Battle with breast cancer: One woman's story

Vicki Padgett almost skipped her mammogram the year she turned 50. There’d been a death in the family, and she was busy with other things and felt great.

But something kept nagging at her to have it done, so she went in and reluctantly underwent the uncomfortable procedure.

The tests came back abnormal, so she had another one, and then more tests. And then one day the doctor called and asked Vicki and her husband DeWayne to come in for a visit. The doctor told her she had cancer.

That was June 2008. Doctors at first told her she could simply have a lumpectomy — a surgical procedure that removes the cancer and surrounding tissue. But after surgery, the doctors found the cancer worse than expected. Padgett would need a mastectomy as well as chemotherapy treatments. She had an aggressive form of the disease known as Her2 Positive.

“I was numb, scared, in shock,” she said last week.

In one fateful day, Vicki had to make the decision to have a mastectomy, chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery. Her rock, she said, was DeWayne. At the doctor’s office, the plastic surgeon handed him different types of fake breasts.

“I looked at him and laughed,” she said.

DeWayne accompanied Vicki over the course of more than a year as she had seven surgeries and round and after round of chemotherapy. She suffered through infections and was allergic to the chemotherapy drugs.

“If there was a complication, I got it,” she said.

The couple gutted it out. They were high school sweethearts — both grew up in Columbia Falls and graduated here. DeWayne was a football player and wrestler. She was a cheerleader.

They went to the same college together, got the same degrees and returned to Columbia Falls to teach. Today, DeWayne is a junior high social studies teacher and Vicki teaches second grade at Glacier Gateway, going on 32 years.

When she lost her hair from chemotherapy, DeWayne shaved his head, too. When she went in for treatment, he spent the day with her. Chemotherapy isn’t as simple as dropping into a doctor’s office to get a shot — it takes all day. One drug felt like “having napalm in your bones,” she said.

“The caretaker has the hardest job,” she said of her husband. “They’re there 24/7.”

Vicki continued to teach up until the last six months, when she finally had to take a break. Not only was she worn out, she had to be mindful of getting an infection. She wore hats and scarves instead of wigs. One day the staff at the school surprised her with a room full of gifts, all of them wrapped in pink.

“I don’t think they realized what they did for me,” she said. “They would bring meals and cards. They hired a housekeeper.”

Her daughters, Lacey and Chelsea, and other family members also helped care for her.

“I couldn’t have done it without them,” Vicki said.

The treatments finally ended in May 2010, and later that summer she finally started to feel better. One day in particular, she went water skiing with her family.

“It felt like I was walking on water,” she said.

Today, she’s considered completely cured. She’s tested every six months and is back teaching — and most of her hair has grown back. Her advice to cancer victims is simple.

“Keep a positive attitude. Try to keep up the normal routine of life. And have a great caretaker,” she said.

She also advises all women to get screened annually. She might not be here today if she had skipped that mammogram. She also said it’s important for husbands to understand that a mastectomy is not the maiming procedure it used to be. Save for some small scars, her breasts look normal, she said,

Cancer has given her a new outlook on life. She appreciates life. It used to be work was the No. 1 thing in her life. Now she takes time to smell the proverbial roses.

“It was almost like a gift,” she said. “It gave me my life back.”