When Antoinette “April” Savage-Mushow first felt the lump in her breast in March 2024, she talked herself into ignoring it.

Just six months earlier, she had given birth to a daughter she and her husband, Joe Mushow, had waited more than a decade to welcome. When she mentioned the lump to him in passing, more than a week after she discovered it, Savage-Mushow said Joe begged her to call Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, her longtime family doctor and the president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education.

“I told him it was probably just a cyst, nothing to worry about,” Savage-Mushow said. 

At her husband’s insistence, Savage-Mushow, who has worked for The Wright Center since 2019, made an appointment to see Kayla Gatto, a certified registered nurse practitioner at The Wright Center. Gatto reassured her, saying the lump might be a blocked milk duct. But after examining her, Gatto and her colleagues at The Wright Center got Savage-Mushow an immediate appointment for a mammogram and ultrasound.

Less than a week later, the 37-year-old received a life-altering diagnosis: invasive ductal carcinoma, grade 1, estrogen receptor-positive and progesterone receptor-positive – one of the most common types of breast cancer. 

“Kayla called me with the diagnosis, and then Dr. Thomas-Hemak called me,” Savage-Mushow said. “I remember thinking, I have the baby and my two older sons. I’ve always been the rock in our family, and now I’m the vulnerable one.”

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual international health campaign to educate people about breast cancer, promote early detection through screenings like mammograms, and raise funds for research. Two years after her diagnosis, Savage-Mushow’s advice is simple: Be vigilant.

“Don’t just listen to the guidelines,” the Carbondale woman said, noting that had she followed current guidelines, her cancer might not have been caught for three years. “Know your body and start checking yourself regularly, because reports of people under 40 getting diagnosed with breast cancer have increased so much over the years.”

Two different oncologists recommended Savage-Mushow undergo a double mastectomy to make sure the cancer didn’t return. Less than two months after being diagnosed, she underwent the first of two surgeries. Recovery was a blur, she said.

“I couldn’t hold my daughter. I couldn’t pick her up, and I couldn’t feed her or change her. I couldn’t drive. My husband had to help me shower,” she said. “I felt like I lost my identity. Everything I did for my family, it fell on someone else. For that first year, nothing really registered.”

In August 2024, Savage-Mushow began injections to send her into medically induced menopause to lessen the chances that the cancer would return – a process she’ll undergo through 2029 and possibly longer. Two months later, she completed her final reconstructive surgery.

Throughout her breast cancer battle, she leaned on her family, her clinicians at The Wright Center, led by Dr. Thomas-Hemak, and her care teams at Geisinger and Hematology & Oncology Associates in Dunmore, led by Dr. Lisa Thomas, who is Dr. Thomas-Hemak’s sister.   

“Everyone was just amazing,” Savage-Mushow said. “I remember Dr. Thomas-Hemak insisted that my husband call her the day of my surgery to let her know how I did, and then she called me a few days later once I was home and settled.”

Today, Savage-Mushow and her family – which includes their 22-year-old son, Guy; their 16-year-old son, Dean; and their 3-year-old daughter, Harley – are slowly returning to their normal routine. Just before their daughter’s third birthday, they took a summer vacation to Wildwood, New Jersey – their first family trip since her breast cancer diagnosis. Upon their return, Savage-Mushow began training for a new job at The Wright Center: site coordinator and clinical administrative assistant at The Wright Center for Community Health Friendship House - Carbondale, which opened in August and offers a range of whole-person primary and preventive health services.

“I think this experience showed me a different side of my family, friends, and coworkers – a very supportive side,” she said. “I always felt like I had to take care of everything and everyone, but seeing everyone who jumped in to help, it was a relief.”

For more information about The Wright Center for Community Health, visit TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.