Courtesy of Penn Highlands Healthcare
Submitted by Penn Highlands Healthcare
CENTRE COUNTY — Most cancers is a illness that doesn’t play pretty — particularly breast most cancers, which is the commonest kind identified amongst ladies within the U.S. In lots of cases, breast most cancers creeps into an individual’s life when they’re elevating their household or on the pinnacle of their profession, when they don’t have time for an sickness to sluggish them down.
Simply ask Abby Danko, a 40-year-old mom of three from Morrisdale whose breast most cancers journey started three years in the past.
“In 2021, once I went for my annual gynecological go to, I used to be experiencing some irregular bleeding,” Danko shared. “My physician ordered some checks, together with a mammogram which detected a spot on my chest. A second mammogram was carried out, which additionally revealed one thing that required consideration.”
She continued, “I had been seeing my Penn Highlands Healthcare gynecologists since I had my first youngster, and he was 12 on the time, so I trusted their advice. I used to be referred to Dr. Kelley Smith, and since I heard good issues about her locally, I scheduled an appointment.”
Danko met with Smith, a board-certified normal surgeon at Penn Highlands DuBois, who offers a complete vary of surgical procedures and focuses on ladies’s well being and genetic testing for hereditary cancers.
The tumor was on Danko’s chest wall. When Smith carried out a biopsy, they discovered the tumor was malignant, and the most cancers was at Stage 0 DCIS.
“There was a historical past of breast most cancers in my household, and I knew that if I ever obtained that prognosis, I’d have a double mastectomy,” Danko defined.
Smith carried out the surgical procedure on July 29, 2021. Nonetheless, an underlying autoimmune illness that Danko had been residing with for years delayed her therapeutic and necessitated remedy at a nationwide well being system outdoors of Pennsylvania. In 2023, Danko’s sister, Kelly Williamson, additionally discovered she had breast most cancers.
“Our mom, our youthful sister and I had the genetic testing carried out to establish whether or not we feature the breast most cancers gene. Our mom and sister examined constructive for the BARD-1 gene, however I should not have the gene,” Williamson stated. “Nonetheless, since a number of the outcomes confirmed that there might be a better danger of me contracting breast most cancers over my lifetime, it was suggested that I be examined extra typically — each six months.”
Williamson’s genetic testing occurred in August 2022 when she was 41 years previous; that’s the time that almost all ladies start having their first mammograms.
On Oct. 23, 2023, Williamson had a double mastectomy. She recovered in simply six weeks.
Williamson credited Smith and her doctor assistant, Melissa Hilliard, together with her restoration.
“When Melissa gave me the outcomes of my biopsy in individual, she gave me a hug and we cried collectively,” Williamson stated. “Dr. Smith is superb. They’re each super folks.”
