Life is busy for Performance Improvement Specialist Carissa Bouchard, BSN, CRNI, VA-BC, so she often deletes emails without opening. Thankfully, she didn’t overlook one important communication that ultimately saved her life.
In March, Carissa had canceled her mammogram due to a scheduling conflict. When she received an email about Employee Mammo Night on May 11, she followed her intuition and scheduled an appointment.
Images taken that evening showed Carissa had breast cancer. “I believe I was supposed to see that email and schedule my mammogram,” said Carissa, who has no family history of the disease. “Maybe in March it wouldn’t have shown.”
Carissa couldn’t feel her cancer, which equated to the size of tiny salt particles. Her surgeon, Patrick McGregor, MD, Meritas Health Surgery & Trauma, developed a treatment plan for Carissa that consisted of two surgeries and 20 radiation treatments. It also includes taking Tamoxifen for the next five years to block the hormone estrogen, which helped her cancer grow.
With 27 years in nursing, Carissa likes to keep her mind and body busy, so she felt fortunate she could work during treatment.
She finished her last radiation treatment on August 19 and rang the bell, marking the ceremonial milestone. “It felt so good because I always heard other people ring it, and now it was my turn,” she smiled.
Now Carissa wants to encourage other women to schedule their mammograms. Schedule a screening appointment or use our walk-in option available Mon-Fri 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Women's Imaging Center at NKCH. Same-day results accessible through myhealth, your patient portal.
