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Each time Lisa Harrington had radiation treatment for breast cancer, she’d hear the words “Take a deep breath and hold.”
She would inhale, hold her breath for 15-20 seconds while radiation was delivered, and exhale once she heard “You can breathe.”
“That sort of sums it up for me. I had five months to ‘take a deep breath and hold’ with breast cancer. Now, I feel I can breathe again,” Lisa said.
After a suspicious mammogram on Sept. 13, 2024, the biopsy, a lumpectomy and 20 radiation treatments, Lisa’s treatments have ended. What hasn‘t ended, however, is championing the importance of annual mammograms. After all, the tumor found in her left breast could only be seen on a mammogram, never felt by touch.
“If I can stress anything, it’s that anyone can get breast cancer. There was no reason for me to have breast cancer, and now here I am a breast cancer survivor -- a place I never expected to be.” said Lisa of rural Muscatine County. She has no family history, eats a healthy diet, exercises regularly and has no risk factors.
“I’m very aware of what this cancer journey could have been like without the capable people at MercyOne Genesis taking care of me every step of the way.”
A routine mammogram is nonroutine
Lisa went in for her annual mammogram with no worries. In hindsight, she’s grateful to the mammogram technologist at the MercyOne Genesis Imaging Center who said: “Let’s take just one more picture.”
She left her mammogram that day without much thought.
A couple of days later, however, she received a call to have a repeat mammogram and then a biopsy at the MercyOne Genesis Davenport Breast Health Center. She was diagnosed with intraductal carcinoma, a condition where abnormal cells are found in the lining of the breast duct.
“I was told ‘You have cancer; it’s not aggressive; it’s very small --about 11 cm.--and our goal is a cure.’ Everything moved along quickly, and that was a real comfort to me at the time.”
Lisa consulted with MercyOne Genesis Davenport Surgical Care surgeon, Richard Cutts, MD. In November 2024, he performed a lumpectomy, a breast-conserving surgery where the breast tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue is removed to treat breast cancer, while preserving as much of the breast tissue as possible.
To build a treatment plan, she then met with MercyOne Genesis oncologist Anoop Aggarwal, MD and radiation oncologist Christine Sharis, MD at the MercyOne Genesis Davenport Cancer Center. Lisa was relieved to learn she wouldn’t need chemotherapy; her treatment would be 20 sessions of radiation treatments and hormone therapy.
“The real story is that I received the best care from the absolute best people,” she said. “Everybody was just so kind, considerate, professional and positive. You have no idea what that means.”
She’s thankful to so many -- from Dr. Sharis, the “kindest woman on the planet,” to Dr. Aggarwal, who would considerately write explanations on notes she would take home, to the MercyOne Genesis Davenport Breast Health Center staff, who patiently answered her questions.
As for her radiation treatments, she would go over her lunch hour – less than a mile from where she worked at St. Ambrose University, Davenport. “I would have to take my shirt off. But from my very first radiation treatment, a tech would offer me a warm blanket. It could have been very awkward and scary, but it wasn’t. They were just so kind,” Lisa said.
Often used for patients with left-sided breast cancer, Lisa did Deep Inspiration Breath Holds during radiation treatments. This technique involves taking a deep breath and holding it while radiation is delivered, moving the heart away from the radiation field.
Today, with her treatments over, she “exhales” with relief and feels overwhelmed with gratitude.
“My daughter who is a physician assistant tells me, ‘Mom. You're a poster child for early detection and screening,” she said. “I owe everything to the screening itself.”
