Husband’s reminders helped Moore catch cancer

Lynn Moore nearly skipped her yearly mammogram, a decision that might have been disastrous. 

The day of her scheduled yearly mammogram, Moore said she thought about not going because she was busy. She was spending time with her friends and doing things for her church. 

“It was my yearly mammogram,” she said. “That day, I was busy with the church and out with the ladies, and I really considered not going, but I thought that I better go.”

She went to the doctor and did not think much of her mammogram until she received a call the next day. 

“I get them every year, no indications of anything,” she said. “Well, they called me the next morning. They said, ‘You need to come back in. We need to do another mammogram on your right breast. Something has shown up.’

“I had to go back in, and still didn’t think much (of it) because we don’t have cancer in our family. I never thought it would be cancer.”

After her second mammogram, her doctor told her to have another mammogram performed in six months. There was a spot in her breast, but the doctors wanted to watch it, she said. 

“In six months time, I went back, and it had grown,” she said. “A lot.”

She had a biopsy performed at Lyster Medical Facility at Fort Rucker. She was told to expect a call the Monday following the procedure. 

“I waited for them to call,” she said. “I didn’t think much about it; I really didn’t worry that much. I was feeling fine.”

She said her husband waited with her for a while that day before going to their barn to do some work. 

“Sure enough, as soon as he got in his truck and left, Fort Rucker called me,” she said. 

Moore was told of her diagnosis over the phone. She had triple negative breast cancer, a highly aggressive form. 

“I called my husband to come home,” she said. “He came home, and I told him I had cancer. He grabbed me. He was so sweaty and dirty, but I didn’t care. We hugged and we cried and kind of got over the shock. 

“It’s just hard to explain when someone tells you something like that. It just knocks the breath out of you, like you’ve been sucker punched.”

She was soon meeting with her doctor, oncologist and radiologist, who ordered an MRI before she and her husband left for a week on vacation. The vacation was cut short when the results came back. 

“While I was gone that week, they called me back and said they had found another place,” she said. “I had to get another MRI.”

She also had another biopsy of the newly found spot. 

“They found it; it was just getting started,” she said. 

She was scheduled for surgery around September and only had a lumpectomy of her right breast. She began her chemotherapy treatment in October. 

“They said it was up to me if I wanted to have the chemo or not,” Moore said. “They said it was highly aggressive. Some people would be okay. They said it was my choice. They can’t make you do anything, but they recommended I have it. 

“My husband and I talked about it, and we decided that, the kind it was and everything, I better go ahead and have the chemo. So, I had to take the four rounds of chemo, the strongest they had. I lost all my hair, eyebrows, eyelashes; every hair on my body was gone. I would go through that through January.”

She then endured about five weeks of radiation treatment, every Monday through Friday. 

“Now, I’ll be under a doctor’s care for five years,” Moore said. “I will have blood work done every three months, and a mammogram done on my right breast, a diagnostic mammogram, every six months. That’s where I’m at now.” 

Moore said her husband, Fernie, was a great support system throughout her battle with cancer. She also said he was the person who always asked if she had had her mammogram that year. 

“He was right there with me,” she said. “He would just support me. If I needed anything, he got it for me. Anything I wanted, he was there.

“Looking back, it was really something men usually don’t do, but my husband always told me, for years, ‘Lynn, you get a mammogram.’ I know it was the Lord because he would stress every year, ‘Did you get your mammogram this year? You know that’s important.’ Thank goodness I listened to my husband.”

Moore also credits her faith with helping her make it through her battle. She said that though there were moments she questioned why she was battling breast cancer, she always put her faith in the Lord. 

“I felt like the whole time that God knows ahead of time what you’re going to go through,” she said “In a way, I felt like He had been preparing me for this, in some way so that it would not have been such a shock in my spirit. I felt like that, and I felt like the whole time that I was going through this.  

“Anything that you go through, there’s a purpose for it. I just think there’s a plan and a purpose for all of this in my life.”

She also said she had great support from her friends and church family. She attends Christ Community Church of God in Enterprise. 

Moore will have her nine-month checkup this October. Though it has been many months since she has endured treatments and surgeries, she said breast cancer is always in the back of her mind. 

“It’s there, and it takes a while to get over it,” she said. “You don’t just get over it. Some people never get over it, they say. The doctor told me some people just never feel better after the treatments.

“Some days are better than others, but you press through, and the Lord helps me with that. If I’m not feeling well, I just ask Him to help me.”

She said it was important to always have your mammogram and to keep a check of your own body. 

“Get your mammogram,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you think anything is there or not, it doesn’t matter. Get your mammogram. The doctor (asked me), ‘Didn’t you feel anything?’ I said, ‘I just had a slight headache.’ That was it. I felt fine.

“So, as far as you going by feelings or anything like that, keep a check on your breasts. I have to do that, keep a check on myself all the time. It’s important.”

Despite battling breast cancer, Moore said she feels good today. 

“I feel stronger in the Lord, closer to the Lord,” she said. “I feel good. I just take one day at a time, and I’m thankful for the days that I have. Hopefully, I’ll have a lot more. I put it God’s hands, and I move on.”