brainerddispatch.com Brainerd Dispatch | Wednesday, October 2, 2024
| BREAST CANCER AWARENESS 2024 | B1
STRIKING OUT CANCER:
PILLAGER WOMAN KEEPS HIGH SPIRITS AMID BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSIS BY THERESA BOURKE Brainerd Dispatch
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veryone has their struggles. Larae Thomas’s just happens to be breast cancer. “This is just a chapter in my life. It’s not my life story,” the Pillager woman said during an interview Wednesday, Sept. 25, at Christmas Point in Baxter. The story started last November, when Thomas, 49, finally decided to get a lump in her breast checked out. It was time for her yearly physical and mammogram anyway. After a mammogram in December, she was called back for an ultrasound and then a biopsy. “I’ve always kind of had that feeling in the back of my mind that I would end up with cancer at some point in my life because we have so much cancer on both sides of my family,” she said. “So I just had that feeling.” It turns out, her feeling was right. The results came back the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Thomas received the call when she was at work but wasn’t as distraught as might be expected. “You cry because it’s life-changing and you know everything’s going to be different, but I had that peace, too, of it’s
Robyn Schaefer is surrounded by family at an anniversary celebration.
going to be OK. We’re going to handle it,” she said. That’s the mindset Thomas has strived to keep up over the past months, as she’s undergone chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and a host of complications. Thomas’ cancer is triple positive, meaning it’s fueled by both the estrogen and progesterone hormones and the HER2 protein. Only about 10% of breast cancer cases fall into that category, which comes with both positives and negatives. On the downside, the cancer is aggressive and can spread quickly. On the upside, though, Thomas said there are more treatment options. At the advice of her daughter, who is a nurse, Thomas opted for a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic and is grateful for the world-class care she received both there and back home in Brainerd. Doctors found more lumps after the initial ultrasound and biopsy, along with an enlarged mammary gland. Thus started the whirlwind of appointments, treatments and a new way of life. Thomas underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy and received two hormone blockers before opting for a double mastectomy to remove the cancer. She exhibited some of
said. “We always are looking for something to celebrate and a reason to eat food.” The surgery was indeed a celebration, if not at least for the fact Thomas opted for that route instead of just a lumpectomy. The tumor in her breast was much larger than expected, and they discovered two more cancerous tumors in the lymph nodes in her armpits. Those latter tumors had not previously shown up on any other scans. After surgery came five weeks of 25 radiation treatments at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Thomas stayed at the American Contributed Cancer Society Hope Larae Thomas (second from right) poses with her family Aug. 30, 2024, at Mayo Clinic Lodge during her time there, with family memafter ringing a bell signifying the end of her five weeks of radiation treatments. bers able to once again be secretary in Pillager and the lesser seen symptoms change was still noticeby her side. able, after having colored continuing to work in the from chemotherapy, like “That was amazing, her hair for years and nursery at her church, mouth sores and peeling being able to stay there watching it grow back Thomas worried kids fingernails, having to and being with people with gray. would be scared about keep Band-aids on her that may not have the “I knew I was gray, and her changing appearance. experience with breast fingers a lot of the time that’s why I colored my But it was another to keep the nails from cancer, but that are expehair all the time,” she instance where she coming apart completely. riencing cancer, and turned to God and knew She also had to face her said. “But this is hard, we’re all in the same boat looking at it. I get compli- he would help work fear of losing her hair, with getting radiation ments all the time, but through it. which might have affectand being away from it’s not me. Thomas had a support ed her more than the home,” Thomas said. “I remember looking in squad of 10 family memactual cancer diagnosis. With radiation came the mirror that day that I bers come down to the She checked into a cold complications. Mayo Clinic with her for cap, which could help pre- had been diagnosed and Two skin infections thinking, ‘Larae, you are her surgery, and they vent hair loss during threw a wrench in the never going to look the rented a house to stay at chemo, but the expense treatments, as did anothsame again. You are together while eating ice turned out to be too er, more severe issue. going to look old.’ And cream and celebrating much, and the odds of it Thomas woke up one the next step in Thomas’s night with the kind of working were only 50/50. that was really hard.” Having previously journey. While Thomas didn’t worked as a school “That’s my family,” she lose all of her hair, the THOMAS on B2
♥ Robyn
Advocate!
Be Your Own
When I was told that I had an abnormal mammogram, I was terrified.
I had planned on leaving the next morning for Florida for four months, and the lady on the phone said I should have it checked when I returned. That’s when I learned my first lesson: Be Your Own Advocate. I canceled my travel plans and scheduled another mammogram. After two mammograms, two ultrasounds and seven biopsies the findings were conflicting. I supposedly had three lesions, one at 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock. It didn’t make sense to me. The surgeon was ready to do a lumpectomy on one breast, but I said “No, take them both.” After the surgery the doctor said that was the smartest decision I could have made; one breast was full of cancer. It is a terrifying situation. Ask questions and research the possibilities. The doctors and nurses do the best they can, but each situation is different. I am very fortunate, we caught it early before it spread to my lymph nodes. I had 30 sessions of radiation and no chemo.
I am cancer free and thankful for the medical attention I received!