KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Amber Myers first started to administer chemotherapy at North Kansas City Hospital, she never thought she would be the one receiving treatment.
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In 2020, at the age of 35, Myers found an abnormal lump on her left breast. After consulting with her doctor, she was diagnosed with breast cancer — Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, grade 3.
"Which means it tends to be more aggressive," Myers said. "After my surgery, it was in my lymph nodes as well."
After months of surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy, she's cancer-free.
"I have one more surgery in December," Myers said. "It will hopefully be my last reconstructive surgery, and then tattoos and done."
Being in her 30s, Myers said her diagnosis isn't as uncommon as many think.
"A few months after I was diagnosed, I had so many people around me," Myers said. "Misty was diagnosed in her 40s, Christy was diagnosed in her 40s after me."
Coincidentally, Myers' two sisters, ages 40 and 43, were both diagnosed with breast cancer after her.
"We have had more frequency of women under the age of 45 who have been diagnosed with breast cancer," said Kelly Filipponi, RN OCN at North Kansas City Hospital. "In the past three months or so, I've had about four to five patients who are in that age range."
Filipponi saw Myers go through treatment, and now they work together.
The RN said she admires Myers' ability to be proactive and advocate for herself.
"As a nurse, sometimes, we kinda try to put ourself in our patient's shoes, but when you're actually walking in those shoes, it does give you a different perspective," Filipponi said.
It's that perspective that allowed Myers to be a better nurse today.
"Before when I was … caring for cancer patients, I had a lot of sympathy, but it really didn't allow me to have empathy until I went through it myself," Myers said.
She's now a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold, something she was grateful to have when she sat in the chemotherapy chair.
"They say it takes a village to raise a child, but it really takes a really strong village to go through the cancer journey, in the best way," Myers said.
Myers and Filipponi want to remind the public that just because Breast Cancer Awareness Month is coming to an end, that doesn't stop its impact. Breast cancer can affect anyone — all ages, races and genders.
Symptoms of breast cancer to be aware of include:
- New lump on breast or underarm.
- Thickening of skin or swelling of breast.
- Irritation or dimpling of breast skin.
- Redness or flakey skin in the nipple area of the breast.
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