One year and three surgeries later, Sharyn Doutt, Army veteran, has endured a lumpectomy and lymphadenectomy before being diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer and having a port inserted to begin chemotherapy.
Doutt's breast cancer battle began July 2015 after getting a physical exam done so she could be recertified to be a foster parent. During her exam, her physician noticed she had not gotten a mammogram in 2014. A mammogram is a X-ray of the breast that is taken with a device that compresses and flattens the breast. The image from a mammogram can help physicians diagnose any breast health problems.
"She reminded me I needed to get one done every year and I was like, 'Whatever,' but she insisted and said, "Humor me.' So I went and that's when my life changed," Doutt said.
Up until 2014, Doutt, said she had been getting mammograms done regularly, but had slacked that year. She said she had been diligently getting mammograms because of her Family history with breast cancer.
"My grandmother and my great-grandmother both died of breast cancer," she said. "Usually by the time people in my Family go and get checked they are at Stage 4. So for me I feel like it wasn't a matter of 'if' as much as 'when.' I knew it was coming. My 2013 [mammogram] was good to go so the next year I just didn't go because I knew it was going to be negative, but then all this happened. My number just came up, you know?"
Year One
After her initial mammogram, she was called back for additional imaging three times before she was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ. Doutt said at that time it was precancerous, but she opted to have it removed anyway.
By November 2015, Doutt had undergone a biopsy, another mammogram and a lumpectomy. During the lumpectomy, surgeons were able to remove a 1.5 centimeter lump from her breast. She later had a lymphadenectomy where two of her lymph nodes were removed to be tested for cancer.
"At that point all of your inhibitions are gone," she said. "Everyone has looked. Everyone has poked." Despite her lymph node results being negative, Doutt was called in for an appointment at Jennie Stuart Medical Center on New Year's Day to receive another diagnosis -- triple negative breast cancer.
"When the oncologist told me I was like, 'Yeah! I don't have any breast cancer on the left, the margins are clear and my lymph nodes are clear,' but then he told me that wasn't what he meant at all," she said.
A triple negative breast cancer diagnosis means the offending tumor is estrogen receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative and HER2-negative, according to the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation. About 10 to 20 percent of all breast cancers are triple negative, making it a rare type.
"I didn't know anything about it at the time so I thought that was a good thing, but I was wrong," she said. "He told me that at my age, 55, they would be able to do something for me, but if I had been older they wouldn't have even talked to me about recovery."
Doutt said being told she had even more breast cancer after having her lymph nodes removed was very emotional for her and her Family.
"Me and the surgeon on post had been high-fiving not a month before because [my lymph nodes] came back negative, but then I got the news about the triple negative breast cancer," she said. "Honestly, I was good to go, I really was OK until they told me I was going to need chemo."
Triple negative breast cancer is commonly treated with a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery because it is aggressive, according to the Susan G. Komen Organization.
Doutt said learning she had triple negative breast cancer was overwhelming, especially because she thought she was only going in for a 20-minute appointment. She said they immediately told her she was going to need chemotherapy, which was the breaking point for her.
"I was just flooded with information and it all seemed like something I didn't want to be bothered with," she said. "I kept thinking, 'What if I just say no? What if I just walk out of here and just go home?' They told me that was my choice, but reminded me they still had a chance to help me then, but three to six months later they wouldn't be able to. I really needed a break and time to think."
Chemotherapy
After deliberating, Doutt agreed to undergo surgery to have a port inserted so she could begin chemotherapy. Ports are used during chemotherapy to deliver medications through the body without having to use needles, according to The National Cancer Institute.
Chemotherapy is used to treat breast cancer because it can stop or delay the growth of cancer cells, which grow and divide quickly, however, chemotherapy also affects healthy cells, according to the institute.
Because of this, side effects of chemotherapy include mouth sores, nausea, fatigue and hair loss.
"The Tuesday after New Year's Day I started chemo and pretty much three weeks to the day my hair started falling out," Doutt said. "I'm not a wig person. I'm not a hat person. So I just bought biker bandanas. I work in the school system so the kids kept asking me if I had joined a gang. I joked with them and told them they didn't want to be in this gang because the initiation is awful."
While in class with the students, Doutt said she experienced some tough moments, but she was able to turn them into educational opportunities.
"I would be sitting in class and my head would itch, but then when you touch it, it hurts," she said. "That's one of the side effects of chemo. So when nobody was looking I would shake the bandana out, because my hair was falling out by the handfuls. The kids wanted to know what I was doing, so I told them."
Doutt said many of the school children told her they had relatives who had died from cancer, but they did not understand anything about the disease.
"I told them that this is the kind of cancer we talk about," she said. "If you talk about something it isn't scary. A lot of these kids didn't even know their relatives were sick before they died. That's how it was in my Family, too. People would die and you weren't allowed to ask any questions, discuss what was happening or even acknowledge what was going on."
By opening up this line of dialogue with the students, Doutt said she was able to answer several of their questions and help them to better understand cancer.
"It would be really awful to go through something as traumatic as this and feel so alone. I don't want to be treated like I have leprosy," she said. "So we talk about [cancer] a lot and we joke about [cancer] a lot, because that's the only way to get through it."
Doutt said her students, Family and coworkers have rallied around her through this experience to help her get through it. She said she has cards hung up in her living room to remind her that people are thinking about her.
"I have had students tell me they prayed for me in Sunday School over the weekend or that their church is praying for me and that really helps me," she said.
Radiation therapy
In addition to having surgery and completing 16 rounds of chemotherapy, Doutt also finished 28 rounds of radiation therapy to treat her breast cancer.
"Honestly I don't know how I'm not Spider-Man already, but my hands hurt so even if I was I wouldn't be able to squirt any webs out or anything," she said, jokingly. "My fingers aren't numb, but they feel buzzy. I can feel things, but I can't feel the details of things. It's a little weird, but that's one of the side effects."
Doutt said out of everything she has overcome, radiation therapy was the worst thing she endured.
"They told me it wasn't going to be so bad and that it was going to be like a sunburn, but I got burnt all in my armpits," she said. "You are laying there and you have your arms up above your head, this high intensity X-ray bounces back and forth over you. So my armpit was the poor recipient of the brunt of it."
Radiation therapy uses a high-energy radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells, according to The National Cancer Institute. This form of therapy can kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA, however it can also damage healthy cells. Doutt said she was told it takes about three days for the radiation to take affect.
"So at first you're thinking it's really not that bad, but by day three the side effects hit and it's not necessarily too late, but it's kind of too late to do anything about it," she said. "They will tell you to use this cream or that, but it can get pretty bad."
Even after her chemotherapy and radiation therapy, Doutt is still waiting to find out if she is cancer free.
"I haven't had a [positron emission tomography] yet," she said. "I asked for one, but because I just finished my chemo if I got a PET scan now it would light up like a Christmas tree because of all the chemo inside of me."
Support
In May, a nurse from Blanchfield Army Community Hospital invited her to join BACH's Breast Cancer Support Group to make friends and to learn more about her diagnosis.
"When she invited me to the support group she told me it wasn't like everyone was sitting around crying or anything. She said people were talking and laughing. I wanted to be a part of that," Doutt said. "It's been so good and helpful to me."
LaVene Lohrbach, BACH's lead mammography technologist, is the Breast Cancer Support Group's facilitator. She said counseling and support groups are encouraged for those fighting breast cancer.
"They are going through the most difficult part of their life and they need another shoulder to cry on," Lohrbach said. "They need to know other people are going through the same things they are. There's strength in numbers."
During the sessions, members of the support group share tips to help cope with the side effects from different therapies and medications, Lohrbach said.
"The treatments can vary from one person to another, so each person is going to have a different experience," she said. "Collectively though, they have gone through all facets of breast cancer treatment. So there's going to be someone in that room who is going through the exact same thing they are."
About 12 people are members of the support group, but Lohrbach said participation varies from month to month based on their schedules and appointments. The support group meets at 2 p.m. the third Thursday of every month and the location varies.
Doutt said from the support group she has learned how to treat her mouth sores and better understands her nerve damage from the radiation therapy. She said she encourages anyone with cancer to research their diagnosis as much as possible.
"I knew nothing about these drugs so I had to look online to learn more about the side effects," she said. "There's a lot of trial and error when it comes to the side effects, but it's important to understand how to deal with the side effects because if you are miserable you aren't going to want to go back."
Because triple negative breast cancer is a rare form of cancer, Doutt said she struggled to find many resources to help her better understand her disease.
"I had to piece it all together and it just didn't look good," she said. "Then I found out it's one of the only breast cancers that causes women to gain weight. I started laughing and told my husband, 'Leave it to me to get the one cancer that causes this,' That's just my luck."
Doutt said her next mammogram is scheduled for February, but she is not sure what will happen between now and then. She said having a team of people around her to keep her positive has carried her through this experience.
"The support group is great because on a regular day I can talk about my breast cancer to people who don't have breast cancer and they can empathize with me and they can feel for me, but at the end of the day they are going home without cancer and I still have it," she said. "So it's important to have people surrounding you that are in the trenches with you."
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