Tupelo • Suzanne Jackson was simply coming in for her routine annual mammogram on Oct. 8, 2019, when her physicians found a seven-millimeter area in her breast that looked suspicious.
A biopsy confirmed it was stage 1 breast cancer.
Having worked around cancer most of her life, the 56-year-old Oxford native knew enough about the different stages of cancer not to worry about her own diagnosis. When it was time to have her radiation, she wasn’t scared because she knew it was a simple, quick process.
Still, reality hit that first radiation treatment.
“That’s when the tears just started flowing, you know? I was kind of uncontrollable at that time, just because that’s when it finally hit me [that] I’ve got cancer,” Jackson said. “I knew the whole time that it was definitely treatable, it was definitely curable … Hearing those words sometimes just hits home.”
This was far from Jackson’s first experience with cancer. Jackson has been the manager of the accreditations program at the cancer registry of the North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) Cancer Care Center for three years and previously held the same title at a different facility.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, cancer registries collect information about cancer patients and their initial treatments. They then analyze the data they collect and share the information with other groups.
Although she doesn’t work directly with cancer patients, Jackson believes the data she and others in her field collect, which is used in research to show what treatments work, helps people on a national level. She’s proud of NMMC Cancer Care’s breast care center’s accreditations with the Commission on Cancer and the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, as it shows their programs go above and beyond to care for patients.
But facing her own cancer was different, and her support system proved vital during this time. Her husband, two adult daughters and family members were constantly by her side, and coworkers and physicians remained supportive. She also drew strength from her faith as a Christian.
Dr. Danny Sanders performed the surgery to remove the spot in her breast. After surgery, Jackson had radiation, but did not have to have chemotherapy. Since then, she’s had several follow-up mammograms; all have come back negative.
Jackson said she was fortunate to catch the cancer early, and her experience has only solidified in her mind the importance of annual screenings. She encourages every woman to do self-breast exams, even if they are not yet of the age to require annual screenings, and report any potential issues to their physician.
“Some people think cancer only happens to elderly people, but that’s not true,” she said. “There’s so many young people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, that get cancer even before they’re supposed to be screened.”
Annual screenings, she said, can catch the disease early, before it can spread, when the chances of survival are typically higher.
“We see so many people that come in and they felt this lump or this mass, and it’s been there for a year, or two years or three years, and by that time the disease is pretty far gone,” Jackson said. “It’s extremely important, I can’t stress it enough, to catch these things early when they’re most treatable. Just to get that word out is so important.”
Although she’s personally had annual mammograms for years, her own cancer experience has pushed her to encourage family members to keep up their annual screenings as well. She continues to have follow-up exams every six months, and will continue to have her annual screenings.
She believes the one she had on Oct. 8, 2019, may have saved her life.
“If I had not gotten my annual mammogram, they would not have picked this up until much later,” she said. “(It) is amazing to me that they can see something so small and be able to diagnose it and get it out that early.”
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October 06, 2020 at 04:00PM
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Catching it early: Annual mammogram played key role Oxford native's breast cancer treatment - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
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