Day 20 of Run 31, and today’s mile belongs to Michele – who was diagnosed at 46, after two mammograms that showed nothing at all.
“I cried, I was angry, and then I cried some more. Then I was ready. I wasn’t scared, I was just ready to be done with it.”
– Michele
Listen to Michele’s story
Player not loading? Listen on SoundCloud ›
Two clear mammograms, and then a lump
Michele was diagnosed at the end of August 2020, at age 46. She’d had two annual mammograms before that, and both came back with nothing on them – nothing except dense tissue. In her words: “Calling me dense! Rude!”
It was a routine annual office visit that turned up a small lump. Her doctor’s read on it was that it probably wasn’t anything to worry about:
“It’s probably nothing, you are my healthiest patient, I mean you just hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro, but please get it checked out.”
But please get it checked out. That’s the sentence this whole story turns on.
Seven millimeters
This was 2020, so getting in took time. About six weeks for a diagnostic mammogram, then an ultrasound, then another appointment for a biopsy. And then it was confirmed – breast cancer, at a very early stage, with a tumor measuring seven millimeters.
Michele says the next month was all of the emotions at once. Then she was ready.
Her lumpectomy was October 1, 2020. She didn’t need chemotherapy – and as she puts it, she loves her hair way too much, but she loves life more. She did four weeks of radiation, twenty sessions in all. Her first tattoos were the three dots they use to line the machine up with your body for each session. After radiation she started a five-year course of an estrogen-blocking pill, which she finished in December 2025.
No family history of cancer. No genetic markers. None of the boxes you’d expect to be checked.
What Michele wants you to take from this
“Get checked out. Mammograms are not comfortable nor is death, and it’s just a few moments out of your day. Follow up with your doctor’s recommendations, and most importantly, advocate for you and your health.”
She also wants you to know that the people in your corner matter as much as the treatment plan. “If you have to face breast cancer, or any cancer, having an amazing support group, friends, family and attitude are so important. If you don’t have a support group, join one. Everyone needs a cheerleader in their corner from time to time.”
Michele, today we run for you. Thank you for telling it exactly the way it happened.
Run for them. Get screened for you.
Share your miles with #KAFERuns31, follow KAFE 104.1 on Instagram, or text a photo to 360.676.5233.
Sign up to move a mile
Walk with us Oct 30
The Feel Good Moment is brought to us by ProFusion Web Solutions. If you’re a business owner and your website or social media marketing isn’t consistently generating leads, visit ProFusion Web Solutions. Locally owned and operated, ProFusion Web Solutions has been helping PNW businesses grow since 2004.
Online at ProFusionWebSolutions.com
