Karen’s Story – A Journey Through Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recovery

My husband John and son Matthew were my biggest supporters as I worked on a victory over breast cancer.

In 2020 the world was facing a public health crisis. The novel COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. I found myself being the center of videos for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department designed to inform the nearly 20,000 staff and 18,000 inmates how to keep themselves protected in the jail environment. It was a public health practitioner’s love to be able to contribute to the health and well-being of others. 

A couple years earlier my husband and I had become empty nesters, sending our one and only child (Matthew) off to college across the country to Boston University. He worked so hard to get into BU. I shared with Matthew that although I was going to stay busy with work, the life-long learner in me was peeking through. I decided I was going to enroll in a program to become a Health and Wellness Coach! Upon completing the program in 2019, the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute (DSWI) asked me to join their team on a part-time basis! So, I began training with the most amazing team you would ever encounter. It was my intention to retire from the Sheriff’s Department within three years and keep the part-time work with DSWI. I had a plan. 

Plans Can Change  

In July of 2020, my plan eluded me. I scheduled and attended my annual mammogram. Nothing to worry about here – I had not missed a mammogram since turning 40. Now 57, I was feeling pretty good. Immediately after the scan was completed, I was whisked into a room – THE room, and I knew something showed up on the scan. It all happened so fast.  

First, a second mammogram was scheduled. Next was an ultrasound and then an ultrasound guided needle biopsy. The biopsy confirmed I had Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) – caught early. The doctor who called me said “you have a long road ahead of you.” That was Aug. 10, 2020. That day I stayed home from work because I was told the doctor would call me with my results. My husband John was working remotely because of COVID, but around 3:30 p.m., with no phone call received, he headed to the grocery store. As luck would have it, at 3:43 p.m. the phone rang.  

My Breast Cancer Call 

The call changed my life. I cried, but only for a few minutes. Immediately I went into planning mode. How and when will we tell Matthew. I won’t tell family – they’ll never know. In some ways I was embarrassed by the diagnosis – after all, I’m a Doctor of Public Health! When John walked through the door from the grocery store, I looked at him with swollen eyes and told him it was cancer. Cancer – not something that runs in my family. Not something that I should have – in fact, not something anyone should have.  

I was taken back to a course I took while obtaining my Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) – The Epidemiology of Cancer. I had some knowledge. Some, but not enough. I remember vividly in that class looking more into cancers that were lifestyle driven such as lung cancer (smoking) and skin cancer (lack of protection during sun exposure).  

I was the one who walked in the breast cancer community walks, and I fundraised for breast cancer awareness. I was even the chairperson for Daffodil Days for Loma Linda in 1994, and I supported one of my best friends from her breast cancer diagnosis until the end of her life, but I was not the one to be diagnosed. Yet here I was, the one in eight women diagnosed. 

As we came to learn, my cancer was very aggressive, as witnessed by my surgery being postponed 30 days (due to being diagnosed with COVID) and my tumor nearly tripling in size. My oncotype score was high, as was my Ki67 score – collectively this all meant an aggressive tumor. The surgery proved I would need pretty vigorous treatment   chemotherapy and radiation.  

My Treatment Plan  

While awaiting surgery, I was introduced to a social worker specializing in breast cancer, had become close to the breast cancer nurse navigator, and, because I had to isolate for 15 days waiting out the COVID infection (I could not have contact with ANYONE), I did a lot of soul searching. Chemo was tough. I had four rounds, and each time had an arm patch that went off with medication designed to increase my white blood cell count. I felt that medicine in every bone in my body – even the three bones in my ears and in my pinky toe!  

I tried a pixie cut.

They said I might not lose my hair, yet I was completely bald within two days of my first chemo session. I had been growing my hair out for over three years; learning I had to have chemo, I cut it all off to a pixie. My hairdresser at the time agreed to come to my house and chop it off. I was sad. Five weeks of projected radiation – Monday through Friday – turned into seven weeks as per the doctor.  

People ask what was worse, chemo or radiation, and honestly, they both were challenging for different reasons. We began taking apple fritter donuts to radiation on Fridays and called it “Fritter Friday!” Staff loved their apple fritters! We were learning to turn lemons into lemonade! 

Of course, dark thoughts ran rampant through my mind and body. What if I die? How did this happen? What caused this? Did I do something to cause this? I was provided several tools to gain control of the thoughts, offered several books to read, and made some very important life decisions. Decisions I wasn’t expecting to have to make for many years.  

I did a lot of reading and was surprised to learn that breast cancer is not a singular diagnosis. There are many types – even many types of IDC. There are hormone positive, hormone negative, triple negative, her2+ and her2-. Mine was 3% estrogen positive, progesterone negative and her2-. I feverishly scoured research and survivor rates.  

I was most taken aback with how many women opt to forego treatment all together and rely on a holistic lifestyle to keep the cancer at bay. I was offered a mastectomy or a lumpectomy, but my surgeon, when asked her opinion, said she felt a mastectomy was over treatment and I would do well with a lumpectomy. I gained a deep understanding of how personal everyone’s story is and that their journey is equally personal. 

I went on short-term disability during my treatment. During that time my husband crunched the numbers and came through the door one day announcing, “We can retire – we will be fine financially.” That both scared and excited me. While I had been doing some consulting work already and was working part-time for DSWI, I wasn’t sure I was ready to let it all go – but I did. I maintained my consulting work and the health coach work. Just one year after my diagnosis, I sat for the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Health and Wellness Coach test – and passed!  

My Steps Through Recovery 

Shortly after my surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, I did something for me that I thought would be helpful in my recovery. I booked a photo shoot during a time when Matthew was home from college. I did it bald and proud! It’s not something I would normally do – but there was a fire in my belly to have this done. I also began hiking the trails that butt up against our town. I found a small area to begin “growing” a gratitude garden just off the trail. Using rocks with affirming words and phrases on them, it has become an instrumental part of my recovery.  

My husband John (left) and my son Matthew (right) were on board with this very special photoshoot.

My cancer diagnosis taught me more than I ever could have imagined. Mostly what’s important in my life. I have strengthened friendships and let others go. I have made new friends and truly understand what is meant by friendship. I learned how easy it is to overlook the deep meaning of family when wrapped up in work and life and saw a side of my husband who was and remains my caretaker. We learned to communicate on a deeper level and embrace all that comes our way.  

Building and adding to gratitude gardens has been a part of my recovery, and it's a way to support others going through their own challenges.

Do I have scanxiety? Yes, I do. Do I think about my cancer often? Yes, I do. Do I fear recurrence? Yes, I do. My body has changed. I have tenderness in my left breast, which I fondly named Elpis – in Greek mythology, the minor goddess of hope. My other breast is Hygeia, the goddess of health.  

My hormones are out of whack! When I get headaches or backaches, I go there – but I embrace it all, invite it in, and do a lot of self-talk, then give it to my God. I seek and find gratitude every day no matter how big or small.  

My evening thoughts go something like this – I’m grateful for this day and would like to have another – but if this is my time to go, my life has been full. 

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Karen Dalton is a Doctor of Public Health whose career spanned 28 years between two of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies implementing public health protocols into jails and prisons. Karen is a board-certified (NBHWC) health and wellness coach. In her spare time Karen enjoys hiking and fishing, and most recently began volunteering in the Emergency Department in her local hospital. In 2020, during the world COVID pandemic, Karen was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now retired, surviving, and thriving, Karen strives to be a GoBeDo – GO to interesting places; BE with interesting people; DO interesting things! (Ref: Dr. Gulalti) 

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