FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
In March 2014, six months before turning 40, Defense Logistics Agency Information Operations Management and Program Analyst Christina Panichelle saw her obstetrician and gynecologist for a routine visit resulting in a clean bill of health. Within a month, her then-boyfriend, now husband, found a lump.
“My radiation oncologist said that many lumps are found by the amorous hand,” Panichelle said. “Yes, I want women to pay attention and check for lumps and go for their mammograms, but I also really want men to speak up if they feel that something is not right.”
Panichelle said for many people, this may be considered a taboo topic and uncomfortable to talk about. For her, it saved her life because she thought it was just a cyst after receiving a clean bill of health from her doctor and having not discovered a lump during her own breast self-exams.
“When I went to get the mammogram, I could just tell from the technician’s face that something was not right,” she said. “Immediately more people came into the room, then they sent me for an ultrasound where they confirmed it was a mass.”
Although the doctor did not confirm it was cancer immediately, Panichelle said she couldn’t sleep between days of additional testing and constantly wondering about what was happening. Within the same week of testing, her surgeon confirmed that she had stage 1 HER2-positive breast cancer, an aggressive form that affects between 15-20% of invasive breast cancer cases, she said.
During that week of testing and the weeks following her diagnosis, Panichelle said she remembers feeling so saturated with fear that she could not be any more afraid. She said she could feel the fear coming up through her throat as if she could chew on it.
“I feared for my life, I never had a major health crisis like that,” Panichelle said.
In addition to three months of chemotherapy, Panichelle underwent targeted drug therapy over the course of a year to prevent distant cancers from forming.
While undergoing chemo, Panichelle continued to work. She shaved her head and decided against wearing a wig. When she was in the throes of treatment, her colleagues rallied around her.
“I had worked with these people for years. They would come up to me and talk to me; they told me that they loved me; they were there for me and really lifted my spirit,” she said. “I truly felt the care and concern of my DLA family.”
Panichelle said it was her faith in God, the support of her family, friends and the unexpected help of a coworker that really helped her to get through the toughest season of her life. A DLA Troop Support employee who had gone through ovarian cancer became a cancer coach to her.
“I remember her pulling me to the side and telling me to do one thing at a time – get your results back, do whatever you have to do – then you follow the next step, do everything they tell you do,” she said.
Her newfound cancer coach had “street cred” and provided her a lot of hope, optimism and the strength she needed to fight her cancer. Panichelle said the coach also understood how she was feeling and helped her to not to feel alone.
This September marked Panichelle’s 10-year anniversary from the start of her breast cancer journey to being cancer-free. Looking back, she said she often thinks about how different her outcome would have been if her targeted therapies hadn’t been developed yet.
Over the last 10 years since her cancer diagnosis, Panichelle said she put much greater stock in the adage from her late grandmother, “If you have your health, you have everything.” She now takes her health more seriously by eating a more plant-based diet, managing her stress better and exercising regularly.
For those on their breast cancer or any type of cancer journey, Panichelle recommends:
- Lean on your support system and ask them for help.
- Seek out a nutritionist to learn to prepare healthy food.
- Find and do the things that bring you peace and joy.
- Laugh often – find the humor where possible.
- Be willing to share your journey with someone else.
- Have a detail-oriented friend or family member serve as a scribe to write down everything the doctors say, and for decision-making purposes, because your mind will be all over the place.
Panichelle encourages those who have gone or are going through cancer to share their journey.
“If I can get one person to change their behavior in some way that prevents or helps them notice a lump, get a man to say something or report one to their partner, encourage someone to get a mammogram, or take one little action, then it was all worth it,” she said.
Editor’s note: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website indicates that in 2021, an estimated 272,454 new breast cancer cases were reported in women, and 42,211 women will die from the disease in 2022. More information including risk factors, diagnosis and treatment can be found on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.