A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
She enjoys life more and spends more time with her family
After finding a lump in her right breast following a fall, Flora Hacker kept checking it. At a routine visit soon afterward with her OB-GYN, her doctor felt the lump and sent her for a mammogram and an ultrasound. Nothing showed up in the mammogram, but that’s why doctors advise ultrasound screenings for women with dense breasts.
The radiologist who read the ultrasound test told Hacker that the lump was fluid, not cancer. Hacker, who is a nurse, spoke up. “‘I know my body and I can feel something,’” she says she told him.
The radiologist told her she had nothing to worry about. Hacker persisted.
Her OB-GYN sent her to a breast surgeon, who did a biopsy. On Feb. 28, 2014, four months after first finding the lump, the breast surgeon called her and told her she had breast cancer.
The Glastonbury woman advises women of all ages to do a monthly breast self-exam so they know their body.
When something’s not right, she says, “Speak up. If the doctors don’t listen, go somewhere else.”
After the biopsy confirmed cancer, her doctor suggested an MRI to determine where the cancer was located. Before surgery, she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, but after surgery, it was revised to Stage 1B.
She talked with her doctor at length to decide between a mastectomy or a lumpectomy. She was 56 and working full time as a nurse manager at a rehabilitation center for elderly people recovering from injuries and illness.
Hacker chose the lumpectomy, which was followed by six months of chemotherapy — every two weeks for the first two months, then weekly for four months. She developed an infection from the surgical site and had to skip one of her chemo treatments because of the infection.
Next came 37 radiation treatments, five days a week for a little over seven weeks.
Despite being active prior to her diagnosis, she became too sick to work or leave the couch. Food tasted like metal, so she added vinegar to soup to make it palatable, she says.
“I forced myself to eat. I knew if I didn’t eat, I’d get sicker,” says Hacker, who is married and has a son and daughter.
Because her job required her to be exposed to sick people, even after her treatment ended, her doctor would not clear her to return to work. She was still too sick. (Because the effects of chemo and radiation are cumulative, it’s not uncommon for people to feel even more tired and fatigued after treatment ends.)
After several months of sick leave, her employer fired her from her manager job, saying they couldn’t leave it open any longer. Hacker says she was upset and sad initially, but couldn’t dwell on it.
“I had too much going on with my life,” she says. “When you’re sick, you can’t think of all this stuff.”
Today, more than five years later, she works part time as a nurse, averaging about 20 hours per week. She was able to care for her mother in the Philippines when she became ill.
Hacker still works with older people, and she has learned from them the value of slowing down. She also draws from her cancer experience to encourage them that they’ll recover.
“I just tell them, ‘It’s not the end of the world. I was in your shoes and look at me now,’ ” she says.
While she didn’t want cancer, “it’s a blessing in disguise,” says Hacker, 61. “Now I’m enjoying life.”
Before, she lived for weekends. Now, she says, she gets to spend more time with family. She and her husband travel and attend concerts, and she’s enjoying life.
“Tomorrow is not a promise, so live today.”