East Elmhurst resident speaks on cancer journey,
urges women to get annual mammogram screening
East Elmhurst resident Michelle Robinson is cancer free thanks to a mammogram screening and early detection that saved her
life. Courtesy of Robinson
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.14 COM | OCT. 15 - OCT. 21, 2021
Having taken care of her parents who
had cancer, Robinson said she understood
the process of chemotherapy and
radiation, and that knowledge helped.
“My outlook was different from the
person who had absolutely no interaction
with anyone that faced cancer,”
Robinson said. “I made up my mind that
I was going to go through it like a champion.
My parents kept their outlook
positive because of their faith
and prayer. I never heard them
complain.”
For anyone who is going
through their own journey, Robinson
says it’s important to have a
great support system.
“Ask every possible question
and if you don’t know
how to ask, find someone
else who you may know
have gone through it or
look up questions online to
ask your surgeon,” Robinson
said. “Also, make sure you develop
a very good relationship with your
surgeon.”
Robinson says her primary oncologist,
Dr. Dawn Hershman, director of
Breast Oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian
Columbia University Irving Medical
Center, was very encouraging throughout
the entire process.
“She was impressed with how I carried
myself. Everything I said to her was
positive and she said, ‘You’re amazing. I
can’t believe you’re like this,’” Robinson
said. “I just can’t say enough about her
care and that of her staff.”
For Robinson, it has been a journey
of faith as she maintained a positive attitude
and spoke of her experience to the
church congregation.
“Someone walked up to me
after the worship service
and said, ‘I would’ve never
known that something
was wrong with you’ because
I had kept myself
active,” Robinson said.
“They noticed my steps were a
little slower in the hallways, but
I didn’t miss a beat with my dayto
day work.”
Robinson hopes her story
serves as an inspiration
to others going through a
similar experience, and is
encouraging women to get their
yearly screening.
“If I had not had my screening, my
outcome would have been different. It
is key that you need to have that annual
screening because you never know. For
me, it was so small I would not have been
able to feel it with examination,” Robinson
said. “It is really important to get it
done.”
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Faith has kept Michelle Robinson, 67,
of East Elmhurst, optimistic on her path
to recovery as she went through surgery,
rounds of chemotherapy and radiation
following the removal of a lump from her
right breast.
Robinson, who is a business administrator
at Bethel Gospel Assembly Inc.
in Harlem, was diagnosed in February
of this year with stage 1 triple negative
breast cancer, an aggressive form of cancer
that affects many African American
women.
“If I had not been consistent on having
my mammograms annually, and
if I didn’t go this past February to get
my mammogram and had ignored it,
the outcome would’ve been different,”
Robinson said.
In 2020, Robinson had a mammogram
before the city shut down due to the COVID
19 pandemic. Earlier this year, Robinson
had a mammogram and was told
that she needed to have an ultrasound
and a biopsy, all of which was done in
three hours, she said.
On Feb. 17, she received a phone call
from her doctor saying that they saw
something that had to be removed.
“I saw a surgeon that afternoon and
two weeks later I had surgery,” said
Robinson, who received treatment at
NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University
Irving Medical Center. “It all
happened very quickly, and because it
was an early detection I sensed that everything
was going to be okay.”
Following surgery, Robinson was told
that she was cancer free and had to endure
six rounds of chemotherapy over a
period of four months. On Oct. 6, Robinson
completed five weeks of radiation,
which she has been going to for five days
a week.
“They had to treat it in an aggressive
mode to ensure that it would not spread
anywhere else in my body,” Robinson
said.
There was never any doubt in Robinson’s
mind that it would be a difficult
process, she said.
“I never had to have a mastectomy, so
maybe things would’ve been different if I
had one. I was never nauseous, but I lost
my appetite,” Robinson said. “Some days
my body felt a lot of stress immediately
after chemotherapy. I was in some pain.”
According to Robinson, she had an
excellent support network through family,
friends and her church family. Since
radiation wasn’t as stressful on her body,
she was able to take herself to those treatments,
she said.
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