It wasn't until about a week after surgery the 41-year-old Kaukauna woman — in the safety of her own shower — looked down at where her breasts once where. Then, apprehensively, she opened the shower curtain and for the first time saw her new body in the mirror. There were no tears, just stunned silence.
"I was just looking at it and saying, 'This is what it is,'" she said. "Now I have to go through the healing process, but I'm not done."
Deciding what to do post-mastectomy is a personal and very emotional choice for women battling breast cancer. But there are options, including implants or natural tissue reconstruction, breast forms or nothing at all. Mischler's choice was reconstruction.
In December 2009, Mischler, then 39, went to her annual doctor's appointment and, in a health update, brought up the fact her sister had a benign tumor. Because Mischler was close to 40, the doctor suggested an early baseline mammogram, which led to more pictures. Thankfully, everything came back OK.
On her second mammogram a year later, Mischler again was called with the request of more pictures. This time, the outcome would be devastating.
"All of a sudden the nurse pulled me into a room and the doctor or technician was going to talk to me," Mischler said. "They came in and said, 'You have clusters of calcification.' And I'm like, 'OK, what does that mean?'"
A biopsy discovered aggressive cancer cells that hadn't yet spread. Through additional testing, Mischler also found she had inherited the BRCA 1 breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene from her father's side of the family.
Although she was scheduled to have the clusters of calcification removed from her breasts via a lumpectomy, she decided instead on a double mastectomy and oophorectomy (removal of the tubes and ovaries). No cancer was found in her lymph nodes, which remained intact. And she required no chemotherapy or radiation.
Mischler decided to have reconstruction surgery simply, she said, because she could. "I had them to begin with and had the feeling I'd miss them. They kind of define who you are. And not having them is just scary. So I opted for the reconstruction."
While women have many options after a mastectomy or lumpectomy, let's first discuss what happens when a woman receives the initial news she has breast cancer.
In the United States this year, it's expected more than 230,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed and almost 40,000 lives will be lost because of it.
However, not all the news is bad: There are some 2.6 million breast cancer survivors.
So, what's a woman to do in addition to yearly mammograms after age 40 and clinical breast exams at least every three years while in her 20s and 30s?
» Perform regular breast self-exams, checking for lumps or looking for other tell-tale signs such as pain in the breast or the nipple and flaky or red skin on the breast.
» Be physically active, eat balanced meals that include plenty of fruits and vegetables and limit the intake of alcohol. Women who are overweight are at a higher risk for breast cancer, and our survey found that 30 percent of those who responded were overweight and 44 percent were obese (male and female).
There are other things to consider, though, including genetics and family history of breast cancer, having a child late in life or no children at all and the use of oral contraceptives. These things might increase your risks.
If you have health insurance, be sure to work with your physician on early detection.
If you are 40 or older and don't have health insurance, give us a call at (800) 944-2232. We'll do our best to help you.
For more information on breast cancer and our program, visit us online at www.rosscountyhealth.com.
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