Lynda Mitchell: �Ask for help�

In January 2017, Lynda Mitchell says she �felt something that just felt wrong.�

Since her grandmother had passed away from breast cancer, Mitchell was diligent about performing self-breast exams at least one time each month. The lump she found that day was new, and she knew something was not right.

She scheduled a mammogram, and the diagnosis she received was �just an angry lymph node.� The doctor assured her it would dissipate, and within a month she could no longer feel the lump.

Cancer Survivor, Lynda MitchellTyler Graef ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

One year later, everything changed. After a routine mammogram, she was called back in to be checked again. She was given another mammogram, then an ultrasound and asked to wait while the doctor read the results.

�It felt like forever, but was probably just 15 minutes,� Mitchell recalls.

This time, the doctor didn�t think it was just an inflamed lymph node and ordered a biopsy. The results revealed stage 1A invasive ductal carcinoma.

�I�ve always been the one who takes care of business,� Mitchell says. �I�m kind of the level-headed one who takes care of everyone else.�

She knew this time, she needed to let her family take care of her.

Telling her mother was the hardest, she says.

�She had lost her mother to breast cancer,� Mitchell says. �She was so solemn.�

Mitchell�s family became her greatest source of support. Her mother joined her during her initial appointments at Saint Francis, nearly a two-hour drive from her home in Kennett, Missouri. One son took off work to be there for her surgery, and her other son was home on summer break from college during her radiation treatments. She had her brother and friends by her side to help.

�They let me spill it and listened to my craziness,� Mitchell says.

Her treatments now behind her, Mitchell will remain on a hormone blocker for the next five years, with her five-year survival rate at 98 percent.

�I saw my radiologist and oncologist last week, and everything looks good,� Mitchell says.

With many follow-up appointments yet to come, she is happily in remission.

She says it is important to face cancer day by day.

�You want to plan things out, but it doesn�t work; you need to take it step by step,� Mitchell says. �Don�t say it�s not going to get you down, because it will, but you have to get back up. One of the biggest things is ask for help. That was one of the hardest things for me because I don�t like to ask for help. But you really need to ask for help.�