MD Anderson helps breast cancer survivor get back to her family

Stacia Folloder was nine years away from the recommended age to get her first mammogram when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 31. She didn’t have a family history of breast cancer.

“I was shocked,” she recalls. “I didn’t know you could get breast cancer before the age of 50.”

Stacia’s breast cancer symptoms

In September 2017, Stacia’s two children were ages 3 and 3 months. She had finished breastfeeding her youngest child when she noticed that one breast had gone back to normal while the other breast was still sensitive. At first, she chalked it up to breastfeeding issues. But after feeling around, she noticed a lump on her left breast.  

A mammogram the next day revealed a fairly large tumor on her left breast. Shortly after, Stacia was diagnosed with HER2 positive breast cancer.

“By the following Friday, I was at MD Anderson to meet my team of doctors,” she says.

Immunotherapy clinical trial kicks off breast cancer treatment

Stacia lives in the Houston area, so she knew MD Anderson had a great reputation for cancer care.

At her first visit to MD Anderson, she met breast medical oncologist David Ramirez, M.D., radiation oncologist Eric Strom, M.D., and breast surgeon Henry Kuerer, M.D., Ph.D.

“They were amazing,” she says.

Stacia enrolled in a clinical trial in which she was given the immunotherapy drug atezolizumab combined with trastuzumab emtansine at the beginning of her breast cancer treatment.

When Stacia’s tumor increased in size, she panicked.

“I wondered if the immunotherapy was having an opposite effect than what I needed,” she says. “But Dr. Ramirez explained it to me, saying my body is sending all its cells to fight the tumor, which caused it to grow larger. Once the cells fought the tumor, the tumor shrunk down to half its size. That was a relief.”  

Stacia then had six rounds of chemotherapy, followed by 12 rounds of targeted therapy. On May 8, 2018, Kuerer performed a modified radical mastectomy on Stacia’s left breast. Then she had six weeks of radiation therapy. On Feb. 21, 2019, Stacia had two procedures done at the same time: a skin-sparing total mastectomy on her right breast performed by Kuerer and DIEP flap reconstruction on both breasts performed by plastic surgeon Mark Schaverien, M.D.

Managing side effects from breast cancer treatment

While receiving immunotherapy, Stacia experienced nausea and vomiting. Anti-nausea medication helped control those symptoms, and Stacia continued taking the medication throughout chemotherapy.

“During chemo, I experienced hair loss, kind of a brain fog and a bad taste in my mouth, which affected how some foods tasted,” says Stacia. “I avoided foods that no longer sounded good to me. And because of the bad taste in my mouth, I constantly wanted to suck on a mint, drink something or eat something to take that taste away. I think that helped to keep me from losing too much weight.”

One side effect she hadn’t bargained for was blurred vision.

“I did chemo every three weeks,” she says. “After the first week, my vision would be the worst. I was also sensitive to light. By the end of the three weeks, it would mostly return to normal. But by my sixth round of chemo, I had to be in a room with the lights off because my eyes were just too sensitive to the light.”

Thankfully, the oil and gas company where Stacia worked allowed her to take off as much time as she needed during treatment.

“My routine was to take a week off for chemo,” she says. “I did chemo on Mondays, so by the time Friday hit, I was feeling better, and my kids were home from school. Then I would work for two weeks and do it again.”   

Family support was vital during breast cancer treatment

Because Stacia’s children were so young when she was receiving treatment, they were in daycare throughout the week. Knowing they were being taken care of during the day helped ease Stacia’s mind as she focused on getting better.

Stacia’s parents and her husband’s parents watched the kids and took them to school whenever Stacia had appointments or surgeries. Stacia says she doesn’t know how she would have managed without them or her husband.

“With two little kids and a job, I didn’t have the opportunity to sit and sulk over my diagnosis,” she says. “The couple of weeks in between finding out I had breast cancer and starting treatment, I gave myself that time to be sad and upset. But once I started treatment, there was no room for that. I had to push ahead. Taking care of my kids was a full-time job. Thankfully, I had a lot of help.”

Healed – physically and mentally

Stacia just hit her five-year mark of being cancer-free. Now she only comes to MD Anderson once a year for follow-ups.

“I’m more appreciative of the time I have with my kids and being able to take family vacations and things like that,” she says. “I couldn’t be more grateful for MD Anderson and all the doctors and nurses who helped me along the way.”

Stacia shares this advice for other young women facing breast cancer: “It takes time to physically and mentally heal from cancer. The further away you are from it, the better it gets. Your body may look and feel different. You may have scars. But eventually, you’ll find your new normal and be OK with it.”

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