Sherry’s Journey: How Listening to Her Body and Trusting Her Care Team Made All the Difference

Sherry’s sto­ry began with an unex­pect­ed nudge — a pain on her left side while exer­cis­ing that just didn’t sit right. ​“I hadn’t had a mam­mo­gram in three years. Life hap­pens — there was the pan­dem­ic, my kids had health­care needs, and, like most moms, I for­got about myself. But some­thing was telling me this pain wasn’t normal.”

Ini­tial­ly, her diag­no­sis was a mus­cu­lar strain. Yet, some­thing inside her insist­ed she keep push­ing. A day lat­er, Sher­ry felt a lump near her left armpit that was ulti­mate­ly diag­nosed as a non-can­cer­ous fat­ty lipo­ma. But the voice inside told her there was some­thing else.

Sher­ry knew, ​“I need­ed a mam­mo­gram. I was over­due, and some­thing was just nag­ging at me — this wasn’t right. My pri­ma­ry care team lis­tened. Even though my phys­i­cal exam showed noth­ing con­cern­ing, they still ordered the mam­mo­gram. I always say the radi­ol­o­gist at Duly saved my life.”

The screen­ing revealed that Sher­ry had high­ly dense breast tis­sue—com­mon in many women but some­times mask­ing can­cer­ous areas. Although reas­sured that the ini­tial find­ings were like­ly benign, Duly radi­ol­o­gist, Dr. Nicholas Masse, fol­lowed his instincts and flagged five sus­pi­cious spots in her right breast.

Sher­ry recalled, ​“I came in think­ing I was fine, but the radi­ol­o­gist was con­cerned about my right breast. It wasn’t the side with pain — that was the crazy part. I got so mad when he told me he was con­cerned it was can­cer that I threw the pink robe down and walked out for a moment. But I trust­ed him and fol­lowed his rec­om­men­da­tion to get a biop­sy, and that deci­sion saved my life.”

Nav­i­gat­ing Diag­no­sis and Treat­ment with Pos­i­tiv­i­ty, Pur­pose and Connection

When the results came back, Sherry’s world shift­ed: inva­sive duc­tal car­ci­no­ma, HER2-pos­i­tive — a type of breast can­cer known to spread rapidly.

“It was over­whelm­ing at first. I remem­ber throw­ing the pink robe on the floor, so angry. But then I thought, I have to own this. I told myself: If this is my path, I’m going to make the most of it. Can­cer doesn’t get to define me. I can still be me — do my nails, wear make­up, live my life.”

Sher­ry made it clear to her care team what she want­ed from her treat­ment, and they listened. 

“I knew from the start that I want­ed a dou­ble mas­tec­to­my and recon­struc­tion. My doc­tors lis­tened — they sup­port­ed every deci­sion I made. They nev­er tried to push me one way or another.”

Her jour­ney includ­ed chemother­a­py, cold cap­ping to pre­serve her hair and mul­ti­ple surg­eries. Despite the chal­lenges, Sher­ry leaned on her fam­i­ly, her faith, and the sup­port from her providers. 

“My doc­tors were incred­i­ble. Dr. Irene Ma, Dr. Amrit Man­gat, and Dr. Kari­na Alexan­der—were there every step of the way. They treat­ed me as more than just a patient; they tru­ly cared. The nurs­es, the radi­ol­o­gist, my oncol­o­gists — they were amaz­ing. They weren’t just giv­ing me med­i­cine or shots; they tru­ly cared. They made me feel seen.”

When Sher­ry expe­ri­enced intense itch­ing from her med­ica­tion, she asked Dr. Ma for a change, shar­ing insights from oth­ers in a pri­vate sup­port group. Dr. Ma was quick to lis­ten and work with Sher­ry to adjust her treat­ment plan. 

“I was get­ting the injec­tion in my leg… It was awful,” Sher­ry explained. ​“But then I read some of these fel­low peo­ple that had the HER2, they were like, ​‘Get it through a drip in your port.’ When Dr. Ma agreed to try this adjust­ment, the itch­ing got sig­nif­i­cant­ly better.”

A New Perspective

Now, with her treat­ments behind her, Sher­ry reflects on how can­cer has changed her. ​“It’s about giv­ing myself grace. I was always so hard on myself — wor­ry­ing about my weight, my hair, my appear­ance. But can­cer gave me a new lens. I’ve learned to focus on what real­ly mat­ters — tak­ing care of myself, spend­ing time with fam­i­ly, and liv­ing ful­ly. I’m just so blessed with my hus­band, our kids, our fam­i­lies, and our friends. I am beyond thank­ful for them and my amaz­ing care team.” 

“I learned to nev­er take any­thing for grant­ed. I am thank­ful for every sin­gle day because each day is tru­ly a blessing.”

Sherry’s expe­ri­ence is a pow­er­ful reminder of the impor­tance of reg­u­lar screen­ings — and trust­ing your instincts. 

“I had skipped three years of mam­mo­grams. I kept think­ing, what if I had wait­ed anoth­er year? I tell every­one now: Get your mam­mo­gram every year. You are your best advo­cate. No one knows your body like you do, so if some­thing doesn’t feel right, speak up. It’s okay to be per­sis­tent. It could save your life.”

And her advice for any­one fac­ing breast can­cer is heart­felt and clear: ​“Give your­self grace. You are stronger than you think. And don’t com­pare your jour­ney to any­one else’s. We each have our own path — there’s no right or wrong way to go through this.”

Sherry’s jour­ney is one of hope, strength, and self-advo­ca­cy — a pow­er­ful exam­ple of how lis­ten­ing to your body, trust­ing your care team, and find­ing joy in the lit­tle things can lead to heal­ing. At Duly Health and Care, we are hon­ored to be part of sto­ries like Sherry’s and are com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing every patient with the same com­pas­sion and care.

If you are due for your annu­al screen­ing mam­mo­gram or a clin­i­cal breast exam, don’t wait; sched­ule your appoint­ment today.