
Long story short, I was back to work in less than a week after the surgery! It was amazing, and my doctor, Raquel Prati, was fabulous. So glad that I had the opportunity, through UCLA, to do the clinical trial for XOFT-IORT. It's now been over 6 years, and I see my wonderful PA (who is documenting my progress in the clinical trial), Lalaine Zaide, yearly, as well as my oncologist, Dr. Kelly McCann. And so far they have made great recommendations; have quickly taken steps to assess any potential issues; and I've remained cancer-free ever since.
