Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself
Wow.
So, it’s been a long time since I’ve made an update. Let’s see if I can recap everything that has happened since November 21st, 2023:
Shortly after recovering from COVID pneumonia (do not recommend), Dave and I went on vacation (the last vacation we’ve been on, lol). I started running again. I had plans for 2024 to be my big come back year.
Moving through grief after my dad’s death was tough. The previous two years had taken a lot out of me. There’s something especially terrible of knowing your life is unsustainable, and also knowing the only way out is for someone you love to die. I struggled to get back into running, and assumed that grief played a large role in this. Overall, running just wasn’t coming easily to me. I felt like I was barely able to trudge through easy runs. I had my wisdom teeth removed in April, and remember running a 40 mile week leading into surgery. That was the most I would run for the next two years.
Having my wisdom teeth out was fine, as much as it can be when you get your wisdom teeth removed at 35. I recovered okay, but again felt like I was struggling to get back into running. Every day just felt HARD. Life was becoming difficult. I was starting to question whether I needed to talk to my doctor about my mental health. I always felt tired. Life felt very overwhelming. I had no idea how other people were getting by. I was ALWAYS tired. Overall, 2024 was just a difficult year, and I didn’t understand why.
In late November, I was scrolling Instagram on a Saturday morning. Dave was walking the dogs. Like most mornings, I was struggling to wake up and had no energy. Also like most mornings, Dave invited me to walk with him and the dogs, but I told him I needed more coffee before I could function.
A targeted ad caught my eye: the New York Times ran an article about women in their 20s and 30s being diagnosed with breast cancer more than ever before, and researchers not knowing why. Not only did I stop my scroll, but I also opened the article and actually read it. Without routine mammograms before 40, many women weren’t finding their symptoms until it was too late. For whatever reason, I decided to do a self-exam and my hand went straight to a lump. I knew in that moment that I did not randomly come across an article or randomly find that lump. However, I convinced myself it was nothing. I opened up my health portal made an appointment with my PCP, though. He was booked until February. I did not call and say, “hey, I found a lump.” I just scheduled a wellness exam, since I was overdue anyway. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20 and what I should have done was say I had found a lump in my breast, but that’s neither here nor there at this point.
In the meantime, I convinced myself that this was nothing and I was simply being proactive in the way we are taught, and I mostly moved on.
I decided that I wanted to kickstart 2025, which would DEFINITELY be the year of my comeback, with racing once a month. I ran a 5K in January, and it was fine. My training partner came with me and I remember her being really concerned about how much effort I was putting in (and how red my face was) for a “meh” time. I chalked it up to the cold and convincing myself the course was long.
My February race wasn’t much better. I remember thinking, “something isn’t right.” I called the dr at this point and asked if they had sooner availability because I had found a lump in my breast. They scheduled me immediately with the doctor’s NP.
She examined me and felt that it was probably nothing since I had no secondary symptoms, but ordered a diagnostic mammogram to be safe. That was 3 weeks later. At this point, only 3 people in my life knew what was going on. On the day of the mammogram, it was raining and I saw a dead cardinal on the ground. I remember thinking that probably wasn’t a good omen.
During the mammogram, they found a second lump on the other breast. They took me back for ultrasound and I made the mistake of looking at the tech’s face. I knew. The radiologist sat me up and said, “this isn’t what I like to tell people, but I can tell this is cancer. We just had a cancellation for a biopsy this afternoon. Can you come back in 3 hours?”
I went back to the changing area and was trying to hold it together. The mammogram tech asked if I needed a hug and I started sobbing. My car was in the shop, so Dave had driven me to my appointment. I walked out into the waiting room and he immediately knew, just by the look on my face.
I went home and sobbed for the next 2 hours. The hardest part was calling my mom. I intentionally hadn’t told her anything. Her mom and sister both died from breast cancer, so I didn’t want to worry her along the way. She thought I was joking.
By the time I went back for the biopsy, I had it all out of my system and was ready to attack cancer head-on. The original lump I found was cancer, and the other lump that was found during the mammogram was not. I ultimately needed 2 more biopsies (a second biopsy of the original tumor because the surgeon was suspicious it was worse than it was, and an MRI-assisted biopsy of a 3rd lump that was found (which was benign). In all, I had 4 biopsies, 2 MRIs, and countless appointments.
We ultimately decided on a double mastectomy. A mastectomy on my left side was non-negotiable. I had a 6.5 cm tumor with the cancer spreading into my nipple (Paget’s disease). I opted for a double because I would need yearly MRIs and biopsies for the benign lumps on the other side, as well as tamoxifen. My margins were less than 1 mm, and I am grateful to have had one of the best breast surgeons in the state.
Mastectomy recovery went very well and I was back to running 4 weeks later. I opted for implant-based reconstruction, so I had tissue expanders. These were extremely uncomfortable. I tried to get back into running too quickly, because I wanted to prove that cancer wasn’t going to hold me back. I also found that without cancer, I had significantly more energy and running felt better than it had in a long time. I’m sure that running faster than I was ready for contributed to getting injured.
In September of 2025, I underwent reconstruction. I am incredibly happy with the results. I was back to running 4 weeks later, and learned my lesson about not coming back too quickly this time.
I was making slow and steady progress until February, when I got the flu. By April, I felt like I was pretty much back to normal. One of my best friends visited me for my birthday. We went for a 10 mile run and then drove to French Lick for an amazing day trip. I remember thinking I could not have done that a year ago.
While that friend was in town, I happened to be rubbing my neck, because I was sore from some recent weight lifting. I found a lump on my neck. I gave it a couple of weeks to see if it would go away, and then made an appointment for my PCP. To say I was spiralling was an understatement. My greatest fear after breast cancer was a reoccurrence, or another cancer.
My PCP was concerned. He sent me for an ultrasound, which was inconclusive. Then I was sent for a CT, which noted an ectopic thyroid. I was kicked over to an ENT. He explained that some people have thyroid material that gets left in the thyroglossal duct during embryonic development, and that occasionally that material can form cysts. He said it was uncommon for it to be cancerous, but gave me the option of monitoring every six months for changes, or biopsying. He said he wouldn’t typically biopsy something that small (0.9 cm), but given my history of recent breast cancer he would gladly order it if it gave me peace of mind knowing it was benign. I opted for the biopsy.
I’m glad I did, because the nodule was ultimately papillary thyroid cancer. I had surgery in September to remove my pyramidal lobe. The pathology results were great and showed that everything was removed. My cancer was Stage 1a. Looking at photos, you can clearly see a lump on my neck going back to 2017.
I’ve been back to running for 3 weeks and feel really good. I had been training for a 50K before I found out that I had thyroid cancer. That race was last weekend. I obviously didn’t do the 50K, but felt good enough to drop down to the 10K. Despite very limited running the last 7 weeks, I surprised myself by being able to run 7-minute pace. Based on how sore I am, I definitely overperformed 😊
I have been very fortunate that cancer didn’t disrupt my coaching too much. I have taken on quite a few athletes who are returning to running after cancer, and have enjoyed this new niche in my coaching. I am still taking on athletes, and also continue to do freelance writing and run Speedway Animal Rescue. My goal is to get back into blogging, especially as I’m in a unique position of getting back into racing shape after 3 surgeries in the last 1.5 years. If you have questions or want to see a topic addressed, please feel free to reach out via annawebercoaching@gmail.com
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