In honor of breast cancer awareness month, Summit Healthcare wanted to share one survivor’s story.
Ann Foster was an oncology nurse at the hospital when she got diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2013 after her yearly mammogram screening.
A life-changing event Foster wants to share with others going through the same thing.
“As an oncology nurse, I could tell my patients what the side effects were, what the clinical things were, but until you sit in the chair, you have no idea what they’re going through,” Foster said.
Foster was now a patient in the Summit Healthcare Cancer Center where she had worked for nine years.
“It wasn’t a shock, it was like what are we going to do about it and what are my options,” Foster said.
Foster ended up having a bilateral mastectomy on her right breast followed by four months of chemo, one month of radiation and reconstruction. A situation she didn’t let keep her from living life.
“I went back to work with drains still in,” Foster said. “I really think I was an inspiration to the patients and of lot of them said, ‘I don’t know how you’re doing it,’ and it gave them hope.”
Foster credits the care she got at the Cancer Center as one of the reasons for a successful recovery.
“[People] don’t have to leave the mountain,” Foster said. “This is an excellent facility with a great team of professionals that are loving and caring.”
“We gave [patients] the same care that was available to them in bigger cities and we gave them personal attention,” Foster continued.
Since retiring as an oncology nurse almost two years ago, the cancer center had a makeover to serve more patients and bring in the latest medical technology to battle different types of cancer.
“The big C is not a death sentence,” Foster said. “There is life after a cancer diagnosis and life after treatment. You learn to embrace life and thankful for every day that you have.”
Foster has been in remission for two and a half years and still comes to the Cancer Center for regular checkups. She encourages everyone to get screened.
For more information, visit summitcancercenter.net.
