When Odessa Regional Medical Center’s Materials Manager Charlette Thurman first learned about her breast cancer diagnosis last year, she refused to look at it from a negative perspective.
“I’m not a negative person,” Thurman said. “When I found out, I was just ‘what do I have to do?’ I never thought about dying or negative stuff. I just started doing what I had to do. I do well on my treatments.”
Thurman, who is now a breast cancer survivor, shared her story recently at Odessa Regional Medical Center.
With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Thurman used the opportunity to explain the importance of getting a mammogram, using her own experience as an example.
Around this time last year, Thurman knew something wasn’t right after going a couple years without a mammogram.
“I discovered that there was a lump in my breast before taking a shower and then proceeded to call to get a breast exam,” Thurman said.
It was November of 2020 when she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.
“That’s why to me, it’s important to get a breast exam because I skipped about two years and you know that everybody has that mentality of ‘it won’t happen to me,’ but it does,” Thurman said.
Her cancer has since been in remission, but during her battle Thurman said she never felt alone as she had a support system of her friends and family.
“I had my family and I have a lot of friends,” Thurman said. “I have friends that also had breast cancer that I could talk to.”
Breast cancer affects nearly 180,000 American women each year. With education and screenings, though, it can be detected early when it is most treatable.
“That’s why it’s important to get it checked,” Thurman said. “… I think if I would have come here earlier, it would’ve been detected before it was a stage 3.”
Lead Mammogram Tech at ORMC Kendra Leyva says there are a variety of reasons why some women put off getting a mammogram, including fear or just forgetting.
“A lot of times, I think patients let time pass,” Leyva said. “Although a year does seem like a long time, it flies by fast. They just forget. Sometimes they might be nervous, but it’s important not to skip because if you do that’s a year that you’re missing out on getting that mammogram that they could find something sooner. If you come in and don’t skip that year and they find something, they’re finding it and getting it treated faster.”
For those who are worried about a possible cancer diagnosis, Thurman says it’s better to know than to not know.
“I think there are more people that have breast cancer than we think,” Thurman said. “Once I went to the Cancer Center, it’s like you see so many people and friends so it’s important.”
Leyva says the time for women to start doing yearly mammograms is usually at age 40, even though there are some exceptions.
“We do usually start the yearly mammograms at the age of 40 unless you have a family history or some other reason to start sooner,” Leyva said. “Age 40 is what we call a baseline, meaning your first mammogram. Of course, the patients are very nervous. They’ve heard stories from family members and friends. We just bring them back here and explain the procedure and tell them that mammograms have improved over the years. We do have new paddles that are curved so they form to the breast shape a lot better than just a straight paddle so that makes it comfortable. So once we explain everything and start doing the mammogram, we talk to the patient throughout the exam and once it’s all over, the patient’s like ‘wow, that wasn’t bad at all.’”
The process doesn’t take long.
“Once we get the patient in here, go over the history, we do the exam and they’re out of the room in about 10-12 minutes,” Leyva said.
If something is found early, then the chances of treating it and keeping it from spreading are better.
“The faster you find the cancer, the better because the longer you wait, the more it could change, the bigger the possibility that it could spread,” Leyva said. “If you catch it early, your possibility of certain treatments may lower. You may not have to do as many or as much and it may not be as harsh (as) if you were to wait.”
They’re always hoping not to find anything wrong after each mammogram.
Having worked with Thurman for 15 years at ORMC now, Leyva said it was very emotional among the staff last year when learning of her cancer.
“It’s very hard when a patient comes in and we do find something,” Leyva said. “Of course, that’s something we don’t want to find. Charlotte being our hospital employee, it hit a little bit harder because it was someone that I had known for a long time at the hospital. I’ve known her for 15 years, so having her as a patient was hard but she was very positive and I would call and check on her every week. It was important that we took care of her. We gave her a good experience and everything went well and she was on her way to the cancer center. Just following up with her, it was good to hear her voice each week and check up on her.”
Thurman, who’s been at ORMC for 35 years, was grateful for the support from her coworkers.
“I know a lot of people,” Thurman said. “My support group here was really great, from HR to my boss to everyone.”
It may be Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but Leyva says it’s important to remind women of the services offered at ORMC all the time, regardless if it’s October or not.
“We do promote that month as being very important,” Leyva said. “But it is important every month so we’re always open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. If you need an appointment, give us a call and we’d be happy to help you out.”
