Reclaiming her life after breast cancer

As a breast cancer survivor, Tricia Merchant Howard has decided to pay it forward and help other women get their lives back post-treatment. She shares her story with us during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“It all started with a simple smear test. While I was there, I asked the nurse to check a lump that I’d felt in my left breast while showering,” Tricia tells MedTech Views. “I could see by her face that she was concerned. She then called in a doctor, who referred me for a mammogram.”

A mammogram is a low-dose X-ray of a person’s breasts from different angles. This medical technology is used to detect breast cancer by producing a black and white image showing any abnormalities in the breast tissue. These can appear as white areas or spots on the image. “A few days after my mammogram, I was invited for an ultrasound and a biopsy, which helped doctors confirm my breast cancer diagnosis,” says Tricia.

An ultrasound is a type of medtech that uses high-frequency sound waves to create digital images of the inside of the breast, while a biopsy involves removing a piece of breast tissue with a needle or a sharp circular instrument so that a doctor can look at the cells under a microscope.

“Once I found out about my diagnosis, I was very calm and just wanted to know what happened next – that’s how I deal with challenges. The next step was finding out what stage of cancer I had and then getting a treatment plan,” Tricia remembers. “First, I had a CT [computerised tomography] scan with contrast dye, which showed that I had a very aggressive Grade 3, Stage II breast cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes under my arm. Then I had an MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scan.”

Tricia was daunted by the imaging machines at first. “They were massive and I thought I’d feel claustrophobic. But it wasn’t as oppressive as I thought it would be.” The CT scan took detailed pictures of Tricia’s entire body; the dye made her blood vessels, organs and soft tissues more clearly visible to doctors. The MRI took cross-section images that doctors could view from different angles. This medtech helped the doctors come up with the best treatment plan for her: eight months of chemotherapy, then surgery followed by daily radiation and medication.

“After chemo I had a lumpectomy to remove the tumour. The surgeons also biopsied a lymph node,” she comments. “There was still cancer in my lymph node, so I had a second surgery to remove all the lymph nodes from my left side. After that, an ultrasound showed that the cancer was gone and I was able to start radiotherapy a couple of weeks later. I finished radiotherapy on a Friday and was back at work that Monday.”

After treatment finished, Tricia felt like she had lost herself a bit. “Before cancer, I had never been ill, I had a healthy lifestyle. Now I was facing memory loss, brain fog, high blood pressure and nerve damage,” she says. “I hadn’t taken a break in three years when I realised that I needed to slow down, reassess and get my identity back. I realised that there were many other women in the same position and I wanted to create something that would support them.”

She’s now made it her mission to help women restore their lives and reclaim their power. Among other things, she partners with organisations to bring creative health approaches to people affected by cancer.