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Sara’s Story

Site created on February 25, 2020

About two weeks ago on Monday February 10th, Sara made an appointment to visit an OB doctor. She had noticed protrusion of her nipples for the past couple months and wanted to make sure it was nothing to worry about, because it was a change. At her OB visit, the doctor had zero concern that it was anything to worry about, however, since her 40th birthday was coming up in July and "just to be safe" she ordered a mammogram for Thursday of that week. After the mammogram, the radiologist told us that he was concerned with a 13 cm calcified area he saw on her left breast and wanted to biopsy it in two separate spots. He told us it looked suspicious for DCIS. He also told us that finding this on the mammogram was a completely incidental finding and had NOTHING to do with the presenting symptom for which she saw the doctor.

Being an ICU nurse, and knowing virtually nothing about oncology, I immediately began to research DCIS, just to try and have a basic idea of what it is. DCIS is short for ductal carcinoma in situ. DCIS lies within the milk ducts of the breast (ductus). It is cancerous cells that grow from the lining, or epithelium, of the ducts (carcinoma). It is slow growing and non-invasive, meaning it hasn't spread outside of the milk ducts (in situ). Some physicians refer to it as pre-cancer and some refer to it as stage 0 cancer. If not caught and treated in time, it can progress to invasive cancer.

Sara had her biopsy that following Monday and she received the news last week Wednesday that both sites were positive for DCIS. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of calls from nurses, appointments being made, and phone calls from doctors. The initial biopsy report has shown that the two areas biopsied are completely contained in the milk duct. She had an MRI this last Sunday to look at her lymph nodes and see if there was any tumor present not detected by mammogram- and the MRI showed NOTHING, meaning from what the radiologist could see, there was no lymph node involvement and no tumor present. We met today with the surgeon, Dr. Kristin Ritter, who happens to be one of the most amazing surgeons who works at Park Nicollet (and in our humble opinion, the most amazing surgeon who works anywhere). Sara has elected to do a double mastectomy. The treatment for DCIS is either mastectomy or "lumpectomy" (in quotes because there is no actual lump in the breast) combined with radiation therapy. With the mastectomy, they will also do a sentinel lymph node biopsy which will look to make sure there is not undetectable cancer present in the lymph nodes. Her breast tissue will then be sent to pathology after surgery and looked at closely to ensure there are no areas in calcified region that have begun to become invasive. After surgery, she will meet with an oncologist and they will look at the pathology and decide if she will need to be on any type of medication to follow. If pathology shows it is not invasive and the lymph node biopsy is negative, Sara will not need chemotherapy or radiation. She was also told that the cells were estrogen receptor positive, which means the cancerous cells are slower growing and if medication is needed, there are really good options that can specifically target that type of cell. Finally, after everything is done with surgery, she will be having genetic testing done.

Kristin told Sara that she truly feels that there was some type of divine intervention with all the happenings that lead her to the doctor and to have mammogram now, rather than at some point after her 40th birthday. She told Sara they could have been having a very different discussion if this had happened even a year later, based on the size and grade of the cells, that very well would have involved chemotherapy and radiation. We like to think that Judy and Stu played a roll in this.

Surgery will be scheduled at some point in the coming weeks. I will continue to update everyone as we hear new things. Thank you so much to everyone for the outpouring of love and prayers support, it is definitely felt and appreciated so much.

My wife is so strong and amazing and brave. I love her so much. She is my hero.

Mari Vandenberg (Sara's wife)

Newest Update

Journal entry by Mari Vandenberg — Apr 11, 2020

Good morning! Just wanted to put up a quick update. About a week and a half ago, Sara met with the oncologist (Dr. Amy Spomer). After meeting with her, the plan of care was exactly what we expected; tamoxifen for 5 years and biannual monitoring with oncology MD (eventually transitioning to annually). Additionally, they are going to run a lab to look at the genetic makeup of the cancer that she had in her breast and tentatively in May, she will have a full genetic work up to look if she has the breast cancer gene (there is low risk for due to the pathology results of her breast cancer) and additionally other types of cancer for which she may carry a risk.

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone for all the kind words, prayers, meals, boxes of treats, cards, and random things dropped at our doorstep throughout this. We have so appreciated and felt the love from you all and it really has helped with recovery, especially during this time of social isolation!

Recovery is coming along well. She still has some pain but has really been able to increase her activity. This coming Monday (April 13th) both Sara and I will be back to work at the hospital. This has been cleared with her Oncologist and Dr. Spomer is o.k. with this as her return to work date. We are looking forward to returning to some normalcy with our lives. We have missed our work family so much and are both excited to see everyone!

While we are so thrilled to see everyone at work and understand how excited everyone will be to see Sara, I want to thank everyone in advance for maintaining a responsible social distance from Sara at the hospital. She has been doing so incredibly well; I would like to do everything I can to keep her on the path she is on!

Love and Thanks,

Mari Vandenberg

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