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She's been there, done that Nicole McPheeters, supervisor of the Providence Breast Center, is also a breast cancer survivor. Mail Tribune / Jamie Lusch Wednesday Oct 12, 2016 at 12:01 AM Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune @thewholedish Cancer crushed Nicole McPheeters’ hope of conceiving a child for the fifth and final time. Then the “surprise” of pregnancy, after two years of treatment that included six breast surgeries, nearly eclipsed the shock of her diagnosis. “It was, like, surreal,” says McPheeters, a 39-year-old mother of four and supervisor of Providence Medford Medical Center’s Leila J. Eisenstein Breast Center. “When you have a hormonally fed cancer, you’re definitely not planning on getting pregnant.” Delivering son Colton, now 17 months, the Medford resident felt a brief pang of loss for never nursing him. McPheeters’ double mastectomy with complete reconstruction deprived her of breastfeeding’s joy but eliminated anxiety of cancer striking again. During a decade as an ultrasound and mammogram technician, McPheeters says, she saw too many women endure the trauma of lumpectomy or losing one breast only to live in fear of their next screening. “There’s so much worry to that,” she says. “These are things you think about when you work in a place like this.” Recalling countless examples of early intervention, McPheeters decided to play it safe in the fall of 2012 and have her first mammogram at age 35, despite no family history of breast cancer or any other factors that raised her risk. The standard, age-based recommendation for a woman’s first mammogram is 40, she says. Instead of granting reassurance, McPheeters’ test left her uneasy. The scan of her right breast showed two areas of calcification, often benign but sometimes precancerous. “I did not have a lump, so I had no symptoms,” she says. Biopsies of both spots confirmed McPheeters’ early-stage, noninvasive breast cancer. Although reeling from the news, McPheeters didn’t waver from a drastic course of treatment that allowed her to avoid many common cancer therapies, such as chemotherapy and radiation. “It hadn’t eroded through the duct wall,” says McPheeters. “That’s the whole point of catching it early.” For women considering removal of both breasts and reconstruction, McPheeters is an invaluable resource, not least because she’s readily available in the Breast Center, says Kate Newgard, oncology nurse navigator. About five patients each month meet with McPheeters to obtain vital information on their surgical options. Hearing McPheeters’ story, patients’ outlook is so much brighter, says Newgard. “Because she’s young, it really impacts people,” she says. “They see someone who’s alive, who’s doing well.” The gift of hope is one McPheeters had bestowed on others almost a decade before conquering cancer. Acting as a surrogate mother for a Seattle couple, McPheeters had agreed to a second surrogacy that would result in a sibling for the couple’s first offspring. With mere weeks until the in-vitro fertilization, McPheeters received her cancer diagnosis. Canceling the procedure dealt a double blow to the Seattle woman whose fertility, says McPheeters, was forfeit to breast cancer at age 30. “Not being able to do the surrogacy was almost more disheartening (than the cancer),” says McPheeters. Her own unplanned pregnancy, almost two years to the date since her diagnosis, seemed so improbable that McPheeters says she was practically in denial almost until labor’s onset. She did have the forethought, however, to request that staff at Providence BirthPlace refrain from offering any well-intentioned, but uninformed, suggestions for her newborn’s breastfeeding. “I knew that that would irritate me.” Rather than worry whether formula could adequately nourish her son, McPheeters counted the blessing of eating and drinking whatever she pleased free from concerns for breastfeeding. The hours she would have spent nursing she dedicated to cloth diapering and making Colton’s first solid foods from scratch. “He’s kind of our little, special addition.” — Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at [email protected].