Compassionate care helped make a hard time easier
Kristin Gannon had the experience many women fear: a routine mammogram revealed something suspicious.
“They saw something, so they had me go in so they could do a biopsy, and then I got the call that I had breast cancer,” said Gannon, 54. The mom of a 14-year-old son, Gannon lives in Hyannis and is a job coach for LIFE Cape Cod, a nonprofit supporting adults with autism, learning and intellectual disabilities. When she grabs a spare moment, she likes to hang out with family or read historical fiction. Cancer was not on her calendar.
“At first when I heard I had cancer, I practically blacked out,” she said. “And then after that I was like, let's do this. It's not going to beat me. I'm going to do it. Everything's going to be all right.”
Gannon received all her care through Cape Cod Healthcare. She was diagnosed in February at the Cuda Breast Care Center at CCHC and had a mastectomy of her left breast at Cape Cod Hospital, followed by radiation therapy. Her providers made all the difference in making the experience go as smoothly as it could, including hematologist/medical oncologist Edward J. Wyluda, DO; radiation oncologist Deborah Jiang, MD; and her surgeon, Naomi Kalliath, DO. At first, Dr. Kalliath hoped to do a lumpectomy but the cancer was too widespread and required removing her entire breast, Gannon said.
“Dr. Kalliath was an awesome surgeon, just a great person,” Gannon said. “She sat with me for an hour explaining to me about the type of cancer I had and what they were going to do in the surgery.”
Surgery was followed by several weeks of radiation, five days a week. Unfortunately, Gannon ran into trouble when she had an adverse reaction to radiation and got painful third-degree burns, an unusual but serious reaction. But Dr. Jiang was able to treat the issue, she said, and she continued treatment. She’s now on oral hormonal therapy for five years and says she is feeling strong – tough enough in fact to joke about her mastectomy. So far, she has opted not to have breast reconstruction.
As someone whose job entails coaching people with disabilities as they move into the job market, Gannon understands the importance of good support. Besides her team at Cape Cod Healthcare, “I had a lot of people praying for me,” she said.
And she has nothing but gratitude and praise for her care team, from diagnosis to surgery to radiation treatment and follow-up. She appreciates the time they took to make small gestures, such as introducing themselves in pre-op before the surgery, she said.
“They paid attention to me,” she said. “I didn't have to ask several times for something. They were right there. They were on the ball. Everyone I met had a great bedside manner, and that helped a lot right there.”
