Intervention specialist and mother of two young girls, Jennifer Wells received a life-changing diagnosis last year. After a routine check-up, Wells found she had developed stage one breast cancer.
Like many others diagnosed with cancer, Wells said she had no signs or warning.
“It doesn’t run in my family. I don’t have the genetic markers. It was just like I won the cancer lottery — just not in a good way,” she said.
Wells was proactive in her treatment approach and immediately scheduled a double mastectomy, which she had Oct. 24.
Wells said the worst part of her recovery was the drain tubes they put in place afterward.
“The drains were awful. I didn’t really feel a whole lot of pain in my chest or anything, but I had a lot of irritation from the drains and just not being able to move. It was just restricting everything. It made putting my hand over my head hard and things like that, so that was my first big hurdle afterward,” said Wells.
“And then just getting comfortable with these tissue expanders that they have in now and I’ve had a few little pains and stuff here and there as they increase the volume and things like that.”
Wells, smiling light-heartedly, discussed the various options available after a mastectomy. “Some are decorative, they do like flower patterns or something,” she said. “I have another surgery and they’ll replace the expanders with a regular implant, so it will be more natural looking.”
She continued with a laugh, “but it’s kind of nice to not have to wear a bra right now.”
The option to take a drug called Tamoxifen was offered to Wells post-surgery.
“When I went to go talk to the medical oncologist, he said I could take Tamoxifen, but it’s really hard on your body,” she said. “That basically makes the hormones not produce estrogen as much. I opted not to do that because I had like a 2 or 3% chance that it would come back and it would be deadly basically, this medication would reduce it to a 1% chance because they can’t ever say that it would reduce it completely.”
Wells said her family has been very helpful throughout her experience.
“They have been very supportive in helping with things around the house that needed to be done,” she said. “My mom also came over a lot and helped with a lot of things, basic housework and stuff the first couple weeks, that was probably the hardest part.”
With added support and personal strength, Wells returned to work just two short weeks after her surgery.
“After two weeks I did go back to work. So I didn’t really need as much support as I was first thinking,” she said. “It ended up turning out pretty good. I was sore, but my office job was doable and I am thankful for that.
“I feel like more people are like asking me how I am and I feel a little more important, but I’m okay now and I am so appreciative that people care.”
Wells said she is, “pretty hopeful. I mean, there is that in the back of your mind thinking ‘Okay, it can come back. If it doesn’t come back in the breast area, it can come back in other places and that’s a little scary because at that point, they consider that a different stage.
“I had stage one. If it goes somewhere else, it’s still considered breast cancer. It’s just metastasized.”
Discussing these matters with her oldest daughter, Wells said she explained, “This might be something that changes how you do things as you get older and you might have to have a better check on things.
“She kind of knows that she might be at an increased risk of having breast cancer now because I did (have it).”
A friend, Vicki Gann, has talked about medication and diet changes.
“Try to add more fruits and vegetables, you know you should be anyway, but she said that she reads a lot of things that she felt really helped prevent things from happening again and it kind of makes sense because there’s a reason why that cancer was able to grow in my body,” said Wells. “It has the environment, something was off in my body to cause that to happen. So with that, I’m like, okay, I need to make some health changes. Get healthier. I’m trying hard and being more active.”
Wells said she feels blessed that she did not have to go through radiation or chemotherapy.
“I felt very blessed that I didn’t have to go through the extra pain of chemo or radiation and just knowing that there’s hope,” she said. “Most people do recover from this. They make full recoveries and live long happy lives and don’t ever have to worry about cancer again, so that’s where I’m looking to.”
Keeping a positive and thankful outlook, along with the support and encouragement of her family, friends and church, has kept Wells going strong.
“As the Bible talks about, when you go through something, sometimes those things are put there so they can help other people through those things I think, so yeah I feel so blessed,” she said.