Susan McMillian (00:05):
My name is Susan McMillian and I’m a breast cancer survivor. I missed my routine mammogram due to Hurricane Katrina in August of 05. I then didn’t get around to having another one until May of 06. And that’s when my life changed. I’ll never forget the technician’s call when she said, “I think we see something. You’ll have to come back in. ” I came in for a biopsy, which was really about the hardest part of the whole ordeal. And sure enough, they did find cancer. The radiologist had seen a dot the size of a pin head and they brought me back in to do a needle biopsy. And that’s when they determined that yes, I did have breast cancer. At that time, it was recommended for me to have a mastectomy, but I sought other opinions and went to two or three other doctors. And actually their opinions were quite different from the first one I got.

(01:19):
But I decided on my own that it was better if I had the mastectomy. I didn’t want to keep going back and back and back to have more surgery and try to conserve the breast. Well, here’s the odd thing. I didn’t even have a lump. So I had no symptoms, no lump and no history of breast cancer in my family. After the mastectomy, I had 18 lymph nodes removed and my breast and 10 were positive.

(01:56):
So as you can imagine, I felt like I was in a swirling tornado and I kept thinking, “No, it couldn’t be me. They have the records mixed up or something.” Well, in fact, it was. At this point in my life, I felt like a really lucky person. I had had two children, my natural childbirth, and that was the only time I’d ever spent any time in a hospital. Didn’t even have an IV in my arm. So with this cancer diagnosis, it certainly changed things in a big way. I decided to not have reconstruction right away because I had a very rigorous treatment ahead of me. I had eight rounds of chemo and 32 rounds of radiation. So I wanted to get through that treatment and decide. And actually, I’m not a very vain person, so I didn’t really even know that I was going to have reconstructive surgery.

(03:00):
My husband and I have been married for 32 years, and I’m really, as I mentioned before, not vein. And I thought, “Well, I can live without one breast.” I would trip. I was lopsided. I just felt out of balance. I mean, I felt completely out of whack. I found the best doctors in the world here at the center, Dr. DellaCroce and Dr. Sullivan. Here was the procedure I had. It was the deep flap where they took the fat from the stomach and then created a breast on my right side where there was not one after having the mastectomy. Then they reduced my left breast and balanced me completely out. I wear a bathing suit now because I have a flat stomach that’s just truly a miracle. What I have learned from this experience is, for me, you have to have a strong faith. You have to have family that stands behind you, and you need to find the best doctors.