'Cancer is a tough thing': Provider turned patient reflects on her battle with breast cancer

Oct. 16—Erin Armstrong, a lab clinician tech at Mosaic Cancer Care, has seen firsthand how cancer can impact the lives of her patients. Over the last few months, though, she faced cancer head-on with a diagnosis of her own.

In June of this year, after neglecting herself and prioritizing the needs of her family, she had a feeling something was wrong.

"It started with one day I got in the shower, and I happened to look down and my nipple was inverted," Armstrong said.

She then carried the issue to work with her, in passing asking for advice from fellow coworkers in the cancer center. Armstrong went to her primary care provider, who did not initially think it was cancer, so she was prescribed medication that ultimately did not help the issue. It wasn't until she spoke to a cancer center provider in passing and asked if they had a moment to spare for a consult.

"Fast track two weeks, and I got my diagnosis," Armstrong said. "It changed things dramatically. It kind of humbled me a little bit."

Doctors discovered a tumor of almost 10 centimeters in her breast. Armstrong did 16 rounds of chemotherapy, followed by a double mastectomy and 33 rounds of radiation.

"Because I work at the cancer center, I had a hard time saying that I was sick," Armstrong shared. "I continued to just come to work and do what I did for my patients because I felt that they were sicker than I was, so that was really hard to say, that I was sick. But, I had such a village that I didn't have a reason to have any other attitude besides a positive one."

Throughout the entirety of treatment, Armstrong chose to continue working, explaining that being able to go to work allowed her to escape her own problems for a little while. She relied on her family, though, to pick up the slack at home after long days of work while her body continued to fight every day.

While going through something deeply personal and an experience that can be very scary for most, Armstrong continued to worry about the people she cared about deeply.

"Cancer was the furthest thing from my brain that my family would go through, because we have had a couple cancers but nothing major," Armstrong said. "To find out that it wasn't genetic, it was just pure bad luck, kind of put us at ease for all of our girls, because we have a daughter and I have a lot of nieces."

As she embarked on her battle against the disease she works with every day, Armstrong set out to face everything cancer threw at her with as positive an attitude as she could.

"Attitude is everything, so I kind of went into this with, 'I am a fortunate cancer patient and treatment was available,' so that made the whole process easier," Armstrong said. "I knew I had to put on a brave face and do all of the steps so that our girls, and my boys and my nephews knew that you could fight through whatever you put your mind to."

After her bouts of chemo and radiation, Armstrong is still on a hormone therapy to block the hormones that the tumor was targeting, and oral chemo that boosts hormones to increase the chances of the cancer not returning. In light of her battle somewhat behind her, Armstrong now faces every health issue in her life as a priority.

"It made me realize that it can happen to anyone, no matter what your circumstances are, cancer does not discriminate," Armstrong said. "I have learned that you have to take the time to take care of yourself, so the self breast exams, going to your OBGYN and getting those exams, your mammograms, are important because I just never thought they were as important as they were."

Armstrong emphasized that anyone who feels something may be off, to go to a primary care provider to get it checked out.

"Even if you think it's nothing, it could be something."

Stef Manchen can be reached at stef.manchen@newspressnow.com.