Keep reading for Raluca’s full story.
The following questions and responses have been lightly edited for grammatical purposes.
Can you share your diagnosis story?
My breast cancer journey started in 2013 with a diagnosis of DCIS. Some people consider it a pre-disease, so stage zero breast cancer. At that point, I did a bilateral mastectomy, and no radiation or any other adjuvant chemotherapies had been prescribed since the recurrence was only a 2% chance.
I just did the surgery at that point, and that was it. Two years later, I discovered another lump and that was stage III. I was recommended chemotherapy and, for about a year, I did not want to do chemotherapy.
I tried all of the other holistic options available to me and had surgery to remove that lump. Then a year later, that lump reoccurred. Again, I was stage III for the second time. I had another surgery and went for the chemotherapy standard of care and radiation and subsequently estrogen hormone therapy.
In 2019, that was the time when I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Ever since, I’ve been on treatment for metastatic breast cancer and currently, I’m on my sixth line of treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
I have a really good rapport with my oncologist and I like her personally a lot. On the other side, we don’t have a nurse navigator or a palliative care team. It was dismissed saying, “Oh, it would just add more to your plate. Just tell me what your symptoms are and I will prescribe whatever it is.” So it’s not an extensive team by any means.
What was your journey to self-advocacy and what spurred that within you?
Because there weren’t a lot of resources available, it was up to me to find answers to my questions. One of my main resources is really other patients. I had a great group of survivors that I could rely on and share information. That kind of sets the foundation of how I approach looking for answers.
Now, where I live, I don’t have that same support anymore, but I have the same foundation still available to me. So I know where to look, I know where the resources are. It makes a huge difference to me that I know that.
What stood out to you about the Outcomes4Me app?
The first thing I noticed and the first thing that popped up for me was, “Do you know the status of your ESR1 mutation?” That was the first prompt. And I was like, “Yes, I know. I do.”
Because you do explore options, and when they start failing one by one, you’re thinking, “All right, I’m running out of options, so what am I going to do?” Finding out and discovering there is more you can target makes me think, “Okay, maybe there is a good chance that I can prolong my life and have a good quality of life.”
What advice would you give?
My first recommendation would be to look for a mentor and be open to making connections. There are different organizations that do that. You don’t know where it’s going to lead you, and sometimes it just leads to the most amazing things.
Ultimately, my advice is to feel empowered and take charge of your own health. You are the one that has to live with the decisions of treatment, not your oncologist. The more you know about certain things, the better you’re off, and don’t be afraid to ask for help when you don’t know.
Connect with an Outcomes4Me oncology nurse practitioner at no charge through the Outcomes4Me app, using the “Ask Outcomes4Me” button.