Sue Swenson

With decades of clean mammograms and no family history of breast cancer, “I thought, ‘I’m old enough now to quit doing this,’” Sue says. Then she was given a to-do list at a clinic visit, and “mammogram” was on it. “A little voice inside said, ‘Just do it.’ So I thought I’d have a mammogram one more time to show I’m fine.”

She wasn’t.

Sue’s mammogram and a biopsy found a small but dangerous tumor: Grade 3 on the Nottingham scale, cancer cells that grow fast in irregular patterns. (“Grade” is different from “Stage” of cancer: Doctors use the grade of the cancer, plus its size and other characteristics, to determine the stage of the cancer.) Sue’s cancer was Stage 1. 

Sue had surgery with Katya Ericson, MD a year earlier. Now, she chose Dr. Ericson again: “She’s a marvelous surgeon.” 

Dr. Ericson removed the tumor and two lymph nodes, which tested clear. As a precaution, Sue had four rounds of chemotherapy at NH+C’s Cancer Care & Infusion Center. 

Mayo oncologist Jasmine Kamboj, MD, FASCO cared for Sue there. “Dr. Kamboj spends time with you. She really wants to make sure you understand what’s happening.”

After her last chemo treatment, “there was a little party,” Sue recalls. “They were all singing, and I was standing there crying. I didn’t cry through the whole thing, but I cried then. It was so emotional to get such tender care from this team.”

Then Sue had six rounds of radiation at Mayo Radiation Oncology across the street from Northfield Hospital.

“Northfield Hospital has excellent connections,” says Sue, who grew up in Northfield. “Even though I got all my care at Northfield Hospital, a lot of it happened beyond Northfield: They reach out to Mayo, Abbott, whomever they need for biopsies, tests, information so the patient has the best outcome.” 

Breast cancer nurse navigators Anya Sibunka, BSN, OCN, RN and Katie George, BSN, OCN, RN “were remarkable, always at my appointments, my surgery, my chemo,” Sue says. “I had access to them daily. That gave me all the confidence in the world.”

Throughout her care, “I never felt I was alone,” Sue says. “I’m a widow; I’d come home to an empty place. Coming home alone could have been the hardest part, but I knew I had this team with me every moment. They gave me the tools to reach out to the people I needed along the way.”

The team “worked together behind the scenes with so much precision to get me to the next step of my care,” Sue says. “I never felt rushed. I always felt like what I said was important. They listened, and did something about it. 

“When you’re doing all this, your whole world is that team. Having this team working together was the best part of my care.”

Part of Sue’s ongoing care is, yes, annual mammograms. 

Sue’s advice for older women tired of mammograms: “Just because all your mammograms have been fine, and you have no history of cancer, and you’ve reached a certain age – don’t think ‘It’s not going to happen to me.’ Because it can.”

Fortunately, “we have this wonderful facility and caregivers right here in our own community,” Sue adds. “We don’t have to go out of town. That takes a lot of stress away.”