‘A battle against time’: Get those puppies checked, says Vineland woman
Had it been caught earlier, Julie Culp wouldn’t have lost a year and a half of her life.
But on the flip side, had she ignored the message her body was sending her that the pain she was feeling was more than a pulled muscle, the Vineland woman would have lost a lot more.
To make sure others don’t go through what she did — or worse — the Vineland woman has a simple message: get those puppies checked. And last week she emphasized that breast cancer message with a giant dog statue, two pink balloons and a sign outside her Vine Street home.
“It’s a battle against time,” said Culp.
On April 29, 2019 — the day of her daughter Isabel’s birthday party — Culp got the bad news: she had Stage 3 breast cancer.
“The initial diagnosis was not good,” she said.
Three months earlier Culp had noticed something. Doctors at first thought it was a pulled muscle, but Culp was convinced it was something else. Though she otherwise felt fine physically, she could tell it wasn’t a muscle. Eventually a biopsy confirmed cancer.
After eight rounds of chemotherapy, 28 days of radiation, a double mastectomy and surgery to remove her ovaries, Culp’s outlook is now much better. Isabel even got to ring the celebration gong when her mom’s treatment wrapped up.
Despite the improving prognosis, Culp knows the past two years would have been a lot easier had she and her doctors caught the cancer in its early stages. Instead, the 43-year-old, who had no family history of the disease, had to go through months of pain as physicians treated the cancer.
Even now she hasn’t fully recovered and still experiences bouts of aches and pains.
October is breast cancer awareness month, and as Culp continues to recover she decided she wanted to encourage others to get checked. She reached out to Noah’s Ark Animal Rentals, which rents out large fibreglass lawn ornaments for events and celebrations. After telling them her story the company offered a large dog ornament free of charge, even delivering it to her home along with a sign that read: “Oct is breast cancer month, get those pups checked.”
“This message needs to be spread,” she said.
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, the relative fiveyear survival rate for Stage 0 and Stage 1 breast cancer is 100 per cent. The rate drops to 93 per cent for Stage 2, 72 per cent for Stage 3, and 22 per cent for Stage 4.
“It took a year and a half of my life,” Culp said.
“If women catch it sooner, that treatment is shorter.”
She’s also quick to point out that it’s not just women. One in 100 cases of breast cancer happen to men.
The cancer society encourages women to talk to their doctors about having a mammogram when they turn 40. Women 50 to 74 years old should typically have one every two years. Regular self-examinations can also be very helpful, said Culp, as they provide a baseline for women to know when something feels different.
At the end of the day, she said people know their own bodies best. She knew her original pulled muscle diagnosis wasn’t right and pushed for more tests. Others shouldn’t be afraid to do the same, she said.
At the same time, Culp had nothing but great things to say about the staff at the Walker Family Cancer Centre in St. Catharines. Even during the dark days, she said staff were calm and reassuring. And she even got to know many of the nurses on a personal level, as they chatted with her during her hours-long treatment sessions.
“The staff there are amazing,” she said.
The dog statue was up for three days, from Wednesday to Friday. Only hours after it was delivered, Culp said she heard of two neighbours who saw it and decided to get themselves checked. She hopes many more will take the message seriously.