Surviving Breast Cancer
Erica Thomson is the Director of Operations for Commonwealth Home Healthcare, based out of Danville, VA, and she is a breast cancer survivor. In this video, Erica walks us through her inspiring story, from her first symptoms and through her very personal, hard-fought battles. And to her eventual triumphs. Jump to transcript.
From Erica:
I’ll spare you how I got to this point but in October 2020, Dr. S. Lahti referred me to SOVAH Surgical Specialists, and I lucked up in getting Dr. Mancl. Dr. Mancl confirmed my Breast Cancer diagnosis and walked me through my test results and discussed options in depth. She and her staff were so welcoming and walked with me through every decision, answering a multitude of questions.
Once a double mastectomy was decided, I had the option to be referred elsewhere for a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction or to stay with her for the surgery. I declined the referral because of the comfort I felt being in her care.
The surgery went fantastic, well as fantastic as getting your boobs cut off can be. But the cancer was gone, that’s all that mattered. Step 1 down.
Next step was a referral to a plastic surgeon for reconstruction which leads me to Dr. Hollenbeck at Duke. I went scared to death and not knowing for sure what options I had. I just knew being flat chested was not for me. Being in a whirlwind of feelings and emotions I met the greatest team who took their time in explaining options and never rushed my decisions.
I decided on DIEP Flap surgery rather than implants and this was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I wanted to use a part of my body for the reconstruction rather than use a foreign object that my body could reject. And, once the process was complete, I didn’t have to go back for follow up appointments.
Over the next year and a half, I went through 3 more surgeries that put me down emotionally and physically. It’s been 9 weeks since my last surgery and today I found out I AM DONE with surgeries. Although the journey is not over, the worst is behind me.
I could not have made it through without my wife, Heather, my amazingly supportive family, and my work family. Their unconditional love and support through this fiasco has been unmeasurable.
A huge thanks to Dr. S. Lahti, Dr. Mancl, Dr. Mancl’s Patient Navigator, Deborah, Dr. Hollenbeck, Nichole Brooks, PA, and Dr. Hollenbeck’s nurse, Danielle for your knowledge and compassion. Thank you all!
For more information on breast cancer, please visit:
Support Group:
TRANSCRIPT:
My name is Erica Thomson and I work with Commonwealth Home Health Care. I'm the Director of Operations, and I've been there for almost 25 years.
I'm sitting here talking to you today in honor of breast cancer awareness month, and I just wanted to let you guys know a little bit of what I went through, and my story.
It started, actually, probably four years ago.
I had liquid coming out of one of my nipples, and my doctor checked it, had it checked two years in a row, and it came back negative for any cancer.
Well, fast forward to 2020 and I went home one day from work, and I changed out of my work clothes into a t-shirt, and I looked down and there was about a 50 cent piece of, a large spot of blood on my shirt.
So of course that scared me and I immediately, well, called the doctor the next morning, and I got in and she referred me to a surgeon immediately, because she knew something was wrong.
So I got in to see Dr Mansell and she ordered a biopsy and ultrasound, and which then came back positive for cancer.
Um DC, I was diagnosed with DCIS Stage zero in one breast, and the other was abnormal cells.
So, you know when you're growing up and talking about people around you having breast cancer, you, you always say, or I've always said that I'm going to have my breasts removed if it ever happened to me.
Well, when you're in that situation, my biggest fear was if I didn't do that, then was the cancer going to come back because I already had abnormal pre-cancerous cells in one breast and already had cancer in the other, which the cancer is in my milk ducts, so you know that fear was, was there.
It was it was huge.
So I decided to have a double mastectomy.
Well, I was so comfortable with my doctor's office here, Dr Mansell and her staff were just amazing, so you know we talked about my options.
I would stay in Danville and she would perform a surgery or she could refer me outside of Danville where they have the ability to do a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction.
Well, at that time my, my only option, my only objective was to get the cancer off of my body, away from my body.
I, I didn't care what I had to do.
So I felt so comfortable with Dr Mansell that I decided to stay here in Danville and have her perform the surgery.
So once that was over, we decided that I did want to have reconstruction.Again, another huge decision.
I just knew being flat chested was not for me.
So I was referred to Dr Hollenbeck at Duke.
And options, there are so many options, still so many decisions for me to make.
So his team was also equally as amazing as Dr Mansell's office.
So we went back and forth of whether I would have implants put in, or if I would have the deep flap surgery, which is where they take your stomach and they take the fat, which is great, off your stomach, and they make artificial breasts out of that.
That surgery, that option is, it's very extensive, it's multiple surgeries, not just one.
That surgery can, will take a very long time.
And my other option was implants, and if I did implants, then I would have to go back for recurring doctor visits to get those implants checked and then possibly replaced every every so often.
So after much deliberation with my family, we decided on, well, I decided to do the flap surgery.
My family was very scared that I was, that I made that choice because of the extent of the surgery and the recovery.
It was so much more.
But I felt like that's what I needed to do, because I wanted to be done.
I didn't want to have to go back for doctor's visits.
I wanted the cancer to be over and done and finished, so I did decide to do that, and I had my surgery in January 2021.
And in July of 2022, I found out that I'm done.
After three reconstructive surgeries, I am, thank God, I'm done.
So, um, you know the thing people ask me, you know, why did you make that decision, how did you make that decision, and it's all a personal preference.
No decision is better than the other.
It's, everybody's journey is different.
It's the main thing that I want people to know, is just trust in yourself, and trust in your doctor, and be your advocate.
You've got to push and push for your health.
Pre-screening, if you find something wrong, or if something's different that you feel, take action.
Don't just say "oh well, I'll go get that looked at sooner or later".
You never know what it can be, and that little minute of time can save somebody's life.
And I was one of the lucky ones.
Very, very lucky.
So that's it.
Any questions Stephanie?
>> Stephanie (off screen): I'm working on it. You said a lot.
>> Erica: Yeah, I did.
>> Stephanie (off screen): Um, I think your story is very different, because I've never heard of that happening. You, you hear about women that find lumps in their breasts
>> Erica: right
>> Stephanie (off screen): This is completely different. For you to share that, that's, that's huge. Um, the only other thing that I thought was very interesting, knowing your story before, is when you talked about your genetic testing
>> Erica: okay
>> Stephanie (off screen): that's a huge push for people, now
>> Erica: right
>> Stephanie (off screen): is like genetic testing and how that you got tested after the cancer was
>> Erica: right
>> Stephanie (off screen): removed
>> Erica: yeah, so um, Dr Mansell, once, once I was diagnosed with cancer, of course, they automatically send you to an oncologist.
So I met with the oncologist and we discussed my my medical history, my medical background, and he found that I had thyroid cancer about 10, 11 years ago, which threw up a red flag.
You know, how do you have thyroid cancer, you got rid of that and now you have breast cancer.
So he scheduled me to have the genetic testing done, and also my mom did have breast cancer in the, in the past 10 years as well, so all three of those things together made, um, made him make the decision for me to have the genetic testing.
And that was a big push, because you have to, you have to check a lot of boxes in order for your insurance to pay for that, and, but they did, they did pay for it, and thank goodness mine came back negative.
So and they they said they'll keep my keep my blood there for quite some time, because there's always marks that come up that are cancer marks and they'll retest my blood every so often and then and they'll just let me know if, you know, I have this marker, so, for the future.
What else?
>> Stephanie (off screen): What else do you want to say?
>> Stephanie (off screen): Your support, you talked before about your support system through all this
>> Erica: yes
>> Stephanie (off screen): and how that is important, for
>> Erica: it is, it is um, because when you're diagnosed with, with cancer, any type of cancer, you struggle.
Like how how did this happen to me?
How am I going to make it through this?
I'm supposed to be strong.
I don't, I don't need anybody's help.
But I've had a, I have a very large family and they were all there for me from day one.
Yes, with their opinions here and there and everywhere, which I supported, and, and I listened to them, to an extent, but them, paired with my work family, I just I couldn't have asked for anything better, was great.
Sorry
>> Stephanie (off screen): You know I cry when everybody else cries, um
I don't think he needs anything else. I don't want to ask you any more questions.
Erica: [laughs] It's okay.
Cancer free!
>> Stephanie (off screen): Did you get that?
>> Erica: I'm done, Cancer's gone!
