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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This article is part of our month-long focus on breast cancer. To learn more or find ways to help, go to our Pink Edition Page.
KETTERING — Breast cancer survivor Julie Untener is happy that screening processes helped diagnose her cancer in 2003. She’s grateful that medical advances allowed her to fight cancer, have a double mastectomy and leave treatment behind in 2004 with fully reconstructed breasts, breasts that she happily mentions are a bit bigger than the ones nature gave her.
And she’s happy that cancer is now something we comfortably talk about and treat, but it was the hardest thing she’s ever gone through. The pain of the surgery for breast tissue removal and placement of temporary breast implants under the muscle was awful.
And chemotherapy was worse.
“To put it into words makes it sound like the flu,” said Untener, 44, the director of ITS Enterprise Applications at NCR. “No, it’s like you’re dying.”
But it’s a process she has recommended to her sisters.
Untener was the second sister in a family of seven sisters to get pre-menopausal breast cancer. That meant her five other sisters should be tested to see if they have the genetic marker indicating a strong chance of the disease.
Three of the five tested positive.
That meant they had to decide if they wanted double mastectomies to avoid breast cancer, even though there was no indication they had breast cancer.
The upside, however, was that unlike their two other sisters, they could avoid chemotherapy.
All three did it.
Here’s where their story starts: Their father’s side of the family carries the genetic marker for breast cancer and they’ve lost aunts and a cousin to the disease.
“I just figured it was coming,” Untener said.
In January, Untener found a lump that felt like a marble. A mammogram and biopsy confirmed cancer. Untener immediately wanted a double mastectomy to remove both her breasts, though cancer was in one. Doctors counseled her that the surgery was painful, but she insisted.
After her surgery, testing came back and proved she had the genetic marker. Her surgeon said, “Thank God you got a double mastectomy. (Or) we’d have to go back in.”
In the meantime, chemotherapy started. Untener had been prepared for surgery, but was not prepared for chemotherapy.
The only thing she knew to worry about was hair loss. It went on to be her least concern.
She had no energy, could not taste her food, went on to be anemic and got a 103-degree fever that hospitalized her for two days. Painful mouth sores and acid indigestion kept her from eating and speaking at times. The treatments also put her into early menopause.
She needed food, but its smell and even food commercials nauseated her. If she had a craving, it might pass in five minutes, so her mother stayed with her and made her small portions whenever a craving would come. That was difficult when her craving was her mother’s homemade chicken and dumplings.
Just heading to the chemotherapy office was painful for two reasons. She said it’s hard to drive yourself somewhere that is going to cause discomfort. Then there were all the people in there alone, breaking her heart.
Unlike them, Untener had company. One of her sisters went with her to every appointment, and brought her a present each time. After she lost her hair, accessories were big and earrings were a common gift.
But, finally chemotherapy was over. Then Untener had an unexpected hurdle. She was back to work at NCR and felt a “flutter” in her left breast. Her temporary breast implant had deflated so she had to have another surgery. Three weeks later, the other deflated.
But by 2004 her treatments and therapy were complete. After nine surgeries, the work was done. Still, the new breasts didn’t yet feel real.
“They felt so artificial to me,” Untener said. “I felt like I was this bionic woman.”
She asked the sister who had the surgery before her when this feeling would go away.
“Once they’re paid for,” she said.
The Pink Paper
Join the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Saturday, Oct. 15 at Fifth Third Field. > Find out how to participate
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