Alicia Stringer was just 37 when she accidently noticed the lump.
She shrugged it off at first before going with her gut instincts, which prompted her to get it checked out.
Stringer, now 41, was diagnosed with lobular carcinoma, an aggressive cancer that could affect both breasts.
Four years later, she is cancer-free.
“A friend of mine that I went to high school with had just gone through a breast cancer issue, so when I found it at first I thought, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal. Don’t worry about it.’ Then I thought, ‘She’s young, too, you better have it checked,’ ” Stringer said.
A nurse, Stringer said her medical background helped her understand the situation but it didn’t necessarily ease her worry.
“When I had my biopsy and my ultrasound done, I’m a nurse, so looking at the ultrasound, I knew something didn’t look right,” she said, adding that her gut feeling “told me it wasn’t good.”
Stringer said she had a biopsy done on a Friday and got the results back Monday morning.
“I had already decided in my mind that it was what it was,” she said. “I got my diagnosis on Oct. 14. I found out it was lobular carcinoma.”
Stringer said the cancer was found in her left breast.
“I saw the oncologist that week. I had a really good care team system,” she said.
She said a friend who is a nurse practitioner told her that her sister worked for an oncologist who happened to be the same one Stringer’s mother saw for her own cancer treatment.
“I saw a surgeon that week and had my surgery on Nov. 14 — exactly a month after I found out,” she said. “I went for a double mastectomy. ... They told me in order for me to have a less than 1 percent reoccurrence rate, to take both. They did some reconstruction and I went back for three or four more surgery procedures.”
Stringer said she went through 34 radiation treatments at the Mississippi Cancer Institute with Dr. Burnett Hanson.
“All of my surgeries were done in Baton Rouge but I did have my radiation done here with Dr. Hanson,” she said. “His staff at the cancer institute is wonderful.”
She said it wasn’t easy, but she was determined to fight the disease for her children.
“When you find out you have it, it’s one of those things where you say, ‘Well what do you do?’ ” Stringer said.
One of her most memorable radiation treatments was her last, when she went in the middle of an ice storm.
“I literally slid into my parking spot. They told me, ‘Alicia, you don’t have to come, we can reschedule.’ I said, ‘No, we’re doing this today. If it’s not done today then you’re not getting it,’ ” Stringer said, laughing.
The radiation treatments — and the early detection — prevented the cancer from spreading and the need for Stringer to undergo chemotherapy.
“They took our four of my lymphnodes and they were clear,” she said.
Stringer said her diagnosis strengthened her faith and made her look at life differently, with a stronger need to cherish every moment with her children.
“When I got the diagnosis, my youngest was 3 and my sons were 8 and 15,” she said. “It was an eye-opening thing. You don’t want to leave your kids. You have a 3-year-old little girl who needs her momma. My husband was great. I never saw him shake in his feelings. He held my hand and said, ‘We’re going to do it and it’s going to be fine.’ He was absolutely terrific.”
She said if it wasn’t for her support at home, she’s not sure how she would have gotten through.
Stringer said her church also was a great help and source of strength.
“We go to First Baptist Summit and I’ve had a lot of good people that have prayed over me and prayed for me and held my hand through all the bad stuff,” she said.
She said her oldest son took it the hardest, and the fact that Stringer already lost both of her parents to cancer didn’t help matters.
“My son was really close to them. Then my sister’s husband had a heart attack and he was really close to him,” she said. “He took it as all the people close to me are leaving me. I told him, ‘Hold on, wait a minute. Momma’s not going anywhere.’ ”
She said for her younger two children, she and her husband didn’t go into detail about the situation, but her youngest son figured it out.
“He knew it was more than just, momma’s sick. He figured out that it was serious. He asks questions now and we answer them, but he didn’t ask as many then,” Stringer said. “My diagnosis was kind of earth-shaking, but it’s one of those things where you dig your feet in. Nobody wants to be in that club, nobody wants to be a part of that but you are.”
She said once hearing the word “cancer” and going through the stages of grief, she did what she had to do — be there for her children.
“You have to do a lot of soul searching to find out what’s best for you so that you can be here for your kids and the grandbabies,” Stringer said. “I had a lot of good doctors that were honest and helpful. They listened to me and were willing to listen to my concerns as well as their opinions.”
She said being a nurse helped her understand what was going on, but it also made things scary.
“It helped to a fault. I understood what was going on. A normal person would hear ‘You have a bad aggressive cancer, we need to do surgery.’ But, because I’m a nurse I knew to ask, what type, where is it, I knew the questions to ask.”
Stringer kept a journal around the time of her surgeries. She tried to open it a year later, but she couldn’t.
“I told myself I was going to pick it up after my first year and I did. I opened it and I read the first two lines I put it down. I couldn’t read it,” she said.
After four years, it’s still a struggle and waiting to hear back from the doctor is the worst part.
“You have to hold your breath in between. You go every month, then every three months, then every six months. Until you hit your five year mark, you’re not ‘cured.’ I’m at Year 4,” she said. “The emotions don’t ever stop until it’s, ‘OK, you can come every year now.’ Every little ache or pain, ‘OK, what is it now?’ That’s a struggle.”
