Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
‘My cancer was slow-growing and sneaky’
Shelly Boyett’s experience with breast cancer has been so different from that of other women she knows who have it that she almost feels guilty. “I didn’t have to have chemo or radiation. I didn’t feel sick. There have been lots of moments of denial when I’ve asked, do I really have cancer?”
The 55-year-old wife, mother and grandmother from Rogers was diagnosed in April of this year with stage 1A lobular invasive breast cancer, a type of cancer far less common than invasive ductal carcinoma, with only around 10% of patients having it. MD Anderson’s website explains that “lobular carcinomas start in the breasts’ milk-producing glands, called the lobules. Ductal carcinomas start in the cells of the milk ducts, which carry milk from the lobules to the nipples.”
In November 2018 Shelly started having a strange sensation in her left breast close to the lymph nodes. “We were on a trip in Aruba, and I had a few minutes to lie on a lounge chair and I wondered, ‘What’s bugging me?’ Fast forward to March 2019 when I’m sitting on the couch and thinking, ‘I’m getting this weird sensation two and three times a day.’” In the mailbox that day was a letter saying it was time for her mammogram. She scheduled an appointment and got the screening. “They called and said they wanted me to come in for an ultrasound.”
Shelly said she’s used to getting callbacks. Breast cancer runs in her family. Her mother, maternal grandmother and maternal greatgrandmother all had the disease. Shelly also has dense breast tissue and calcium deposits. She would get regular, 3-D mammograms. “Five years ago, I was going every three months. Finally, a radiologist cleared me and said that what they thought this was is not. But now I wonder if it wasn’t cancer.”
When she went to the Breast Center in Fayetteville for the ultrasound in April, the technician said the doctor would talk to Shelly in her office. “I thought, ‘This is different. Usually it’s not handled that way. I went into the office and the lights were turned down. We hadn’t done this before either. I was freaking out. The doctor was very nice and explained that the lights were low so I could see the images and that she didn’t mean to scare me.”
She told Shelly she had breast cancer and that she thought it was a tiny mass but would need to do a needle biopsy so they could be certain.
“It took them three times. That’s because they thought they weren’t hitting the center of it, but they couldn’t because there was no mass. Those needle biopsies were not very fun for the low-pain tolerance girl that I am. It wasn’t their fault — we didn’t know at the time what we were dealing with.” Finally, she received a correct diagnosis.
Lobular cancer “is a sneaky kind of thing,” Shelly said. “Every single doctor said it’s sneaky. First of all, they found out it had been growing for five years. It presents itself like dense breast tissue, so if you have that, it’s really hard to pick up on. The good news is, it’s slow-growing. The bad news is that it doesn’t grow like a tumor — it’s not a mass. It grows like a sheet and spreads out. It’s really weird and creepy.”
Shelly opted for a full mastectomy, which her doctors recommended. They knew the cancer was in the left breast, “but when my surgeon, Dr. Cross, got in there, he found it also in the right breast under the nipple.” Her surgery was on June 26, and Shelly said it would have been sooner but her daughter, Kassie, was graduating from high school and her son was getting married on June 1. She wanted to wait until after those important events.
She said the experience was humbling. “It’s a major procedure. And you have drains. My husband was here, my friends were here, I had college roommates, my mom, my sister. Lots of help. Lots of meals. We had meals for weeks. I have a great support system.”
On September 25, a Wednesday, she had reconstructive surgery and her ovaries removed at the same time. “I tested negative for the BRACA gene for breast cancer but had elevated risk for ovarian. Since my mom had it, I said, ‘Let’s just get these out.” After a couple of painful days, she began to feel better. “My body definitely was healing well. ” By Monday, she had stopped taking all pain meds, including Tylenol.
“Thursday was my 32-year wedding anniversary. I also went shopping that day for my mom’s 83rd birthday that was coming up. I got up Friday morning and didn’t feel great. My stomach has a tendency not to feel great, so I wasn’t that surprised by it.”
Around mid-morning, she drove to her daughterin-law’s house and suddenly became delirious. “I was shaking. My teeth were chattering. I had chills.” Her temperature soared up to 104 and she was throwing up. Her husband, Chris, took her to the ER at Washington Regional, but after numerous tests, the doctor found nothing wrong and sent her home, saying she thought it was a virus.
When her temperature returned to 104 the next morning, Chris drove her back to the ER, where she saw an internist. “He knew something was going on with the right breast, but it really didn’t present itself. He just knew my white blood count was going up like crazy and my fever was still staying up. Finally, it presented itself in the right breast. I had surgery on Tuesday to take out the implant. The doctor said that 2% of the time with implants there’s an infection. It wasn’t my fault or the doctors’ fault. That was really the only bump in the road for me. My recovery has been incredible, and I’m thankful I didn’t have to have chemo or radiation and healed really well.”
Shelly said that the other thing that made her cancer journey different from others is that “I got overwhelmed with people talking to me about it. Most of the time it’s women, and we want to help people deal with it. I finally had to say to others, ‘I have to shut this down. I have to have some moments of not talking about breast cancer, to walk with a friend without talking about it.’ And then, I had a lot of things that were big all at once. We sold our house that we’d been in for nine years and on the same day I found out from the biopsy.” Her daughter Kassie’s graduation and her son’s marriage also added to her feelings of being overwhelmed.
“Cancer isn’t defining everything about me, but that’s how I felt like it was. Some people probably do want to talk about it. It’s a difference in people.”
Shelly believes her faith has helped with her healing. “The Lord has guided my steps since I was saved at 15. I definitely felt his presence. I kept trying to figure out, is it denial or peace? I don’t know which one it was because I’m human. Some days it felt like denial. Other days it felt like peace because he’s brought me through things before. There’s a lot of hope with breast cancer.”
“Cancer isn’t defining everything about me.”