Breast Cancer Survivor’s Experience Underscores Importance of Self-Advocacy
by REBEKAH PIERCE
When a whisper becomes a roar, it’s something you just can’t ignore. Even if you’re getting ready to leave on a family vacation. Even if it doesn’t seem to make any sense.
That’s exactly what happened to Winter Haven resident Kanyetta Wilson, who, in March 2024, found herself walking into her bathroom to take a shower when she heard someone yelling at her to do a breast self-examination.
Nobody was in the room with her, of course. It was her intuition trying to relay a message.
Prior to that experience, she’d been repeatedly hearing the same urgings. Each time, she brushed the voices off, until that fateful day when they grew too loud to ignore.
“I’m too young,” she remembers thinking. The average age at which most women are diagnosed with breast cancer is 62, which is why most providers don’t recommend mammograms until a woman is 40 years old. Wilson was 34 at the time.
Although she was hurrying, getting ready to head to Miami with her family, she took the time to do a self-check, where she felt a large lump in her left breast. On the way to Miami, she called her doctor, who was able to fit her in for an exam the following Monday.
At first, Wilson’s care providers were hesitant to admit that what she was dealing with might be cancer.
“I was discouraged and frustrated,” she recalls. “I said, ‘I have good insurance, refer me. It has to be something.’ ” Shortly after, she was referred for an ultrasound and mammogram.
According to Dr. Inder Bhutiani, who specializes in radiation oncology at Winter Haven Hospital, that was a smart move.
“From a medical perspective, young women who notice something unusual and feel that their primary physician is not listening to them [can] change physicians in order to have their concerns addressed. If women are feeling different, there is most likely something wrong.”
“When I got the call,” Wilson says, “My world just stopped. They told me I was positive for breast cancer.”
At the time, Wilson’s son was just 2 years old.
“My world was spinning out of control. I was upset with God, just crying, crying, crying,” she says.
She was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma, a noninvasive form of breast cancer that had not spread. Later, she learned that it had spread to her lymph nodes, and the diagnosis changed to multifocal invasive ductal carcinoma.
Wilson underwent extensive therapy.
“There are many options available to patients based on the staging,” Bhutiani explains.
“Early-stage breast cancer generally is treated with local surgery and sampling of the lymph nodes followed by radiation therapy, plus or minus chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. For later stages…chemotherapy and hormonal and immunotherapy treatments can be better addressed by a medical oncologist.”
Wilson underwent surgery to remove the cancer and later, radiation therapy using linear accelerator technologies, a method that delivers radiation only when the patient takes a deep breath. This keeps the heart away from the path of the radiation and prevents unnecessary damage.
Throughout her treatment, Wilson continued to work full-time as a mental health counselor. She went outside and played with her son. She made an effort to do the things that made her feel like herself, like getting her hair and nails done, and most of all, to stay positive despite the odds.
“I did what I had to do,” she reflects stoically. “It’s been a journey, but it’s been MY journey, and I’m very grateful.”
Throughout the journey, Wilson remained a champion for women’s health, encouraging all women to speak up and advocate for their own health.
“I was told, ‘Oh, you’re not 40.’ Age does not play a factor,” she says.
“Advocate no matter what someone tells you.”