Sheila Romanski twice survived breast cancer | autologous stem cell transplant | lumpectomy | diep flap

DESCRIPTION

Sheila Romanski is with us today after overcoming two diagnoses of breast cancer and the removal of a tumor in her left shoulder thanks to an autologous stem cell transplant.  Her initial of Stage 1A breast cancer in 1996 came after her doctor suggested a routine mammogram at age 36 when at the time mammograms were not performed on women that young.  Radiation treatment successfully addressed that diagnosis, but the following year, the cancer had metastasized to her shoulder.  That brought on the stem cell transplant, plus chemotherapy and more radiation.  All seemed well until 2008 when the breast cancer returned as Stage 4 triple negative infiltrating ductal carcinoma.  Shiela opted for a double mastectomy with reconstruction, which was followed by a second, more aggressive form of chemotherapy.  She has been pronounced NED (No Evidence of Disease), and now enjoys a healthy lifestyle, leading a non-profit that aids cancer victims.

Sheila Romanski advises everyone to do self-examinations for breast cancer.  She admits had she done so, her breast cancer would have been caught sooner.  In 1996, it was rare that 36-year-old women went in for routine mammograms, but Sheila’s doctor suggested such an exam.  Thanks to that suggestion, a 2cm tumor was found.  She underwent a lumpectomy and radiation treatment.

While it appeared cancer was in her rear-view mirror, in 1997, a lump was found in her collar bone area.  That was treated with four chemotherapy treatments and autologous stem cell transplant, a procedure involved her own stem cells.  The chemo and the transplant last four months.

For Sheila, this time in her life was very challenging.  She was no only battling cancer, but she was raising four small children.  However, she says she was able to get through because of support from her friends and her church, and because attending to the needs of her kids took her mind off cancer.

Sheila’s health appeared to be on the right track until 2008 when another routine mammogram revealed micro-calcifications in the same breast as her original diagnosis.  She decided a double mastectomy would be her best option. It would include a procedure called a diep flap, which involves taking skin from other parts of the body.  However, her surgeon said Sheila would have to lose twenty pounds before diep flap could be performed.  It took Shiela ten years to lose the weight and by that time, her surgeon said she no longer performed diep flap.  However, she said she could get Sheila “fixed up” and in 2021, thirteen years after mastectomy, reconstruction was complete.

Sheila Romanski has gone on to found Crystal Roses, a non-profit that seeks to aid those diagnosed with cancer.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Crystal Roses  https://www.crystalroseshelps.com

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: This is the @CancerInterviews podcast.  I’m your host, Bruce Morton.  For our guest on this episode, it has been an arduous breast cancer journey that began in 1996, but we're very happy to report she's still with us and that she's here to share her story.  She is Sheila Romansky of Corona, California and now it's time to hear

that story.  So, Sheila, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Sheila Romanski: Thank you for having me, Bruce.

BM: Well, we want to start off the way we always do and that's to learn a little bit more

about you, your life away from cancer, so if you would, tell us a bit about where you're from, what you've done for work and what you like to do for fun.

SR: Okay, so I am a mother of four adult children and I'm from Corona, and I don't do a whole lot of extracurricular activities because I like to volunteer so I do a lot of

volunteer work and we raised our kids in Corona, California and now they're spread all over the country and doing adult things.

BM: Now in terms of your cancer journey, for all of us who have survived cancer, there was that time in which we thought our health was normal and then it became something other than normal. For you, when did you first notice something that wasn't quite right?

SR: So, it's really kind of an interesting story because I really had no signs, I had no clues there was nothing to get me to the doctor except that the fact that my husband had been

changing jobs and we were uninsured and then all of a sudden, he had insurance, and I had a terrible ringing in my ears. So, it was not related to the cancer, but it got me in and made me go get a full physical and at that point the doctor did the breast exam, and he said,

"Everything looks great you know you're 36, it's a little early but let's go ahead and do a baseline mammogram." So, we had no idea he didn't have any idea, we just did a

Baseline, and just a little bit about that, it was kind of fascinating, too, is that when they did the baseline, and they finished they sent me out to the waiting room and they called me back and they took my hand and put it on the lump and said "Have you ever felt this?"  It did not register in my mind that she was showing me that I had a lump in my breast like seriously it did not even register which was good, because I had to drive from there to the

doctor's appointment I had afterwards so fortunately I feel God struck me dumb right there and from the time I left the X-ray room to the I got to my doctor  they had already called him and told him it was a problem.

BM: So, you've undergone this mammogram, you've gone to the doctor; what happened

after that?

SR: So, then we were actually going to be talking about my ear that morning and he walked in, and I said, "So what are we going to do about this ear?" He says "Well we're going to put it on hold right now we have something a little more important to talk about." And from that point on it was a whirlwind, like "Okay we found this lump you've got to go get it checked." At that point it was just basically referring me to an oncologist right away ,so they pretty much knew it was 1 cm, it was it was palpable so you could feel it so that's why I always encourage women and men don't forget to do your exams had I been doing them I probably would have found it sooner but anyway so at that point, the oncologist who was a surgeon, said, "Let's just go in and get it." So, we did not even know for sure that it was cancer until I had a lumpectomy, and lymph node dissection so they went in and I woke up and the surgeon was experienced, and I woke up from surgery with my husband telling me it was cancer.

BM: For all of us who get that news it's horrific news, so we already know that so we're not going to ask you if it was horrific. but everybody received that kind of news they get is a little bit different and each person is different. So, how did you handle that news when you

got it?

SR: So, I was 36 years old, so it was especially horrific. My kids were in school, I had twins that are kindergarteners, I had a first grader, a fourth grader you know very active in sports, very active in church, very active in school, it was it was very horrific. So, fortunately for me I had a very good friend who was a pastor's wife, and she was at the ball field, so I ran overto the ball field immediately and she said, "Sheila let's just not worry until we find out what it is."  They could get in there and find it's absolutely nothing, so I did a lot of self-talk to live in that space. I tried really hard to live in that space that we aren't sure it's cancer, but I had an experienced surgeon, and he was pretty sure.

BM: By the way we're confident you'll be able to learn some tips and tools to

help you through your personal cancer journey but first we'd like to invite you to please give us a like, leave a comment or review below and share this story with your friends. Kindly click on the subscribe button below and click on the bell icon. That way you'll be notified the next time we post an interview, and we want to remind you on Cancer Interviews we are not distributors of medical advice. If you seek medical advice, please do what Sheila did, and seek that advice from a licensed health care professional.

So, Sheila, now you've gotten this news that you have cancer, and that you can't leave it unaddressed it has to be treated.  If you would, describe your treatment plan and if you had any options.

SR: Yeah, so at that time I really did have not have a lot of options. I mean, I had options, but protocol for where I was at which is their standard care protocol being standard care for that particular diagnosis was that we do the lumpectomy, which we did so he went in, he removed it.  We found out right away that it was cancer. The following week, we did another surgery which went in and got my lymph nodes. Now here's the really cool thing back then they had to take all of my lymph nodes so they took 30 some odd lymph nodes and they we’re all clear so that's cool that was really awesome apparently but obviously but the thing that's really cool now is they don't have to do that. So, I always for the rest of my life have to worry about lymphedema in my left arm because I have no lymph nodes to take care of any

poisons or toxins or anything that my body has to get rid of so now what they do is they just go after the sentinel node and so they only have to remove a few lymph nodes. So, they had to remove all of my lymph nodes, and so at that point, protocol was to do just radiation and the surgery. Both the surgeries and radiation went all right.

BM: And what was the toughest part of that treatment regimen?

SR: Radiation. It just was really because I was at that time I was very large-breasted and the skin is like it became like a raw diaper rash, so it was very raw and open and it was difficult, but there were things, there were ointments that I could use, so I would say that the

hardest part and the fact that you go every day i have four kids at home i

have to get to school, and I also did daycare, so I actually had a lot of kids at my house all the time so the going in every single day. It was a bit exhausting I have to say.

BM: Now you touched on something that I would like you to address in slightly greater detail. You had four children, four small children at the time. They're adults now, but they were small children at the time. Small children need attention. How did you balance those two things of raising four small children and dealing with breast cancer?

SR: So, for me it was a godsend because I could focus on what they were doing and I could focus on their lives and I didn't have to focus on what was going on, but I still had to take care of myself and fortunately for me I had a large network of people who were bringing us dinners and offering to help with the kids.  It was really because of my large network of friends because we've been in the community. That made it much easier

BM: Now it seems like the treatment for this first diagnosis was eventually successful.  How exciting was it to feel like you were getting to the point of survivorship?

SR: It didn't last long because exactly one year from my first diagnosis, we were actually on

Vacation. I had driven my kids back to Arkansas, which is where my family lives. My boys were playing baseball and as I was driving one day I just kind of reached up here like this, and I felt a lump.  It's very unusual for the cancer to metastasize this way, but mine had

metastasized that way, so I had to kind of play it off during vacation. Then I got back home and of course immediately went to the doctor and what had happened is that I went into

the doctor and he said you know it looked like it was metastasis. This was my same doctor, but my husband wasn't feeling comfortable with this doctor, and I wasn't necessarily either, so I got the name of a doctor to get a second opinion, and we went in for a second opinion, and he said you know most definitely we need to get in and do something here and

what they found is that we have I had a 5 cm inoperable tumor in this are right here.

BM: Near your shoulder?

SR: Yeah, it's like in the shoulder bone like right by the shoulder bone, by the collar bone

BM: So, what happened next?

SR: The reason it was inoperable is because if you get in here there's a

lot of stuff going on in here, so they were afraid if they did anything it could

cause worse damage. In the meantime, my doctor said "We're going

to do a stem cell transplant." And he went through all the details and told me what it was going to be and like I said we weren't feeling real comfortable with him; so, we went for the second opinion and he said the exact same thing, but I have to say the difference in the doctor I ended up going with, I could hear him sounding like he was running up and down

the halls to get to his patients. So, like he was high-energy, ready to roll and  when I went in, he said, "You knor your blood levels are this." We both knew they were bad, but he didn't make me feel like it was bad. So, we decided to do the stem cell transplant um and so what we did was called an autologist stem cell transplant. They collected my stem cells prior to doing high-dosage chemotherapy, and even before that I had to do four conventional chemo treatments.  That was about 12 weeks that I did that, and then we started preparing for the transplant.

BM: And how did that go?

SR: I'm going to say it was a bit tough.   So what they do is, mine actually started when they did this stem cell collection the Monday after Thanksgiving, and I went in I was at the hospital for 3 days. I drove back and forth so I didn't stay in, but I was there all day, and you're hooked up to a machine. It is running your blood out of your body through this machine eight times a day like so it takes every ounce of blood out of your body and puts it back in. It's a continuous roll, so like was sitting there eating cake and stuff because they wanted me to keep my energy up. So, it wasn't you know it's not like I

was sitting there like "Oh my gosh." It is a continuous eight-hour process, and it sounds

like the spin cycle of your washing machine. They hook you up and it's your blood's going in and it's just spinning the stem cells out and collecting them and then I actually got mine done in two days and then I went home. it was actually the Monday before Thanksgiving, so I spent Thanksgiving with my family and then the Monday after Thanksgiving I went into

the hospital to begin the high-dose chemotherapy.  That is where they were pumping

seven chemicals continuously through my body. I could never be unhooked from it.

It was seven chemotherapy chemicals. I could never be unhooked. I begged them please just for five minutes.  Nope, they it's just it that's just the process. I have to say

that one I didn't get sick on my conventional chemo, but I was not I was nauseous and sick quite often with this.

BM: So, which was worse the radiation or the chemo?

SR: I will say now conventional chemo I didn't have any trouble with as far as sickness, but definitely the stem cell transplant was by far the worst, but it's kind of interesting, I looked at it like I feel like like I hit it hard and was done whereas the radiation it went on for so long and then your conventional chemo. Some peoplehave to do conventional chemo for nine

months or you know spend their life.  For me, I felt like okay, let's just hit it hard and be done and we were, and so after the three days so it was three full days that I had the seven chemicals continuously going through me. I actually ended up with a staph infection, so as

you can imagine, with the chemo it actually took my white cells down to zero, and they actually had a board in my room and they would come in every day, they would write down where my white cells counts were, so here we are. I have a staph infection, and I have absolutely nothing to fight it with, nothing. So, they had to fight it for me, and so not only do I have these seven chemicals going now, I have three antibiotics pumping through my body and I'm going to say the worst part of that whole thing was the night I had to sleep what I

called it an ice mattress.  I had a fever, and they couldn't get it down and it was obviously  deadly, and I had to sleep on. It felt like an air mattress hooked up to an air conditioner with cold air pumping in it constantly and that's how they were trying to get the fever down, so

finally, fortunately I'm here so I did get through that.

BM: Soso that that tumor is no longer an issue for you, correct

SR: That is correct. So, then after that, we did all the chemo and fought the infection three days. After I finished the chemo is when they reinfuse your stem cells, so they had

taken my stem cells and irradiated them so then they reinfuse them into my body, and it felt it was just like a system reboot is what I call it. Then we started watching as after they did

the reinfusion and it's all done through a port I had and we started watching my stem cell.  My white cell count came back up so then I was able to go home by Christmas. I did make it home to have Christmas with my kids. I did miss birthdays because we have a lot of December birthdays.  Then after that, I did have to do radiation.

BM: But unfortunately, that was the that was not the final chapter in your in your journey. It seemed like you were on a good path until the year 2008. What happened?

SR: That is correct.  So, I did not do a mastectomy or anything, so I was still doing my mammograms, and I went in in 2008 and so obviously we've been good

for 11 years to be exact and then they found what's called microalcifications, and I just kind of call those I think of those as an unorganized tumor so there were cancerous they did a biopsy they were cancerous and the kind of the fascinating part of this story is, all my kids were playing sports but my oldest boy was in high school at that time playing baseball and he was being looked at to be drafted to play professional baseball or go to college. So, one day so I had gone into the doctor, we did the biopsy, we were sitting around the internet at that time waiting to see if my son was getting drafted and my doctor called me on my fax phone so I couldn't use my cell phone and walk into the other room. So, we're all there as a

family and he tells me "Sheila it's back." And I said "Okay then we're going to take them off. I don't want them anymore, they're trying to kill me, so we're going to get rid of them." So here we are just a few minutes before that phone call we got the news my son had been drafted, and so at the highest of highs, then just it was at the lowest of lows, but as a family we just buckled up we went and celebrated the baseball, and just move forward with cancer. We just we're going to move forward.

BM: And was there a certain procedure you wanted to use to address this second

Diagnosis.

SR: So, I did a little bit of research, and I have to say I've always been overweight. I have always had a bit of a weight problem, and I wanted to do so my doctor at that time he was going to go in we were going to do the mastectomy and start the reconstruction all at once. So, they did that. I just did you know the implants and we were going to go from there and I

had a little bit of trouble with them, nothing serious but eventually I decided I wanted to see if I could get a diep flap. They take skin from another part of your body and reconstruct your breast completely.  I wanted it where they would take it from my stomach. Hello, i was hoping to get a little flat tummy there. It didn't work out that well and so the doctor, the

plastic surgeon I was with didn't do it. So, I went to another one and she says, "Oh yes I do it but you need to lose 20 pounds." I'm thinking "Cool this is going to motivate me to lose 20 lbs." Yeah, it didn't 10 years later I had gained 10 lbs so that didn't work out quite the way I wanted and so at that time ten years later I decided this is not going to happen for me, and I went on a weight loss program. I did get the weight off and by the time I went back to her she no longer did that diep flap and the reason for that is it's very extensive surgery and it takes a lot of support after the surgery and she was not in a setting that could supply that support, so she said "Okay no problem i can make them good for you." And so she fixed me all up and I've been happy ever since.

BM: And how is it how exciting is it to have both of those diagnoses in your rearview mirror, and it sounds like your physical life is close to a normal physical life?

SR: After all of this, I just decided I was going to live life, be with my kids, I'm very active in

Church, and I feel like I felt like I was a miracle and then a few years after all of that we

moved back to Arkansas and I got a new oncologist there. I'd been going for the annual checks and he and I walked in and fortunately he was well-versed in the stem cell transplant.  We were meeting and I'm waiting for him to say okay we're going to have

to do all these tests and he says you know what Sheila, he says I consider you cured. I tell you, I just started sobbing and I'm not a crier.  I just never imagined that I would hear those words, so I feel like I am a walking miracle, and I love to encourage people not to

lose hope because we don't know i was Stage Four. That's not necessarily a good diagnosis, but you know, here I am.

BM: Excellent, Sheila, that's quite a journey you've been on, the tumor in your shoulder and two bouts with breast cancer and yet you're still going strong.  That all by itself is a source of

inspiration for anybody on any type of cancer journey, so Sheila, thanks for sharing your story with us, thanks for being with us on Cancer Interviews.

SR: Thank you, Bruce. It was a pleasure.

BM: And we want to remind you when we conclude as we always do at this stage, that if you

or a loved one are on a cancer journey, as Sheila says you are not alone. There are people out there like Sheila Romanski that are there to help and make that cancer journey a little bit easier. So, until next time we'll see you on down the road

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Crystal Roses    https://www.crystalroseshelps.com

SHOW NOTES

TITLE: Sheila Romanski, Breast Cancer Survivor – Corona, California, USA

Sheila Romanski is still going strong.  This after twice being diagnosed with breast cancer.  She tells the @CancerInterviews podcast the first diagnosis was Stage 1A in 1996, the second in 2008 was Stage 4 Triple Negative Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma.  Following the second diagnosis, Sheila opted for a double mastectomy with reconstruction.  The reconstruction was completed in 2021.  After her first diagnosis, a tumor was discovered in her collar bone area.  It was successfully addressed with an autologous stem cell transplant.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Crystal Roses  https://www.crystalroseshelps.com

Time Stamps:

02:23 A mammogram revealed a lump in Sheila’s breast.

03:40 She underwent a lumpectomy and lymph node dissection.

05:49 After her diagnosis, she was given treatment options.

07:14 Sheila said radiation treatment was difficult.

08:24 She is asked how she balanced cancer treatment with raising four small children.

10:13 She learned her cancer had metastasized to her collar bone.

11:46 Describes autologous stem cell transplant.

18:40 Sheila says breast cancer returned in 2008.

21:31 Recalls learning she had No Evidence of Disease.

KEYWORDS (tags):

stage four breast cancer

double mastectomy

lumpectomy

lymph node dissection

sheila romanski

micro-calcifications

diep flap

mammogram

bruce morton

chemotherapy

radiation treatment