Donna Wilson McGuire, 64, caught her breast cancer early after going to the doctor for her annual mammogram. (Contributed photo)

After going to the doctor for an annual mammogram in December 2023, doctors told Longview resident Donna Wilson McGuire, 64, they needed to do another mammogram because they saw something.

For McGuire this was normal, as she has dense breasts, and she thought it didn’t mean anything.

“When they said, ‘Oh, we think we see something,’ I just blew it off,” McGuire said. “I’ve had this happen before. It’s just going to be dense breast tissue, no worries, no nothing. Cancer never crossed my mind. It just wasn’t in the vocabulary.”

After a second mammogram, doctors saw something again. They sent her across the hall to do a sonogram, but didn’t see anything.

“They couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t find anything, but they kept seeing it on the mammogram,” McGuire recalled.

After initially being scheduled for an appointment at Longview Regional Medical Center but later sent instead to Tyler, McGuire received the sonogram at UT Health Tyler, where doctors detected what had her first doctor previously noticed on the mammograms. She was supposed to come back for a biopsy the following day.

However, the doctor had a cancellation and asked if she wanted to do the biopsy the same afternoon. McGuire and her husband looked at each other. “Yep, let’s do it,” McGuire said.

The doctor let McGuire know the results could take 48 to 72 hours. The next day she received an update: it was cancer.

“So Jan. 9 is when the world changed,” McGuire said.

She had the most common form of breast cancer: Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Because it is fed by hormones, McGuire will be on a hormone blocker for five years.

Treatment

On Feb. 13, McGuire had a lumpectomy and a sentinel node on her underarm to check if it was anywhere else. Afterwards, she went through recovery for six weeks. She was told she would likely not need to do chemotherapy and would have six weeks of radiation. From Monday through Friday, McGuire went in for radiation for four weeks at Texas Oncology in Longview.

Around the same time she was diagnosed, she had three close friends and related family members who were also diagnosed. For her and another friend, they had similar treatment and diagnosis. For them, it was easier. But for a relative, she had to go through radiation and chemotherapy. It was terrible, said McGuire.

This is why McGuire views her journey as easier. “Mine’s a happy story,” McGuire said.

“It was caught so early, they were able to handle it quickly,” McGuire said. “You still go through the roller coaster of emotions and unknown and everything, until you get the lumpectomy and the results back from that. After getting that, truly for us and the family, it was like, ‘OK, we can handle this. This is so much better than what we had geared ourselves up for.’”

On May 20, McGuire rang the bell marking the end of her cancer journey.

A support system

Throughout the journey, having the support of her family helped McGuire. Her husband was there for her for every step of the way.

“With my family and faith, it just got through a lot easier,” McGuire said.

In addition, McGuire received an online nurse through her work. She spent hours on the phone talking to her nurse, who was a former cancer nurse at Texas Oncology in Dallas. The nurse helped her understand the reports she received from doctors. She answered questions and explained the reality of what the cancer journey could be.

When McGuire got her diagnosis, she learned it was better than what the nurse had prepared her for.

Advice for others

McGuire advises people to do their own research and not believe everything they read online. When McGuire would visit Facebook support groups or Google information, she would find a lot of information. However, she found they weren’t always accurate or helpful.

“There was so many things that I did read that they were more frightening than comforting,” McGuire said. “So I trusted my physician to tell me the information I needed to know, and I could ask them questions.”

She advises those who are diagnosed to look into getting an online nurse. She was able to do this through her company in a program that is free with her insurance, McGuire said.

Being cancer-free

After going through her treatment, McGuire is cancer-free today. She has three-month check-ups and blood tests but otherwise is back to normal. She continues working from home at her job of disaster recovery relief.

After McGuire’s husband had open heart surgery, her perspective on life changed. She went through her cancer journey after his surgery with a new appreciation for life.

“This is one life, and we’re going to take care of ourselves and live it and enjoy it and enjoy each day,” McGuire said. “So when this came it was just like, OK, we’re taking the cruise. We’re going to go do this while we can and just trust that everything’s going to work out.”

And it did. McGuire’s story is one of hope and inspiration for others going through similar journeys.