Buffalo Twp. woman diagnosed with breast cancer months after mother
Around Christmas 2014, Natalie Levy’s mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer that spread to her lungs.
While Levy was devastated, she was also not feeling well herself. Her severe exhaustion reminded her of being pregnant, and she “just felt off.”
Levy, then 48, went to her doctor, who ordered an mammogram. The results were “suspicious.” Levy was told to come back in six months.
She went to her doctor, who told her, “I don’t know what to tell you, Natalie.”
Levy was angry. She wasn’t going to stop until she got answers.
“You have to be your own advocate,” she said.
Levy, who lives in Buffalo Township with her husband, Jack, saw an internist, who ordered a breast ultrasound, then a biopsy. On April 15, 2015, she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer.
“I might not have been so insistent if (my mom) hadn’t been diagnosed,” Levy said.
Levy and her mother, Jeanette Brown, did not have the same type of breast cancer, and Levy did everything she thought she was supposed to do to stay healthy. She didn’t smoke, drink, or eat red meat. She exercised.
“I was like, ‘This can’t happen to me,'” she said. “It was just bad luck.”
Throughout 14 rounds of chemotherapy, Levy said her mother was her biggest cheerleader. They talked about their similar side effects, like how everything they ate tasted like cardboard.
Courtesy of Natalie Levy
Courtesy of Natalie Levy
Levy with her husband, Jack. The couple has three sons.
When Levy finished treatment, she made the decision to have a double mastectomy. The first doctor she saw talked over her and told her what she should do. The second doctor, who ended up being her surgeon, supported her decision. Levy believes it was the correct one. Suspicious cells were found in her other breast after the procedure.
“Doctors are human, just like anyone else. They make mistakes,” she said. “If you don’t like the answer you’re given, go on to the next.”
Levy decided not to have reconstructive surgery. Her priority was getting her life back.
“I’m very cautiously optimistic. It’s always a concern. ‘Is it going to come back’ is always in the back of my mind,” she said.
When her mother died in September, Levy felt survivor remorse, because she got better and her mother didn’t.
But, she said, she tries to live every day for both of them, because, “You only get one ride.”