Like many women during the pandemic, Marisa Timchak, 43, had had to put checkups on the back burner while prioritizing her daughters, Zara and Maya. When she could finally schedule her annual mammogram, she never expected to hear the words, “You have breast cancer.”
“I thought: I’m going to be in and out 30 minutes. This will be fine,” she said.
Marisa had had her first mammogram three years prior and learned she had dense breasts, which occur in nearly half of women over the age of 40. Doctors didn’t find anything else for her to worry about at the time.
But when 30 minutes turned to two hours with multiple tests, doubts started to surface that everything was normal. Eventually, her doctor told her: “Listen, I don’t want to alarm you. But there are some things happening in both of your breasts that I don’t like the looks of, so I want to order biopsies.”
Marisa remained calm at that point. She was healthy, young, and active. She taught Pilates part-time and ate healthfully.
She made an appointment for the biopsy a few weeks later and got the results while picking up her daughter. She had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), also known as stage 0 breast cancer, in both of her breasts.
While cancer ran in her family—both her grandpa and uncle had prostate cancer—she had no family history of breast cancer. Unfortunately, she knew about breast cancer because a friend had lived with metastatic disease for 10 years before ultimately passing away from the disease.
“I’d heard of breast cancer. I’d heard of lumps. But that was the first time I’d heard of DCIS. I hadn’t heard of stage zero in my life before this,” Marisa said.
After considering multiple options for treatment, Marisa opted to undergo a double mastectomy. “I said to myself, ‘I need to be around for my kids,’” she said.
“There were a few setbacks after the double mastectomy,” she said. “I’m a healthy and active person, so for me to sit in the recliner and not move and let people take care of me—that was the hardest part.”
Marisa is grateful that research has led to advances that made it so her breast cancer was detected at the earliest possible stage, before it had progressed to become invasive breast cancer.
“I had no idea stage zero existed. That’s how good the technology is getting that they can detect this now at stage zero,” she said.
As a Pilates instructor, Marisa has encountered many women who feel anxious about getting their annual mammograms. She is passionate about the importance of early detection and consistently emphasizes the crucial role that regular screenings play in women’s health.
“Don’t put your health on the back burner,” she said. “Put it on your calendar, make the appointment, take the time, and go do it.”
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