By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Nearly one year ago, Farmingdale resident Sandra Doyle Ferullo was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. She was shocked.
“It’s like you’re in this movie and someone’s saying to you, ‘You have breast cancer stage 4,’ and you’re literally saying to yourself, ‘Am I really hearing this?'” she said.
That’s when the emotional rollcoaster ride began for the wife and mother of 11-year-old Presley. She says shock turned into desperation.
“Because then you’re feeling oh god, am I going to die?” she said.
That’s when Sandra began her fight.
“I made a contract with god. I said to god, ‘I am not going anywhere, you are not taking me anywhere. I have an 11-year-old daughter that I am staying on this earth, I’m obligated to stay on this earth take care of her,'” she said.
Finding Jersey Shore Medical Center breast surgeon Dr. Denise Johnson Miller also gave Sandra the confidence to beat the cancer.
“I don’t see it has horrible news. I see it as we can fix it. We’ll do our best to fix it if we can,” the doctor said.
The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 7,290 new cases of breast cancer in New Jersey in 2014. Of those new cases, an estimated 1,290 women will succumb to the disease. That includes stage 1 and higher invasive breast cancers. The number of new cases is expected to increase over last year.
“I think it has to do with better detection,” Dr. Johnson Miller said. “With early detection, we’re finding more breast cancer but hopefully at an earlier stage.”
Breast cancer risk factors include a family history of all cancers along with the age family members were diagnosed, obesity, age, not having children and excessive alcohol intake. But Dr. Johnson Miller says both and men and women don’t have to any of these risk factors to develop breast cancer.
“Any time you feel an unexpected lump or you have a bloody nipple discharge or change in the contour of your breast, or a rash on your breast, come in and get it tested,” she said.
Dr. Johnson Miller recommends all women conduct their own breast exam plus a visual inspection. She says their primary care provider should provide a clinical breast exam starting at age 20 and the general recommendation is that all women at the age of 35 should get their first mammogram and starting at 40, one mammogram every year after that.
But Dr. Johnson Miller says if patients have a family history, the age they get a mammogram could vary. The American Cancer Society recommends that all women 40 and older get a mammogram yearly, in addition to a breast exam during checkups. Sandra detected a lump after a self-breast exam. After chemotherapy, she chose to have a double mastectomy. She’s now in remission.
“I don’t mourn what was,” she said. “I celebrate what I have because I’m alive.”