Page 13 - Valley Life & Health

THE MORNING CALL SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 13
T H E PO WER OF PI NK

LEARNINGTO

LIVELIFE

ALLOVER

AGAIN

Jennifer Pinto’s transition

into survivorship includes
educating women to put

their health first

Photo by Sean McFadden
By Shannon Sigafoos of The Morning Call
“In the end, I would go back and do with self-exams. A week after an Easter Sunday today. Most everyone knows someone who
everything all over again – cancer and all conversation with her husband’s cousin who was has been diagnosed. The longer we put off
– if I could still walk out of it the woman that battling Triple Positive Breast Cancer at the time, seeing a physician, the longer we put off facing
I am today.” Pinto found a small, dense lump in her breast. the reality of a diagnosis that could be our own.
To hear a breast cancer survivor speak The next day, when she was at the This is part of the reason why Pinto began
those words can be both shocking and worthy St. Luke’s Regional Breast Center staring at her volunteering with LAFF (Life Always Facing
of admiration. But North Whitehall resident own scan, she immediately knew it was cancer. Forward), a program connecting cancer
Jennifer Pinto is at a stage in her life where “I’m always trying to learn, and I had learned patients with cancer survivors (created by St.
she is beyond shock value and also doesn’t what cancer looked like in those images. So, Luke’s breast cancer survivors Ali Glaser and
want to simply be labeled as a survivor. when I saw that same image with me…I will Sheri Frinzi). In her role, she has been helping
She is a wife. A mother. A daughter. A never forget that. Right away, it was…’Okay, patients navigate their own journeys and
sister. A soon-to-be nursing student. And an I have cancer,” Pinto recalls. “What I didn’t teaching them to advocate for themselves.
advocate for others. realize was that I had two lumps. One was Taking this even further, she is in the last
Pinto was 35 years old when she was a lump in my breast and the other was an semester of finishing the prerequisites she
diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer infected lymph node under my left arm.” needs to apply to nursing school, which she
in 2013. (Triple Negative means that the Pinto’s surgeon, Lee Riley, M.D., set an hopes to begin early next year.
tumor cells lack estrogen, progesterone and appointment to discuss options with her and “When you transition into survivorship –
HER2 receptors and common treatments like her husband. Her path of treatment would and it is a big transition – you learn to live life
hormone therapy are ineffective) Like many be 16 chemotherapy treatments, a bi-lateral all over again,” says Pinto, who now embraces
women who are diagnosed, she had family mastectomy, and 36 radiation treatments. both health care and golf as passions that
– including a young child – who needed her “Some women see an oncologist first. Some keep her motivated. “Your perspective has
focus as a parent. That in and of itself is what women see a breast cancer surgeon first. In changed. Your body has changed. Everything
allowed her to face her diagnosis head on. my case, I saw a surgeon first and then saw an has changed. You wake up one day and you
“My close friends and family, including oncologist for my labs,” says Pinto. “The surgeon think, ‘What just happened? How do I move
my husband and daughter, provided the removed the breast and the lump, and then the on from all of this?’ There’s a life before
inner strength to fight through any negative oncologist set the tone for everything else. It diagnosis and a life after diagnosis.”
thoughts, remain positive, and focused on my was about what was right for me.” Nursing was always a fear of Pinto’s. So much
recovery and health. My daughter truly taught What the right path for each woman is, so, that she once believed she could ‘never’ be
me the lesson of how to accept joy and let Pinto believes, should begin with education a nurse. Now, the career that she will begin
go of fear,” says Pinto. “When you’re a new before breast cancer ever even becomes a studying for next year will fit her perfectly.
mother, you don’t know what to expect. This reality. Many of us put off going to the doctor “In order for me to do that, I had to go
tiny little infant relies on your for everything.” for annual exams. We get consumed with through a lot…but I’m okay with that,” she
Another thing that helped was that Pinto was everyday life and come up with a hundred says. “It’s impossible for me to thank everybody
proactive with her own health care and got her excuses for why we don’t get checked regularly. individually, but I’d like to thank my entire
first mammogram at the age of 33. With a history Often, that procrastination is connected to medical team, dental team, nurses and social
of cancer in her family, she was also consistent fear. ‘Cancer’ is a very prevalent word in society workers involved in my care.”