Swedish Medical Center | Swedish Cares | Issue 3

6 Swedish Cares • Issue 3 IT WAS 4PM ON A MONDAY, three years ago. That’s when Michelle Hoglan got the phone call telling her she had breast cancer. “It was kind of a shock,” Hoglan says, although she’d been called back several times after her initial mammogram and subsequently underwent two biopsies. But as a woman with dense breasts, she had grown accustomed to one mammogram leading to another. There seemed to always be something that the doctors wanted to look at again. This time, however, it was different. The mammogram spotted two tumors in her left breast. A follow-up MRI found two more. Hoglan was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma. And with four tumors found in one breast, a lumpectomy was not an option. “They were going to have to take the whole breast,” Hoglan says. Hoglan met with her surgeon at Swedish Medical Center, Laura Hafertepen, MD. “We just connected right away,” she recalls. They both decided Hoglan should have a bilateral mastectomy—surgery to remove both her breasts. During the operation, two more tumors were found in the breast with cancer, for a total of six tumors. Hoglan credits that mammogram for helping to save her life. “I’d had no pain, no nipple discharge,” she says. “The tumors couldn’t be felt on a regular breast exam. My breast was not misshapen. Without that mammogram, I would have had no idea I had cancer.” ‘The Boob Report’ Hoglan says her experience with breast cancer changed her life. She joined a group that educates women about the disease. She’s also launching a website that will serve as a breast cancer resource for women in the Denver area. “It’s called The Boob Report,” she says with a smile. ➤ ➤ SARAH CANNON CANCER INSTITUTE and Swedish Medical Center have partnered with Invision Sally Jobe Breast Network (ISJ) to provide individualized, innovative breast services to the Rocky Mountain region. Call ISJ at 720-493-3700 to schedule your appointment. The call that changed everything A diagnosis of breast cancer sent Michelle Hoglan’s life in a new direction