Clarendon County native Joye Rickenbaker was just 29 years old when she found out she was pregnant with her first child.
She was six weeks along and elated by the news.
Then, she found a lump in her breasts.
“I went to the doctor to confirm that pregnancy and inquired about the lump,” said Rickenbaker. “He felt, at that time, that it was probably just hormones, and I went home feeling that everything was probably OK.”
Rickenbaker’s friends remained concerned and put pressure on her to return to the doctor.
“So, I called the doctor back and asked for a biopsy, just to be sure,” she said.
Rickenbaker came up positive for hormone-receptive breast cancer.
“I was still pregnant at this time and could not have an MRI or any other scans, really, but it had to be removed,” she said.
So, the soon-to-be mother underwent a modified radical mastectomy on her left side. Lymph nodes were also removed, and half of them were positive for cancer.
“I had a few weeks to rest and recover; then, it was on to chemotherapy,” she said. “While doing chemotherapy, we watched the baby very closely, having an ultrasound every month. Thank goodness, he was fine.”
Rickenbaker ultimately went eight rounds of chemotherapy while pregnant with her son; she then had four more rounds after giving birth. Radiation treatments followed.
She said she had no history of hormonal cancer in her family.
“I had a hysterectomy; I wanted everything hormonal gone,” Rickenbaker said. She was then placed on arimidex to block any leftover hormones.
Less than six months after stopping the medicine, she began having back pains. It was spring 2016.
“I thought it was nothing, kidney stones maybe, but the X-rays were not showing anything,” Rickenbaker said. “So, a nurse practitioner friend of mine got me in to do some more tests.”
After 11 years, Rickenbaker’s cancer had returned. This time, it was a tumor in her spine. It was metastatic.
“Metastatic breast cancer is breast cancer that has spread from the brest to other organs and parts of the body,” said Rickenbaker, who underwent surgery to remove the tumor. She now has bars and screws holding her spine together.
‘I often say every 10 years is rough,” she said. “I was almost 30 when I initially got breast cancer, and I was 40 when we found it in my spine.”
Today, Rickenbaker is “clear,” she said. She goes every three months for scans to make sure “nothing is lighting up, as (she calls) it.”
