Gainesville native Jennifer Lester credits her vigilance with annual screening mammograms as a simple yet significant choice that saved her life.
The University of Florida undergrad and law school graduate had no family history or risk factors for breast cancer. Still, she started annual mammograms at age 40. Eight years later, Lester’s routine screening revealed a shadow, which led to a biopsy.
Even Lester’s oncologist could not feel a lump. Stage 1 lobular cancer was only evident through mammography. Lester credits an experienced radiologist, Dr. Judith Yancey at Gainesville’s Mammography & UltraSound Imaging Center, with saving her life.
Lester is a trial lawyer and partner at Gainesville’s Avera & Smith law firm. She is also a mother of two children. Lester was on her way to teach a law class at her alma mater when she received the phone call with her biopsy results.
Early detection gave Lester an improved prognosis. It also gave her treatment options that had less of an impact on her family. Discovering the cancer just one year later would have meant a much different path to remission.
“It definitely makes a big difference to be able to look at your choices and make a decision about what is best for you,” Lester said. “You can take control over your own recovery. I was grateful to be able to decide the plan that I wanted.”
The timing of the diagnosis allowed Lester to choose a double mastectomy with reconstruction over chemotherapy or radiation. The decision gave Lester a beginning and an end date to her cancer journey that reduced the need for ongoing treatment with side-effects, monitoring and medication.
When the first doctor she consulted insisted only a lumpectomy was necessary, Lester sought another opinion. She learned how important it is to trust instincts and find a medical team that listens. Lester found that in Surgeon Dr. Brian Pickens and Reconstructive Surgery Specialist Dr. Jason Rosenberg at North Florida Hospital in Gainesville. This proved to be lifesaving when clear margins were only obtained with the radical mastectomy.
Lester also learned how to accept help from others while recovering from the 14-hour surgery and follow-up procedures. When she discovered several of her friends had not had a mammogram in over five years, she knew she wanted to help educate others about this life saving tool.
Lester feels her experience with breast cancer taught her to do her own research, ask questions, trust your gut and advocate for what is best for your body.
“It certainly made me more conscious of the importance of finding the right doctors and taking control over your own medical journey,” she said.
By Jennifer Kennedy