Portraits of Breast Cancer

The New Patient

Laura Stratte, 36

Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
Married to Jim, 55; mother of Ned, 6, and Freya, 3; stepmother to Isabelle, 16 

Jim is 55 and I’m 36, so our joke was that I was always the one who was supposed to be healthy. I started feeling that something was up in January 2008, when I was in nursing school, taking a course on pathophysiology, or the study of abnormal bodily changes due to disease. I think I have a neurotic mind-set to begin with, and I had these symptoms―pain in my right breast, in my underarm, down my arm. When I went to see my doctor, he asked me, “Are you really stressed?” But I knew I had a physical problem, not a mental problem. My breast exam was totally normal. However, the pain didn’t go away, so I had an ultrasound. (I couldn’t get a mammogram because I was breast-feeding.) That was normal, too.

Each time I went to the doctor, I felt better mentally for a day or two, but the pain would return. Then my right breast and lymph nodes started swelling up and felt achy. Breast pain isn’t typically a symptom of cancer, though, and I had no family history. In April, I went to a breast surgeon and got another ultrasound, which was clean. I also stopped nursing so I could get a mammogram. Afterward they told me to come back for a biopsy because they saw something suspicious. Hearing that was almost a relief. The radiologist called on Saturday. No one could believe it―even my husband had thought I was crazy. I felt angry yet vindicated; I had known all along that something was wrong.

In July, I had a mastectomy and breast reconstruction. That was in some ways the easiest part. My cancer was estrogen-receptor positive (ER-positive), meaning the estrogen in my body signaled the cancer cells to divide. I also tested HER2-positive, which stands for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, a protein that can promote the growth of cancer cells. I went on Tamoxifen, a treatment given to ER-positive patients that inhibits estrogen receptors from binding and spreading. My oncologist thought it would offer the best benefits, and I wouldn’t have to take a semester off for chemo.

Then I read a study about chemo for HER2-positive patients and decided to get a second opinion. That doctor said it might be a good idea for me, in conjunction with the intravenous drug Herceptin. I had stage 1 cancer, meaning it was caught early, but I was told it had a 20 percent chance of spreading to other parts of my body, even after treatment. I was 35 with two little kids, and I didn’t want this to happen again, so I felt like it was a no-brainer.

I started chemo in April of this year. Before I began, I had a big party at my house to shave my head. I invited about 30 people, but the party was mostly for my kids. I didn’t want my son, especially, to freak out watching me lose my hair over time. So I let him hold the clippers. I wanted him to know that what I was going through was scary, but it wasn’t so scary that we couldn’t celebrate something. I still get chemo every three weeks, and in between those treatments I get Herceptin.

I really like to see the silver lining in everything―and throughout this whole process, I’ve gotten such support from my family and friends and even acquaintances. It has actually been an amazing experience despite it all.