Wasecan’s face-off with cancer began at age 18

Krista Fogal, 38, has been cancer free for 14 years. Despite the time lapse, though, she relives the powerful moments that were part of her journey as she tells her story.

“When you hear the word ‘cancer,’” she remembers, “the next word you think of is ‘death.’”

She also remembers the day her doctor told her there was no need for her to continue her schedule of follow-up exams. “After five years, he told me I didn’t need to come back, because he needed to spend his time seeing people who were sick, not healthy people like me.

“I spent the whole drive home thanking God.”

Fogal’s encounter with cancer began so early it was “unbelievable.”  She was only 18 when she discovered a lump in her right breast. Though she visited a doctor promptly, professionals in the medical field consistently dismissed the lump as a “fibroadenoma,” a rubbery mass the size of a pea or larger which sometimes forms spontaneously in a woman’s breast. They are known for moving around, while cancerous tissue usually does not. According to the Mayo Clinic website, they most commonly appear in women between the ages of 15 and 35.

Fogal’s lump was much larger than a pea–at least a full inch across. And yes, she says, it did move around when pressed. But it also caused her pain when she was having her period.

She has strong memories of a moment during this time when she was on a surgical table about to have doctors take a sample, a biopsy, of the tissue: the radiologist in charge entered the room and told everyone the procedure was over. There was no need for a biopsy, he claimed, because the tissue was obviously fibroadenoma.

“They kept telling me I was too young to have cancer,” Fogal remembers. “But it turns out, you’re never too young.”

At age 24, she says, the lump had grown larger and made itself known when she was dressing and undressing. “I told my doctor I want this biopsy done,” she remembers. “I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”

Despite her determination, it was a shock to her system when she got the call informing her that, yes, the lump was malignant. She describes the moment she heard the word “cancer” as if the speaker had begun talking to her from a long distance. “I heard those words and suddenly I couldn’t process. I couldn’t think clearly. It was like my brain just shut down.”

The next step was additional testing, including a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and other procedures. Fogal’s doctors assessed her cancer at stage 2B and discovered it had spread to numerous lymph nodes in both of her arms.

In January of 2011, she elected to have a double mastectomy–it was during that procedure that additional malignant lumps were discovered in her left breast, though they had not shown up in previous testing. Prior to the surgery, Fogal says she wore a DD bra.

“After that procedure, I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest,” she recalls. Along with her breasts, the malignant lymph nodes in her arms were removed.

She took the first of four chemotherapy treatments in March. When it became evident she would lose her long, blond hair, she had her head shaved.

Woven in among the treatments to destroy cancer were procedures to protect her ovaries, since it was a priority that she be able to have children someday. An online source explains that chemotherapy targets cells which divide quickly; since both the ovaries and the uterus produce hormones, they are more susceptible to damage from the cancer-fighting chemicals.

“They put my ovaries into a short-term menopause,” Fogal describes. Doing so required injections into her abdomen.

“I felt like my womanhood was being ripped away from me,” she recalls from that time. “My breasts were gone, my hair was gone, my period was stopped.

“On top of that, I was having these cancer-fighting poisons injected into me every three weeks.”

She says each round of chemotherapy left her sick, nauseous and throwing up for about seven days.

“My family asks me how I was so strong during that time,” she mentions. “I don’t feel as if I was strong. I had all these emotions, all these worries.

“But that’s how it is when you have cancer. You have to just keep moving forward, and promise yourself you’ll get through it.”

Also a giant help during those months, Fogal recalls, was when her oncologist introduced her to Emily, another woman of about the same age who had also been diagnosed with breast cancer. “I had someone to talk to who went through the same things,” she says. “We could support each other, help each other. It made a big difference.”

Since 2011, Fogal and Emily have remained in touch, and have taken part together in a number of events meant to increase awareness and raise funds for breast cancer research.

Going through cancer, Fogal recalls, is both a physical and emotional nightmare. It has left her with some lifelong aftereffects, including that, although she has breast implants, she no longer has breasts. She also has no feeling in her upper right arm, where the lymph nodes were removed.

There are ways she is stronger now, too.

For one thing, the experience gives her rich appreciation for all the “afters” that might not have happened.

Krista and her high school sweetheart Dustyn married on October 11, 2014. Today they have two sons, Maddyx, 7, and Bryson, 4.

“I feel so fortunate,” she says. “I’m alive. I have all these things in my life that I worried I would never have.”

“I can be here for other women,” she says. “I can help with their questions. I can help them see they can get through all of it and come out okay on the other side.”