Breast cancer impacts one in eight women worldwide, according to BreastCancer.org. Lynda Crouch, a workforce management coordinator at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska (BCBSNE), is one of these women.
Crouch was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer just last year after going in for her annual mammogram. Crouch, whose mom and aunts had all been diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives, made it a point to get her mammogram done yearly.
“I do a mammogram faithfully every year and with several family members who have been diagnosed, it is extremely important to me that I do my annual screenings,” Crouch said.
After a biopsy was done shortly after her mammogram, Crouch was diagnosed with breast cancer. During her scheduled double mastectomy, doctors found the cancer was also in her lymph nodes, making Crouch’s cancer metastatic. Metastatic cancer is cancer that has spread from where it started to a distant part of the body.
“After that diagnosis, we set up for chemotherapy,” Crouch said. “I started chemo shortly after starting at BSBCNE on Nov. 18 last year and ended it on June 12.”
As of June 28, 2023, Crouch is in remission and cancer free. The chemotherapy put Crouch on the sidelines for a year, unable to celebrate Christmas, the Fourth of July or any other holidays, but now she is more than excited for the upcoming holidays.
Crouch, now a breast cancer survivor, fought to beat the cancer for her family and loved ones and encourages all women to go to their annual mammograms to do the same.
“Mammograms are not painful nor inconvenient because plain and simple, it saved my life,” Crouch said. “If you can go do something that takes a half hour out of your time once a year that can potentially save your life like it did mine, I strongly encourage you to do it.”
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