Page 90 2023 PAINT THE PAPER PINK Lincoln Daily News Oct/Nov 2023 “The Red Devil” Gena Richmond shares her Breast Cancer story An ordinary day in November of 2022, Gena Richmond, 46, discovered a lump in her breast. She dismissed her concerns until after the Holidays. Prompted by some pain and discomfort in that breast, an exam was scheduled quickly followed up by a mammogram and the diagnosis came in February. Gena was diagnosed with Stage 2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Grade 3 with metastasis to her auxiliary lymph nodes. A PET scan was ordered right away to check for metastasis to any other parts of the body. The oncologist planned to treat very aggressively, taking into account that Gena’s sister passed away from the same type of Cancer. Genetic testing was done and came back as a BRCA 1 mutation, so the oncologist’s plan was a bilateral mastectomy followed by a total hysterectomy. Gena persevered through 20 rounds of chemo over seven months. She recalled the worst being four rounds of extremely strong chemo, administered by hand instead of pump because of its thickness. The “Red Devil” as it’s called was terribly hard on her system. The second chemo medication elevated her liver enzymes enough that treatment had to be halted and cut in half for a time. Gena recalls it being very emotional telling her family about her diagnosis. Her wife Continued --
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