‘I’ve learned to look for blessings’
Butler County woman urges women to get regular mammograms.
Jill Cusick’s cancer journey began in March of 2019 with a mammogram, a benign biopsy in April, and a gravel-sized lump she found in a self-exam in May. In June, she got the call at work that she had cancer.
After a double mastectomy, she’s had a lot of support from family and friends as well as the Pink Ribbon Girls. She said she’s learned a life lesson — to continue to find life’s blessings each and every day.
“When I was diagnosed in 2019, I couldn’t have predicted what we would encounter in 2020 with COVID-19 and all of the unrest in the world, but I am thankful that I learned a lesson that I hope to carry with me and teach my own son — to continue to find the blessings in each and every day. Even on the hardest days, I’ve learned to look for the blessings — they are always there… Sometimes, they are just a little harder to see,” Cusick said.
Cusick, 43, lives in Madison Twp., and she and her husband, Mike, just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary this past summer. The couple’s son, Micah, 9, attends Madison Local Schools, and he is in the third grade. Cusick also graduated from Madison, and she went on to Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. She will turn 44 this month.
Cusick is an executive clinical sales representative for Intuitive, and she’s worked for the company for 11½ years. Her company is the creator of the da Vinci Surgical Systems (or the da Vinci Surgical Robot.)
When she’s not working, Cusick enjoys spending time with her family. They love spending time outdoors, including camping. She and her husband also enjoy working on projects together, including home renovations.
She is also involved with the Pink Ribbon Girls and said that part of her healing has been helping others navigate breast cancer.
Cusick, her husband and son also enjoy spending time with their extended family.
“There’s about 45 of us that live within a 10-mile radius, so we all get together a lot, and I really enjoy being with my family,” Cusick said.
Cusick said a Facebook post of a friend encouraged her to schedule her second-ever mammogram, for which she says she was overdue. That mammogram required a follow up, which led to an ultrasound and eventually a biopsy.
However, when the biopsy came back benign, it was a BI-RADS 4, which refers to a highly suspicious abnormality, or highly suspicious for cancer.
“Admittedly, I was never very good at doing the self-exams that they recommend, because I thought breast tissue feels lumpy, so how would I really know what lumps were OK and what lumps were not OK because I’m no expert. So, I started doing self-exams because I thought, ‘now there’s something that we’re watching.’ After the biopsy, they recommended that I come back in six months for more imaging,” Cusick said.
Being in health care, she had a friend that said with a BI-RADS 4, being highly suspicious for malignancy, you should probably be followed up with surgical oncology, just because it’s a higher risk.
“So, I scheduled a follow-up with surgical oncology, just to follow up at six months, and, of course, I was too busy, so I canceled that appointment and rescheduled it. Well, the day before the appointment with the surgical oncologist, which was a month after the biopsy, I found something in my breast that literally felt like I took a piece of gravel from the driveway and put it in my breast, and I was like, ‘what the heck, that wasn’t there before.’ When my husband woke up, I said, ‘Mike can you feel this?’ He barely touched my breast, and he said, ‘Oh my gosh, what is that?’ I said, ‘I’m not sure, but I feel like it’s probably not good.’ So, thankfully, the appointment we had scheduled was the next morning,” Cusick said.
When she went to see the surgical oncologist the next morning, the doctor said everything looks good, your biopsy came back benign, but they are going to see you again in six months.
“I said yes, but now I have this. So, she felt it and did an ultrasound. She said it’s bi-lobed, and it looks kind of like a clover, Cusick said.
Then, the doctor recommended a second ultrasound, and if needed she said they would do another biopsy. Cusick had another ultrasound a few days later, and they did recommend another biopsy.
“Now, a month later, when I had the second biopsy, it had doubled in size. So I already had a pretty good feeling it was going to be bad news this time. So, a couple of days later, I was in surgery at work, and I got the phone call, and I said, ‘It’s cancer,’ and the doctor said, ‘Yes, it’s cancer,’” Cusick said.
She chose to have a bilateral mastectomy because she didn’t want to go for mammograms every six months.
During all of this, the family had scheduled a vacation. All her son had talked about for more than a year was swimming with the manatees, and she knew if she had a mastectomy, she wouldn’t be able to get into the ocean. So, she and her family looked at the options, and within weeks, they were able to move their vacation up, and then she had surgery.
“I thought, ‘if I’m facing cancer, I want to have those memories with my son,” Cusick said.
“I really want women to know that breast cancer doesn’t discriminate.
For whatever reason, at least I was led to believe is you’re at risk for breast cancer if you’re older, if you have a family history, or if you’re obese, or inactive and all these things, but I ate a mostly plant-based diet, I was always physically active. I was not overweight. I had a zero family history. I felt like I did all the things right. I was 41 years old, having my second mammogram. I had a mammogram and a biopsy, and a month later, I had breast cancer,” Cusick said.
She urges that women be diligent by doing self-exams and getting their regularly scheduled mammograms. She also said a breast cancer diagnosis can be ‘fast and furious,’ and one thing she wishes now is that she would have explored her reconstruction options a little bit more. So she said it’s beneficial to ask questions and have deeper discussions with your doctor.
“When you’re diagnosed with cancer, you’re making all these decisions really quickly, and you think about getting the cancer out, but on the other side, you’re left with those decisions for the rest of your life. A woman, after breast cancer, is faced with body image issues, and now I’m taking a hormone blocker because my cancer was fed by estrogen and progesterone,” said Cusick.
Cusick said the support of her husband, son, extended family, friends and the Pink Ribbon Girls have been a lifeline.
“The Pink Ribbon Girls, for me, has been a saving grace because a lot of women won’t ask for help. We don’t want to ask for help. I feel like in society, we’re told, ‘You’re weak if you ask for help,’ and that’s something that I really struggled with,” she said.
‘The Pink Ribbon Girls, for me, has been a saving grace because a lot of women won’t ask for help. We don’t want to ask for help. I feel like in society, we’re told, ‘You’re weak if you ask for help,’ and that’s something that I really struggled with.’
Jill Cusick
Survivor