Joanna Allen first felt something amiss with her body in July 2022 while applying lotion to a rash. There was a mass, which Joanna says felt like “a small, squishy grape,” on the side of her right breast.
Within a few weeks, Joanna was undergoing a comprehensive breast exam, mammogram and ultrasound at the Kitty DeGree Breast Health Center. A biopsy soon followed to further examine the suspicious mass. Then, on Aug. 19, 2022, at 12:37 p.m., Joanna received a call confirming her breast cancer diagnosis.
“My first phone call was to my husband of 19 years,” says Joanna, who was 37 years old at the time of her diagnosis. “Shortly after, I left work, only to realize I didn’t want to go home because my kids were there. I wasn’t ready to face them. I sat in the local mall parking lot for one or two hours, just trying to process what was happening to me. I was overwhelmed.”
Facing the Hardest Moments
Joanna says one of the most difficult aspects of those initial hours was sharing the news with her daughter and son, who were 16 and 13 at the time.
“I believe the hardest thing was telling my kids, watching the realization on their faces, and practically hearing their hearts shatter,” she says. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.”
Joanna wasn’t unfamiliar with the disease. Her mother had survived her own bout with breast cancer beginning at age 65, although it was determined to be a different type of cancer than Joanna had. And, as supervisor for imaging and diagnostic radiology at the St. Francis Medical Center Main Campus, she had encountered other patients. But, undergoing treatment was a completely different situation.
Taking on Treatment Head-On
With care overseen by the team at the St. Francis Oncology and Hematology Clinic, Joanna first underwent a double mastectomy in August 2022 in Shreveport. She opted for oncotype scoring, a type of testing that determines a person’s risk for a recurrence of cancer. Those numbers showed Joanna was at a high risk, prompting her oncologist to advise chemotherapy.
“It was harder to hear this than the fact that I had cancer,”Joanna says. “My husband said that when he heard the news, he felt like everything was just frozen for a few minutes. My oncologist described this as a bottle floating in the ocean. We know there is a bottle out there, but we do not know where or when it will wash up on shore. It’s the same scenario for me. I have an extremely high chance of there being other cancer cells in my body. We just don’t know where or when they will show up.”
However, the hope is that the 16 rounds of intense chemotherapy Joanna underwent at St. Francis Infusion Clinic will reduce the chances of a cancer recurrence. The treatment, as well as steroids to help her tolerate its toxicity, resulted in effects such as weight gain, energy loss, nose bleeds, dry skin, hair loss and damage to body parts Joanna hadn’t thought much about, like her nails, nose hairs and eyelashes.
A Journey of Strength and Resilience
Today, Joanna is recuperating well. She finished chemotherapy in March 2023, the day before her daughter turned 17. In May 2023, she had her final reconstructive surgery. She’s excited to see her hair slowly start to grow back but has grown accustomed to wearing hats in the meantime. To celebrate the end of her treatment, Joanna participated in a “ringing of the bell” ceremony last year, surrounded by her proud family, friends and colleagues. In October 2023, she was named the St. Francis Health Warhawk of the Game when the University of Louisiana at Monroe took on Arkansas State.
“I have always faced any problem head on, and I didn’t treat cancer any differently,” she says. “I never stopped working. I never stopped spending time with my family or going to events. Of course, I took extra measures sometimes because of my decreased immune system, but overall, I just kept going and kept fighting. I wanted to show my kids that hard things could be done. I wanted to be present in all things and for them to know that I put them first and foremost during the hardest of times.”
Comprehensive Cancer Care at St. Francis
Since 2022, St. Francis Medical Center has invested upwards of $4 million towards renovations of its Cancer Center building to establish a comprehensive cancer care center in Northeast Louisiana. Upgrades to the second floor of the Cancer Center building now provide space for the St. Francis Oncology and Hematology Clinic as well as the St. Francis Outpatient Infusion Center. The first floor of the building houses the Northeast Louisiana Cancer Institute, which offers comprehensive radiation oncology services. In addition, the Kitty DeGree Breast Health Center, located within the St. Francis Community Health Center in Monroe, is a Designated Comprehensive Breast Imaging Center through the American College of Radiology that offers the latest technology for the early detection of breast cancer.
