Ellen Dockham

My profile and cover pictures above are from the best part of 2020: a fabulous trip to Barbados with extended family in early February when we were blissfully unaware of all that was coming our way, both globally and personally. The beach has been my happy place since I was a little girl for so many reasons, not the least of which is that I met my husband on a beach! The profile picture is me sitting in a swing in the sand right outside an amazing restaurant, watching the sunset with refreshing beverage in hand. I took the cover photo from the porch of the house we rented.  That sand was our own private beach. Unbelievable!

Also unbelievable just five months later in the middle of a global pandemic: a diagnosis of breast cancer. 

 A couple of years ago I decided to start driving back to Winston-Salem to get my yearly exams at the OB/GYN office that delivered both of my babies. They have a brilliant set-up where you get your exam and your mammogram in back-to-back appointments in the same building. 

Previously the mammogram reminder letter would sit on my counter for months before I would finally get around to it. The huge breast center where I used to go was just a pain. It took half a day, and I was busy! There is almost no cancer of any kind on any branch of my family tree, so I always felt like the mammogram was just a formality.  

In June 2020, I went for my yearly GYN exam, got my super-quick mammogram,  and went on my merry way. My mammogram in June 2019  had been perfectly clear, and  I had zero symptoms or changes of any kind in my breasts. Nothing to worry about—just an item to check off my list. So it was a total shock when I received the news on July 7 that I did indeed have breast cancer. 

Lyndhurst OB/GYN and Dr. Washburn saved my life with that routine mammogram.  ***If you are a woman, get your mammogram! If you love a woman, make sure she gets her mammogram!***