Jill Hays

Breast Cancer SurvivorSAU Adult Student

SAU Adult Student of Nursing science Jill Hays

Practicing, and studying nursing, Jill Hays knows the importance of routine check ups. This became a reality in a routine mammogram, in 2006, when she found she had stage one Breast Cancer.

Jill has three children with her husband, Bob Hays, but the day she went to the doctor to hear the results of her biopsy, after a suspicious mammogram and ultrasound, she was alone. The doctor told her she had stage one Breast Cancer.

“It didn’t really hit me until I got to my car,” said Jill. “I called my sister, and talked for awhile. But, I was comforted by the fact that the Lord was there.”

Jill had radiation treatments all that summer while working night shifts.

“I would work all night leave from work at 7:30am, drive 15 miles to the nearest radiation treat-ment center, get my treatment, and drive back home 25 miles, then sleep the remainder of the day, and go back to work.” said Jill. “They say radiation will make you tired, and I was definitely tired at the end of the day.”

After her radiation treatment, doctors told Jill that they were 99 percent sure the cancer would not return.

“I felt pretty confident about that,” said Jill.

However, in 2009, after another routine mammogram, she was called back again, and after an-other ultrasound, and biopsy was told her cancer had come back.

“My heart just sank,” said Jill.

Jill had few options. Doctors were unable to perform radiation again, and because her cancer was not estrogen positive (no hormones attached) medication was not an option, so they suggested a mastectomy.