Survivor Story

Katrice Gibson strives to show her two daughters and son every day that breast cancer will not defeat her.

After a sudden loss of her mother in September 2005, which took a large toll on her and her three young children, Katrice started feeling unwell. She broke out in hives, which prompted her to see doctors and allergists. By the end of spring, she needed to be hospitalized for the hives, and was diagnosed with vasculitis, a rare auto-immune disease. At this time, she never would have thought the hives could be triggered from her undiagnosed breast cancer.

After a summer off, Katrice was ready to start work again and was given a routine physical and also a mammogram. In her mammogram, at the age of 36, a lump showed up in her chest wall, although no one could feel it. Within four days, the lump has been removed with a lumpectomy. One week later, Katrice was diagnosed with invasive ductal breast cancer. Out of her 17 lymph nodes, ten were malignant and were removed as well.

Katrice then underwent several chemotherapy treatments. “It was really hard. I was really sick, very weak, and in a lot of pain.” Her third week into chemo, she developed blood clots in her lungs, which delayed treatments, entailed more medicine, and more time in the hospital. She continued her radiation treatments as well for about nine weeks, which was hard for her, too.

At this time, Katrice started to develop a support system. During her treatments, she got to know other women, which became her radiation family. “The nurses and doctors would joke around and say we were the noisiest patients they had ever seen. We talked, had parties, and shared stories.” Katrice also started participating in the Komen Connecticut Race for the Cure.

Katrice began researching her family history, and realized how prominent cancer has been in her family. Although history of breast cancer is only the cause of about 5% of cases, Katrice’s paternal grandmother and aunt both had breast cancer and ended up having mastectomies. Katrice was prompted to get tested for mutated genes, in which she tested positive for BRCA1- a mutation which causes breast and ovarian cancer in women. She later found out her paternal grandmother and her grandmother’s four sisters had ovarian cancer.

Because of the risk of ovarian cancer, she opted to have a hysterectomy in 2007, which made her ill again, leaving her in the hospital for ten days after nine blood transfusions.

By the end of that year, Katrice underwent another mammogram and ultra sound where they saw something which ended up being benign. However, that provoked her to decide to have a double mastectomy in January 2008. “I love life too much. I have three young children that need me.” Her husband passed away in 2000, and her mother passed away in 2005, so she is all her children have.

Because of the cancer, Katrice not only had to give up her job, but had to finally learn to slow down. “I learned I can’t do everything for everybody. I enjoy doing things for people, but I learned to be able to say no.”

Today, Katrice is in remission and has not had any recurrences. She wants to maintain a normal life, something her children always knew. “If I am negative, my kids see it.” Katrice’s most important focus is to show her children that you can still go on, and that just because you have cancer, cancer doesn’t have you.

Katrice’s advice to others is to stay positive. “If you’re positive, positive things happen. Learn to trust friends and family, and learn to ask for help and ACCEPT it. I don’t have time to be depressed.”

This January, Katrice will undergo reconstruction. Her first attempt this past June was unsuccessful, due to an infection three weeks after the surgery which left her in the hospital for two more weeks and on antibiotics for one month.

“I see things a lot differently than I used to; breast cancer has put a lot of stuff into perspective. I say all of this has been worth it because I have my life still. If I can get through this, I can get through anything.”

This story was written by Lea Aglione, a student at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, and an intern with Komen Connecticut.