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As women get older, they have to become more familiar and aware of the changes happening within their bodies, especially when it comes to diseases. They must have regular doctor visits, and be alert if something feels wrong. No one knows your body more than you do. So, don’t ignore the signs if there’s a problem. Be constantly mindful when it comes to your health.

That’s what Stephanie Sorrelle did when she found a lump in her right breast while taking a bath. She went to four doctors who told her she didn’t have cancer, and the lump in her breast moved around, but to air in the way of caution, Sorrelle had a bilateral mastectomy. If there was a possibility of cancer, she didn’t want to go through the cancer treatment process. However, her doctor gave her the news that everything wasn’t fine, and she had HER2+ breast cancer in March of 2019. Even though she had the bilateral mastectomy, the doctors were still concerned that the cancer may have spread throughout her body, because the cancer was in her right lymph node. So, they wanted her to go through the cancer treatment process. After her diagnostics, they referred her to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany.

Sorrelle stated, “I was super sick. It was horrible. I stayed in the hospital a lot because the cancer was aggressive.” Sorrelle underwent four different rounds of chemotherapy for five to six months. She said, “The chemo was so rough. It was like I was in a weird cycle. I’d get home and be okay for like a day, and then I would just start getting so sick that I would end up being dehydrated, that they would have to admit me into the hospital to get fluids, blood, and everything. Chemo kills every cell in your body, not just the bad cells in your body. So, there’s a lot that I don’t remember because I don’t have any recollection.” Sorrelle opted out of the chemo once she was told she had to go another round of chemo orally. “They wanted me to go through textbook stuff, and so the textbook says I would’ve had to do another round of chemo orally, not medicine, not through port, but I was so sick that I chose I had to opt out.” Sorrelle stated that a textbook is what doctors go by chronologically for things to work, but everyone is not the same, and they have different circumstances. Afterwards, the doctor took her off of one of the medications that she was taking, and she began to feel better, “The doctor ended up taking me off one of the meds that I was taking, and then it got better. I wasn’t so dehydrated that I would have to stay in the hospital. I could function at home.”

After chemotherapy, Sorrelle went through radiation for seven months before she chose to stop. She exclaimed, “I chose to stop instead of continuing on further because I felt like they removed everything, and I had taken my first round. I was crazy sick that I couldn’t function. My quality of life just wasn’t what it could be if I was there again.”

Throughout her cancer process, Sorrelle states she remembers how her family cared for her well-being by taking her to the doctor for her treatments. She stated, “I was sick, but they’re the ones that had to deal with it. So, it was really hard on them.” Even her father-in-law showed concern about her condition, “I lost almost 20 pounds pretty fast and this was before I did anything about anything. So, he was like, ‘Hey. You might wanna go get your labs done because you’ve lost a lot of weight really fast.’”

After 10 months of treatment, Sorrelle was cancer-free, and thriving with her husband and two children. Sorrelle also got her daughter tested to make sure it wasn’t genetic, and her daughter isn’t a carrier. Overall, Sorrelle wants to state, “Don’t let somebody, especially if you have that gut feeling that you have something to check, don’t let your doctor tell you that it’s not how the textbook said it’s supposed to look. Statistically, women in their 40s and older start noticing breast cancer, but these last few decades have changed dramatically in how many women are going to the doctor. No, you don’t have to be 40. You need to start doing breast exams or mammograms early if you feel anything.”