Survivor story: Janet Gluesing

Janet Gluesing was diagnosed with breast cancer in her left breast on Nov. 11, 2011. "I had surgery and then radiation and then (was pronounced) cancer free," she says. "However, I'm still under treatment, as I'm taking medicine that is a hormone blocker because the type of cancer (that I had) was hormone induced."

Gluesing's cancer battle was made even more stressful and complicated due to a misdiagnosis when she sought a second opinion.

"It was quite a situation," she says. "At a routine exam (at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau), they picked up on something during my mammogram. I had a biopsy right then and there and met with a surgeon ... I was sitting there in shock because you never think it's going to be you."

She decided to get a second opinion in St. Louis.

"I went up and had a pre-surgery chest X-ray and the oncologist said that my breast cancer has metastasized into my lungs," she says.

As it turned out, the spot in her lungs turned out to be a pneumonia scar, and Gluesing returned to Cape Girardeau to have her breast surgery.

"Dr. Carlos Robles, an oncologist at Saint Francis, is the most compassionate physician that I have ever had," she says now. "Even when (it was thought) that I had cancer in my lungs, he still had hope."

Like many, Gluesing relied on her faith and people within her church to help her get through her darkest hours.

"I have always known the Lord and have always been a Christian," she says. "And I have been in a prayer group for years. When I was too weak to pray for myself, I had others to do it for me."

She also took advantage of support group opportunities to help her work through her cancer ordeal.

"I did go to a couple of meeting and share (my story)," Gluesing says. "It can be (an) important (part of the healing process)."

Gluesing, who was 67 at the time of her surgery, is now 72. She reminds women that the risk of breast cancer rises with age.

"Don't think that you don't need to get mammograms as often as you get older, because you do," she says. Gluesing, who lives in Cape Girardeau, has been married for 30 years to her husband, Larry. They have two grown sons, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She is retired from Blue Cross Blue Shield, where she was an account executive for 16 years.