Patient spotlight: Crystal Davis
A routine mammogram may have saved Crystal Davis’s life.
Davis is 55 and originally from South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach. She moved to Calhoun in 1994, and has been teaching at Calhoun Middle School for
20 years.
She has a daughter and a son, and she coaches cheerleading for both football and basketball. She also keeps on top of her health, especially her yearly mammograms, which she’s been getting since she was in her 20s.
Davis went in for one such routine mammogram, and a week later, she got the news: there was a spot the size of a grain of sand that hadn’t been there the last time. Davis went in for further tests, and
got news she didn’t expect.
“Honestly, there were no indications,” she said.
It was breast cancer, but Davis had gotten lucky. It was small, and incredibly early in development, only Stage 0, but it was still cancer.
She had no lump, no feeling, and no symptoms.
“It was 100% found from a tech reading a mammogram,” said Davis.
Doctors performed a lumpectomy on Jan. 5 and biopsied her lymph nodes under her arm at the same time. After that came back clean, AdventHealth Gordon moved
forward in her treatment.
“They went above and beyond,” Davis said.
According to Davis, staff made sure she was comfortable, well-informed, and was treated like a human first and foremost, not just another patient. They continue to check in on her even now.
Davis underwent 20 radiation treatments from early Feb. through March 2, each of which took around a minute or a minute and a half.
It’s a mammogram that may have saved Davis a lot of suffering, and she wants to make sure women are taking care of that important
part of their health.
“I knew they were important before, but now I realize even more so,” said Davis.
Now, Davis is six months out, and her mammograms are clear, prompting a cautious declaration that her cancer is gone. All the signs are positive, and by year
five, she’ll officially be cancer free.
Cancer is something that has changed Davis, and her outlook on life.
“I take nothing for granted,” Davis said. “I just look at things with a different perspective, and I live every day to the fullest.”