“How do you tell your son his party is canceled, and Mommy is going into the hospital? You don't!”

By ELLYN SANTIAGO

Not wanting her to check testing results before they had a chance to speak with her first, the radiologist phoned Amy Blewitt. A registered dietitian, board certified in Oncology Nutrition, Amy was at work at Middlesex Health Cancer Center when the call came through.

 

It was Oct. 24, 2016, when she was told that both of the biopsies she’d had returned positive; one DCIS and one invasive.

 

“I broke down in tears and was completely shaken up. I left work immediately to try to process what I had just heard,” Amy recalled. “My husband also left work and met me at home that day. I needed him to call back the doctor to make sure I had the right information.”

 

The married mother of three boys was 40 in the fall of 2016 when she and her OB-GYN talked about mammograms, specifically, when to begin having them done. Though she had a “low-risk family history of breast cancer,” with just one member of the family, a maternal aunt diagnosed at age 51, Amy decided to have a mammogram soon after that appointment.

 

“I'm so lucky that I did.”

 

She was told that given her breast density, she should not be “shocked if they called me back for further testing.” She was called back following the test, but “wasn't too nervous, since she had warned me that this may happen.”

 

During the follow-up ultrasound, she recalled that the technician “left the room and returned with a radiologist.”

 

“I thought to myself is this also what happens or is there something wrong?”

 

On Oct. 20, she had two biopsies done on her right breast. The next four days were “filled with lots of anxiety.” She was in the middle of throwing a Halloween party for her son's 10th birthday, which helped a bit in keeping her distracted.

 

Then the call came…

 

Amy was told she was ER positive, PR positive, and, “Unfortunately, HER2 positive.”

 

“Since my breast size was small, and I had two different areas of cancer, a mastectomy was recommended for my right breast. I chose to have both breasts removed even though my left breast was healthy,” she shared. “I look back and wonder if I made the right decision …and I know for me, it was the right decision.” Amy had surgery on Nov. 16, 2016, less than a month after her diagnosis.

 

Amy explained that a bilateral mastectomy was “not the best surgery to have to go through. Yes, you can have reconstruction, but it's still not you. It takes time to learn to love yourself.”

 

At the time, she found some solace in listening to the Alessia Cara song, "Scars to Your Beautiful." Lyrics like, “There's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark, you should know you're beautiful just the way you are,” helped her on her “emotional journey.” A journey that found her focusing on the positives, not the negatives. Her silver lining? Having the 2016 mammogram.

 

“Early detection saves lives,” she said. “It scares me to think, ‘What if I waited 2-3 more years?’”

 

Her treatment would include chemotherapy-Taxol, which began right after Christmas, for 12 weeks with immunotherapy following the surgery, and then immunotherapy every three weeks. She had also decided on reconstructive surgery.

 

In early January 2017, she developed a fever, on her son's 6th birthday. Taken to the emergency department, she was sent home, but two days later, as she was getting ready for her boy’s party, she got another call; her blood cultures came back positive, and she needed to head to the hospital.

 

“A bump in the road, for sure,” she remembered. “I sent my husband (Rob) to Pizza Works to have the party go on as planned because how do you tell your son his party is canceled, and Mommy is going into the hospital? You don't! A snowstorm also complicated matters further, and my parents brought me to the hospital for a two-day hospital stay. Chemo was on hold for a bit, and I had IV antibiotics that my husband administered for me at home in my ever-so-pretty port.”

 

Her chemo was completed in April 2017, and her last Herceptin immunotherapy was in January 2018. She’ll be on Tamoxifen until 2027. She now follows up with her oncologist every six months and her plastic surgeon annually.

 

When she was diagnosed, though she “really did not know many people who had breast cancer,” she sought out women who’d been down this road. “Sometimes people I would talk to may not have even had the same type of cancer but could relate 100 percent. Now, unfortunately, the number of people in my life with breast cancer has increased. Anything I can do to help someone else going through what I went through provides me with gratification. I know how much it helped me, and I feel like it's my way of giving back.”

 

And, as a cancer patient caregiver herself given her certification as an Oncology Dietician working at the Cancer Center, “I was always compassionate but going through what I went through has made me so much more empathetic towards my patients.”

 

“I can relate to those feelings of the unknown, test anxiety, waiting for a plan to be in place, and being scared out of your mind. It's very rewarding to be able to help my patients and make a difference in their care,” Amy said.

 

‘Live in the moments and truly appreciate what you have.’

 

Amy, now 47, reminds herself often that “when I was in it,” and her life was “not fun” she “needed to find the joy and fun in the moments.”

 

“You must live in the moments and truly appreciate what you have. Not to stress about the small stuff because that's just it, it's small stuff. Remembering what big issues are and trying to let go of meaningless things. Also, you never know what someone is going through. I try to remind myself of this often as well.”

 

When she was diagnosed, her boys were ages 10, 7 and 5. Now, Nolan is 17, Dillon is 14, and Cam is 13.

 

 

“They were very young at the time, and they may have not fully understood what was going on, but gave her “such happiness, laughter, strength and pure love.”

 

Her boys motivated and helped her through a difficult time more than they even knew, they were a “beautiful distraction from the reality of what is all-consuming in your life at the time.”

 

And though her life then was marked by myriad emotions, including the “initial devastation, anxiety, and shock and anger,” ultimately, she found acceptance. After treatment, as she transitioned to a more normal life, she focused solely on herself and her family: cheering on her boys in their various sports, summer on the water with extended family, “playing games, swimming, enjoying the campfire, watching movies and just constantly laughing.”

 

And through it all, her husband Rob, a nurse, who was supportive and compassionate, was her "Ice Man.”

 

“He came to every chemo session and was changing out those caps like clockwork. He literally had to drive to Branford every Friday morning on the day of my chemo to pick up my dry ice for the day's chemo session,” Amy shared. Cold caps cool the scalp to help “prevent or reduce hair loss caused by chemotherapy,” as Dana-Farber Cancer Institute explains.

 

“I was, and am, so thankful for him. I couldn't have navigated through what I was going through without him. We laughed, cried, and managed our way through a very difficult time.”

 

Her parents were right by her side. She said her mother “retired (from her job) on the day of my surgery.” Helping with the kids, cleaning, cooking, driving Amy to appointments, helping with Christmas shopping, and along with her very supportive sister, “cleaned up my entire house from Christmas!” Her in-laws too were helpful, she said.

 

“I don't want to leave anyone out. My friends, near and far,  and my work family were so supportive. And my community. I guess I found out how much I was loved at a time when I needed to know it,” Amy said. “Even receiving a card from someone who you may not be close to, knowing they are thinking of you or a card saying their church is praying for you has a huge impact. My church at the time had me on their prayer list, and my son brought home two prayer shawls for me, which was so thoughtful.”

 

Amy’s embrace of the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation

 

In 2017, not long after the end of her initial treatment, she, her sister, and four friends, Team Bust a Move,” walked the full TBBCF marathon with four other friends joining at the end after they walked the half-marathon, she said.

 

“To cross that finish line after going through everything was emotional and so rewarding,” Amy remembered. “It also gave me purpose. Lots of training, lots of laughter, and lots of connection. Most importantly, we raised a lot of money for an amazing organization that gives 100 percent of its funds to research.”

 

Amy has continued to walk the TBBCF walk.

 

In 2019, she walked the full marathon with two friends who walked with her in 2017. In 2022, she volunteered with her son Dillon during the opening ceremonies, and in 2023, she walked the full marathon with "Team Puma" in support of a friend who’d been diagnosed.

 

“To know that I am making a difference in that way is why I walked,” Amy said. “To be part of the bigger picture and raise money, to ultimately help find a cure for this terrible disease, is my number one priority of being a part of TBBCF.”