Retired Severe Weather Team 2 Meteorologist Karen Minton wanted to share an update with all of you on her breast cancer diagnosis.
Minton’s second surgery as part of her treatment for stage 1 breast cancer went well and she is resting and doing well.
Karen headed into her surgery this week knowing her prognosis is better because of one thing: they caught her cancer early after a mammogram.
“My message to other women who put this off is please don’t. Please don’t put it off,” she said.
Channel 2′s Linda Stouffer talked with one of Karen’s doctors, Dr. Adam Nowlan, who is a radiation oncologist. He explained how the team at Piedmont Hospital isolated Karen’s cancer at stage 1.
“Because the lesion wasn’t well seen on the mammogram, shadowy, we used an MRI to guide the location of the biopsy,” he said.
During the pandemic, many woman have been putting off potentially life-saving mammograms.
“If you’ve fallen off the wagon as far as annual mammograms we’d like to encourage you to get back on track,” Nowlan said.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says every year in the United States that 255,000 women get breast cancer and 42,000 women die from it.
Nowlan said advancements are making it possible for treat early stage cancer even more quickly.
“We’re really looking forward to a day it might be possible treat the average patient- without lymph nodes.. involved, with a week of radiotherapy that being sum total of what they need in the post operative setting,” Nowlan said.
“I keep my checks going. I constantly go in when they tell me we have to have something looked at further, I do it. You have to find it early because I am not going anywhere,” Karen said.
Most breast cancers are found in women who are 50 years old or older, but younger women can get it too.
There are more than 3.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.
Karen wants to keep sharing her journey. You can leave your well wishes for Karen in the comments of the post below.