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Gretchen Junk Casey G’71, a conference planner for the University of Nevada Reno, was living in California in 1996 with her husband and two children. She was 49 and had had a prescription for a mammogram on her fridge for a year when she found a lump in her breast. Her family doctor saw her immediately, she says, and arranged for a mammogram and a fast follow-up by an oncologist. Tests revealed a ductal carcinoma in situ, and Gretchen chose a mastectomy. A lumpectomy would have taken a good part of her breast, she says, so mastectomy made more sense. With clear nodes, she didn’t undergo further treatment, and, a year later, had reconstructive surgery. She chose a “several-step process, using a saline implant,” for her reconstruction, which remains trouble-free. Gretchen checks in with the oncologist every six months and is taking a five-year course of tamoxifen.

She believes she had two important risk factors. “I had children late — I was 34 or 35 on my first — and that summer was the most stressful work environment I had ever been under. ... But I felt healthy, and that was why the diagnosis was surprising.”

Experiences of Alumnae