Today, Pat J. is a confident, positive, active, woman with things in her life she'd like to do, and places she'd like to go. But less than a year ago, she wouldn't have painted such a cheerful picture of her life.

Like 178,700 women in the United States each year, Pat was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her struggle to deal with the emotional and physical turmoil it caused in her life, was just beginning.

When Pat's annual mammogram revealed several calcifications in both her breasts that needed further evaluation, she came to Surgical Associates for a complete diagnosis and treatment. The areas of calcification were removed in what Pat called a lumpectomy procedure, and the removed tissue was sent to the laboratory for evaluation.

"I just thought the lumpectomy was going to take care of everything," says Pat.

But as one day turned into two, and then three, and she had no "thumbs up" from her doctor, she began to realize something  was wrong. "You make all kinds of excuses why you haven't heard from them..." But deep down she knew.

When the call came, it was good and bad, but not the news she had hoped for. The cancer was contained to the ductal system and there were no indications it had spread. However, the tissue that had been removed did not have "clear margins," meaning it wasn't clear if all of the cancerous cells had been removed. A more aggressive approach would be needed to treat the disease. And her emotional rollercoaster ride to treatment and recovery began. 

"Well, it was a complete shock. I mean there is no breast cancer in my family," says Pat. Because her cancer was contained, she was able to take the time she needed to make a decision about treatment. "Fortunately, I had choices," she remembers. She began weighing her options -- a lumpectomy with adjuvant radiation therapy, a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery -- as her supportive family and friends began to offer their feelings about what they would do in her situation.

"The thing no one realizes is, your head is on, but your brain is out here," she says waving her hand in the air. "And you just keep wanting to pull it back in again." You can't seem to get control of everything, she says, and yet, decisions need to be made.

For Pat, the string she needed to grasp -- "my saving grace" -- was a voice on the other end of the telephone line saying, "I've been there. I've done that, and I'm still here." The "voice" belonged to One-on-One volunteer LaVerne P.

"Oh my, just to hear another woman's voice saying that...It was a gift from God," she remembers with tears welling up in her eyes. "This quiet, beautiful sounding voice -- someone I had never met, never talked to before -- was calling to talk to me and share something I had never been confronted with."

As the questions tumbled out, she began to feel better, Pat says. She was able to share her fear of radiation treatments and her uncertainty about reconstructive surgery with LaVerne. And although LaVerne did not offer her advice about what she would do in that situation, she could say she had her breast removed 10 years ago and did not have reconstructive surgery.

"All I could tell her was it has never made a difference in my life," LaVerne says of living with only one breast.

It was the message of encouragement Pat needed. "I can do this...She was my contact with reality, my stability, and she was always there. She had lived at that time with one breast and managed and was doing well. I needed to hear someone say that. I didn't feel like I could do reconstructive surgery," and for her radiation therapy was not an option she wanted to consider.

After three months of research and consultations, Pat made the decision to have both her breasts removed in a bilateral mastectomy. "I decided it didn't matter how I got there, I could live the rest of my life without a couple of breasts."

Shortly before her surgery, she met with LaVerne to share lunch and gather up her courage.

"I went into surgery just a nut case," she smiles, "But when I woke, I felt really good. I had made the right decision for me."

She has come through the other side of breast cancer -- recovery. She is stronger now than she ever thought she could be. And she has a mission she wants to share.

"I've been there, I've done that, and I've got something to say about it," she smiles.

Her advice to all women?

Get annual mammograms and breast examines as your doctor recommends, and get your care at a facility that does nothing but breast work. "They are the experts, that's all they do, and they know what they are doing."

And most importantly, she advises, "Take control of your own health. It's our bodies ladies...We have to take charge. Sometimes you don't want to know, you don't want to hear it, but that doesn't help...You have to be a partner with your doctor in making decisions that are right for you."