Kelly Arnold, Breast Cancer Survivor, On How More Options Means Better Care, but Also More Decisions
Published Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Kelly and her husband Greg enjoying a getaway post-surgery.
by Graham Strong
Cancer patients have choices today they didn't have 25 years ago. There have been improvements in diagnosis and treatments including genetic testing, PET/CT scans, new targeted therapies, and ever-evolving radiation therapy. There are also advancements in how treatments are used together to improve outcomes.
"If there is anything lucky about my breast cancer, it's that I had it now, not decades ago," said Kelly Arnold. "I had choices and options I wouldn't have had before."
Although choice is ultimately a good thing, it can be a double-edged sword. We might imagine the cancer journey this straight path from Point A to B to C. But sometimes you get to C and find out that now you have to decide between Point D or E or F. It's a part of the cancer journey that isn't talked about much.
Kelly is talking about it now during Breast Cancer Awareness Month because a big part of keeping up hope is also being aware of the unpredictability of a cancer journey.
"Ringing the bell isn't always the end of the story," Kelly said. "I wanted desperately to put my cancer in the rearview mirror after my chemo and radiation treatments, but you can't necessarily do that."
Kelly was diagnosed in 2020 with triple-negative breast cancer, which is more aggressive and has a higher recurrence rate. "I was blindsided," Kelly said. "I had to make some difficult choices very quickly."
Her lumpectomy surgery successfully removed the tumour, and the great news was the cancer seemed to be localized in one spot. However, the cancer sat on muscle which didn't allow the surgeon to remove any extra tissue underneath it. As a result, Kelly had to decide on further courses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to get at all the cancer cells.
"I thought, okay, let's get through this and then I can get on with my life."
What she didn't know at that point was that more big choices were yet to come. Genetic testing revealed later that Kelly had, as she calls it, a "broken" BRCA 2 gene.
"The results pulled me right back in to having to make decisions about my cancer – this time to prevent it from coming back either in my breasts, ovaries, or as melanoma."
Doctors recommended Kelly get yearly skin cancer screening, her ovaries removed, and a double mastectomy to provide the best guarantee her breast cancer would never return.
"For a gal who wanted to put this all in the rearview mirror, you can imagine it wasn't a good day," she said.
The choices weren't as obvious as you may think. The double mastectomy decision was particularly difficult. Kelly asked doctors at North York General, where she would have her surgery, what would happen if she opted not to do it. They told her that some women live 20 years or more with no issues. Others are right back there a year later and often in much more dire circumstances. Even if she were lucky and her breast cancer stayed away forever, Kelly would have to go in for yearly checkups, which meant always wondering and anxiously waiting for results.
In other words, her choices were either radical surgery or yearly checkups and the stress that comes with them.
"Until you're faced with the choice in that moment, you have no idea what you'd choose," Kelly said. "It's not the no-brainer you may think."
Ultimately, Kelly decided that double mastectomy and breast reconstruction was the right choice for her. She also realized that although the choices were difficult, she was glad she had them.
"The reality is that genetic testing, different treatments, and different surgical options may have saved my life," Kelly said. "They are hard choices to make sometimes, but at least I had the choice."
Today, Kelly's prognosis is incredibly bright. She has one more procedure planned and another year until she hits that magic number of five years cancer-free. Then, Kelly said, cancer will be well and truly in her rearview mirror.