Survivor Shares Her Story

Deb MacDougal
Survivor is grateful for financial help from Saint Agatha
By Mary Beth Roach
From In Good Health CNY, October 2024

Debra MacDougal, 66, had her regular annual mammogram in the spring of 2023.

When the results came back a few weeks later, her doctors told her they wanted her to have a sonogram.

Following that, she said, the doctor immediately suggested a biopsy. After a series of other tests, it was confirmed that she had breast cancer, specifically, invasive ductal carcinoma stage 1A.

“When I was first told that, I did not cry,” she said. “I was at peace because I look at it this way — if you do have it, what can you do about it?”

As MacDougal sees it, everyone has challenges in life.

“We’re given those challenges to make us stronger and to learn something from it,” she said.

After the diagnosis, things moved quickly. In July, she met with her surgical team, and on Aug. 24, she had a mastectomy. Earlier testing had shown that there were three masses, two on the top of her breast, the other on the lower part. And because she’s small-breasted, a lumpectomy was not feasible, she explained.

During the surgery, her doctor also removed two lymph nodes and sent them for a biopsy.

As explained by the Mayo Clinic, a sentinel node biopsy is a procedure to see if cancer has spread. It can tell whether the cancer cells have broken away from where they started and spread to the lymph nodes. Sentinel node biopsy is often used in people who have breast cancer, melanoma and other types of cancer.

In MacDougal’s case, the first lymph node had signs of cancer; the second did not.

MacDougal is on a hormone medication that she said she needs to take for five years. Her doctor has told her it’s hard to say she’s in remission yet because she’s still got four more years on the medication.

However, MacDougal said her prognosis is very good; tests in May were great and more follow-up testing is slated for November.

Before surgery, she told her doctor she did not want reconstruction, concerned about any repercussions that might happen and because, at that time, there was not a reconstructive surgeon near enough to her home in West Monroe in southern Oswego County.

She said she did have concerns about how she was to cover her bills. She was able to get financial support — and some moral support, too — from the Saint Agatha Foundation, CancerConnects and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

She neither smokes nor drinks. She also spends a great deal of time exploring nature around her home.

Recently, she took part in a documentary filmed for the Saint Agatha Foundation, titled “Impact of Our Mission,” which will premiere at the foundation’s gala on Oct. 24. The film, produced by Johnson Studio & Camera, features testimonies given by patients who have been reached by Saint Agatha Foundation’s mission.

In a follow-up to this interview, MacDougal further expressed her gratitude to these organizations in an email.

“I feel everyone must be his or her own foundation, love thyself completely, surrender and live in the moment no matter what comes their way. It is when one does that, that their whole being changes and the energy that goes out to others comes back to them. You receive people around you with beautiful energy, such as doctors, nurses, CancerConnects, Saint Agatha Foundation, Susan G. Komen. I think every individual with breast cancer should be in touch with these beautiful, supportive and caring organizations for they will ease their burden so that they may heal and just be ‘in the moment’ with their healing and recovery.”

In addition, MacDougal noted that “the breast cancer patient also gives something to all they come in contact with and that is strength, love, understanding, courage and, yes, happiness.”

You can view the whole story here: https://www.cnyhealth.com/features/

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