During the summer of 2022, Casey Baldwin, who was 32 at the time, felt off. “Something just didn’t feel right,” she said. Thinking it was her birth control or thyroid or hormones, she asked her doctor to run bloodwork. “They ran all sorts of tests, but everything came back perfectly fine, no issues. But I still didn’t feel quite right.” She never expected a breast cancer diagnosis.
Finding a Lump
Then, in January 2023, Casey felt a lump in her breast. “I freaked out and thought, okay, this is it,” she said. “I just had a gut feeling that something was wrong. Looking back, maybe it was my body telling me something.”
Casey reached out to her gynecologist for an appointment. “I could tell by her face when she did the breast exam,” Casey said. Casey’s doctor wrote her a referral for a diagnostic mammogram, which took weeks to schedule.
The wait was excruciating. “For those five or six weeks I was waiting, it was really scary. I just knew something was wrong. I cried a lot,” she said. “Was it breast cancer? What was I going to do? I have two little kids. How will this work with my job? Was I just being paranoid?”
Mammograms & Breast Ultrasounds
Because Casey has very dense breast tissue, the mammogram didn’t show much, so Casey was sent for a breast ultrasound. “The techs looked at me and looked back at the screen. I could see the screen and it looked like two masses. It looked bad,” Casey said.
Each mass was biopsied, and the very next day, Casey received the call: She had breast cancer. “At that point, it was confirmed it was breast cancer, but I had no idea the stage. I didn’t know if it had spread to my lymph nodes. I knew I had cancer, but that was it,” she said. “My daughter and I were in the car, on the way to the dentist when I got the call. It was a blur.”
Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Casey felt like she was in a holding pattern. Over the next three weeks, she had blood work and genetic testing, which came back negative for any inherited gene mutations that could increase the risk of breast cancer. Additionally, Casey got in touch with a breast surgeon and an oncologist and also met with a radiologist.
“They scheduled my surgery for the end of March. The original plan was I’d have a double mastectomy, then start chemo,” she said. “But a week prior to surgery, they called and said, ‘it’s aggressive, you need to start chemo first.’” Finally, Casey was diagnosed with stage 2B invasive ductal carcinoma.
A Change in Plans
Having mentally prepared to go into surgery for a double mastectomy, Casey’s treatment plan was suddenly flipped. “I was like, okay, this is what’s happening. At that point, I just wanted the cancer out of my body,” she said. Rather than prepping for surgery, Casey had a port-a-cath, also known as a port or a mediport, placed and started chemotherapy immediately.
Breast Cancer Treatment Details
Casey’s treatment included chemotherapy and a double mastectomy. Because her breast cancer was hormone receptor-positive, she had medicine to suppress her ovaries. As a result, she looked into the pros and cons of tamoxifen, but ultimately decided it was not a better option for her than having a hysterectomy.
“I’d had issues with precancerous cells on my cervix, and some of the medications can heighten your chances of getting ovarian cancer, so I chose the hysterectomy,” she explained. “I had my children. I was ready.” She is now on an aromatase inhibitor (AI) medication to suppress estrogen-producing cells in her body.
Being Here
“For some people, losing your breasts or having a hysterectomy is a very big deal, but all of this was very easy to me. I have two young kids, and I want to be here for them,” Casey said. “My kids deserve to have me, and I don’t want to put them through anything else. I chose to do what I needed to be here for my kids.”
Learn more about the unique issues for young women with breast cancer.
Statements and opinions expressed are that of the individual and do not express the views or opinions of Susan G. Komen. This information is being provided for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as medical advice. Persons with breast cancer should consult their healthcare provider with specific questions or concerns about their treatment.
