It’s amazing what the human spirit – and body – can endure.
Some of us may feel ignored by a friend, or get a paper cut, and have an emotional meltdown.
Then, there are people like Katie Torrance.
Before she was 16 years old, Katie lost both of her parents to heart attack, leaving her with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Today, Katie is a paraprofessional working with students at Chaddock in Quincy, because, as she says, “I believe that sometimes, trauma knows how to deal with trauma.” Chaddock is an internationally recognized leader in the treatment of children suffering from the psychological, emotional and spiritual effects of significant abuse, neglect and trauma.
Katie is also the proud mother of a 10-year-old daughter, Jaiden. But at 33 years old, life was not through littering Katie’s life path with trauma.
Because she was young, medical guidelines say that Katie did not yet need to get screening mammograms. She could have been doing breast self-exams. Medical guidelines say these can begin at 20 years old. But Katie admits she, “did not take breast self-exams very seriously.”
That changed in March 2023 when, lying in bed one day, Katie by chance found a hard lump about the size of a walnut in her chest. She immediately went online and determined her lump had the characteristics of cancer.
“I was being told by friends, ‘Oh, you are going to be fine. It’s nothing.’ I even said that to myself, but I didn’t fully believe it.”
A mammogram, breast ultrasound and biopsy at the Blessing Breast Center proved Katie’s worst suspicions to be true. She had breast cancer. Katie was devastated.
“I never thought I would get cancer. I figured with the trauma I had in my life I would be done with trauma. It was almost like it was not happening to me, that I was on the other side looking at myself. I cried.”
Katie takes charge
Even before her tears dried, Katie began putting together her care team, including board-certified Blessing Health surgeon Emmanuel Bessay, M.D.
“We just knew we had to get this tumor out of my chest before it spread,” Katie said.
While her right breast contained the cancer, her left breast was cancer free. Because there is a high risk for recurrence of breast cancer when a woman is diagnosed at a young age, Katie chose to have a double mastectomy with breast reconstruction.
“This eliminated the chance of getting cancer in the other breast,” she said. “It would also help me on my reconstruction journey, because both breasts could be symmetrical. It might seem unimportant, but being a woman and having our breasts and hair are really important to us.”
Her surgery was done on June 1, 2023.
More trauma led Katie to add more providers to her care team including medical oncologist Kellie Flippin, M.D., and radiation oncologist Mark Khil, M.D. Both doctors are nationally board certified and fellowship trained in their specialty. Katie needed their care because testing done on her tumor showed there was high risk that the cancer could reoccur. That meant she would have to undergo radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Katie was hoping to avoid chemotherapy because she did not want to lose her hair. While she did lose her hair, Katie learned from the experience.
“I realized that it really isn’t hair that makes someone beautiful. Losing my hair was actually a warrior sign. Everybody knew that I was fighting something, and I’ve been a fighter my whole life because I had to grow up early.”
“This was just something that was going to increase my testimony one day, to show that even though things can get so rough, you can keep going. I saw my situation as inspirational to my students at Chaddock. They need to see life is worth the fight.”
Message received
One day during breast cancer awareness month 2023, as Katie worked in spite of the side effects of her chemotherapy, she walked into a Chaddock classroom to a surprise organized by her students with the help of teachers.
“It was ‘Miss Katie Day,’” she said. “We made paintings about breast cancer. We made bracelets. We made pink snacks. We all came together. Those kids saved me just doing that.”
“Most of all, I want to be a good role model for my daughter. I want her to see that her mommy made it through this and that her mommy fought for her. I want her to see that she comes from a warrior, so she too is a warrior.”
Another member of Katie’s care team was Blessing Health nationally certified breast health clinical navigator Jessica Nuebel, MSN, RN. Jessica
assists anyone who has a diagnosis of breast cancer, working one-on-one to guide them through the treatment process. Jessica helped Katie identify financial assistance to help pay for her care.
Katie needed to add another Blessing Health doctor as the final member of her care team. The type of tumor she had grows and spreads when exposed to the hormone, estrogen. Katie chose hysterectomy rather than ovarian suppression therapy to reduce her estrogen level and the chance the cancer would reoccur elsewhere in her body. Blessing Health board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist Jessica Curry, M.D., provided that care to Katie.
“I cannot say enough about my breast cancer team,” Katie said.
Ladies, listen up
“I definitely want other young women to know that this can happen to you,” Katie said. “If it does, know that you can get through it. The most important thing is having a strong support system because there will be days when you will not be able to get out of bed, and you will be mad at God and say, ‘Why me?’ But we don’t know what is planned later on in our lives. I know that if I have gone through this much – losing my parents and this cancer – I know that God has some big plan for me.”
Katie has one more plea.
“Please do breast self-exams. If you feel a bump or a lump or anything unusual, please go get it checked. The best thing you can hear is that you don’t have cancer. I could have ignored my lump and who knows where it would have spread,” she concluded.
Women can talk to their health care provider about how to conduct breast self-exams properly or go to blessinghealth.org, select “Treatments” from the blue menu bar, and then under “B”, select Breast Health Classes.