Breast center continues to shine light on patients’ often dark tunnel
Patient writes book explaining her journey through treatment
The only surgery Robin Henshaw had ever had was having her tonsils removed.
“I didn’t have a family history of breast cancer, or cancer at all really,” the Sunderland-based voice teacher said.
When she went to Calvert Memorial Hospital’s Center for Breast Health for a routine mammogram in February of 2010 she was expecting to hear what she always heard: “Everything looks good, you can get dressed.”
Instead, Henshaw was taken into another room to get a sonogram and shortly after that she was shown several x-rays and told the last thing she started the day expecting to hear: She had stage three breast cancer.
Though she was shocked, Henshaw said she never really set into full-blown panic, even when she and her doctors decided the best course of treatment for her would be a mastectomy and multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.
Henshaw said this immediate confidence she felt was partially because of her strong Christian faith but also because of the care she received from the team at the Center for Breast Care at Calvert Memorial Hospital.
During her treatment, which included a makeover and head-shaving party with friends, Henshaw said she felt compelled to write a book describing what she was feeling and how she coped.
Henshaw’s book “Savoring God” was published this year and not only describes how prayer got her through cancer, but how the breast care team at CMH did, as well.
“They took such beautiful care of me,” said Henshaw, who was one of the first patients in the new center that opened in January 2010 with the late Dr. Sheldon Goldberg as its medical director and lead surgeon.
“Dr. Goldberg set the standard really high, so we’re trying to raise that bar,” said Dr. Arati Patel, who explained that she works with patients who have received a breast cancer diagnosis to establish a treatment plan.
Kasia Sweeney, the associate vice president for corporate communication at CMH, explained that the breast center contains two parts: A suite where patients are seen by a physician and receive numerous supports and a breast imaging center where radiology and mammograms are done.
Sweeney said once patients receive a breast cancer diagnosis they are given a binder about how to keep track of their treatment and a book explaining the disease.
Patel said patients receive radiation at the Tri County Radiation and Oncology Group, which has locations in Charlotte Hall and Waldorf, and receive chemotherapy at the CMH-based Infusion Center, which she said was recently renovated.
Patel said that since Goldberg died in a rafting accident in July, Calvert County breast cancer patients requiring surgery either travel to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in conjunction with a local doctor or are operated on by a general surgeon at CMH.
“They really filled the need very quickly,” said Patel, adding that CMH Breast Care Nurse Navigator Linda Walton “really functioned in seeing that there were no gaps in patient care” after Goldberg’s sudden death.
“My beloved husband had a mission,” Goldberg’s widow Romona Crowley-Goldberg said in a written statement. “His dream was that one day, Calvert County would have its own medical center that would be devoted to supporting and healing women and men with breast cancer. His vision was that patients would benefit from skilled professionals who provide excellent quality care here in our own community.... Sheldon’s hope was that a center for breast care would serve patients and their families, not just with state-of-the-art imaging, surgery and oncology, but with support groups and educational programs a well-planned comprehensive program.”
Patel said CMH is currently in the process of obtaining a breast surgeon from Hopkins to come perform operations and see patients on a weekly basis.
“Anyone who has breast cancer, he’d be the lead surgeon,” Patel said of the incoming doctor, whose name she declined to reveal at the time.
Sweeney said that twice a month all doctors involved with the center hold a “tumor board” to discuss and get other view points on all of their cases.
“It’s a true multidisciplinary approach to patient care,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney said all digital mammograms performed at the CMH breast center are read by breast imaging experts from Johns Hopkins Hospital, who are also at CMH on a part-time basis to perform biopsies.
Also in the breast center, Sweeney said, is a Mastectomy and Image Salon, where she said women can purchase items they might need due to their treatment like wigs, support garments, hats and even prosthetic breasts.
She said there is also a complementary therapy room where patients can schedule massages or reflexology treatments to cope with the stresses and body pains that often come with a cancer diagnosis.
“The idea of the whole program is to put everything in one place for women. ...We try to support them every step of the way,” Sweeney said.
One of the latest features to the Breast Center is the Survivors Offering Support, or SOS program, founded by eight-year breast cancer survivor Denise O’Neill, who is now working with CMH to recruit and train breast cancer survivors to mentor newly diagnosed patients.
“Our hospitals offer wonderful care for patients ... but our survivors can offer emotional support and practical advice and make that journey a lot easier,” said O’Neill, who explained her position is funded by both CMH and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
O’Neill said to be a mentor one must be at least one year out of surgery and have two referrals from physicians “basically saying you’re emotionally stable and will make a good mentor.”
She said patients and mentors are matched based on lifestyle and diagnosis similarities and demographics.
“They become a cheerleader for the patient. ...This is someone who has walked in their shoes,” O’Neill said, adding that all patients who receive a breast cancer diagnosis can sign up to receive a mentor with whom they can formally meet for as long as a year.
She said about 22 percent of women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in Maryland have participated in this program.
O’Neill said CMH also is currently in the process of applying for a grant to be able to start a breast cancer library in the breast center, dealing with topic areas like diagnosis, reconstruction, nutrition, intimacy, exercise and fertility.
Walton said while the standard for breast cancer treatment has become national, CMH has a community approach that “makes us able to focus a little bit better on what community needs are.
“...It’s warmer, it’s friendlier,” Walton said of the breast center.
Walton said she has heard from several patients who went to larger university hospitals to get a second opinion and have come back to CMH saying, “they were very nice and kind [but] I felt like a number.”
Going hand in hand with this approach, Walton said she has an office right next to the mammography and imaging rooms so she can immediately talk to patients and answer their questions if they see something suspicious.
Walton said she is the second person patients speak with after they are diagnosed by a doctor and goes over their proposed care plan with them.
“I kind of help them look at that as ‘OK, you’re going to interview this surgeon.’ It’s very hard to hear that diagnosis and then wait four to five days to have to meet with a surgeon so I’m kind of that interim person to talk to and make them feel a little more comfortable until they can meet with a surgeon,” Walton said.
Walton said her position at the Breast Care Center has affected her on a personal level, as well.
lbuck@somdnews.com
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