Episode Transcript
Courtney Collen (Host):
Hello. Welcome to “One in Eight,” a new podcast series brought to you by Sanford Health. I’m your host, Courtney Collen with Sanford Health News. We are really looking forward to kicking off this series all about breast cancer awareness because – and we can’t stress this enough – one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime.
Lynn Roemeling is a friendly, familiar face inside the Sanford Oncology Hematology and Infusion Clinic in Sioux Falls.
She is a patient access representative, which is a position she’s held with pride for 13 years.
Lynn Roemeling:
I’ll be checking in patients, checking out patients, making their next appointments. We also send e-referrals to the doctors that are on call when we’re up front.
So it’s a lot of fun. I love my job.
Courtney Collen (Host):
But in June of 2020, that job – and life outside of work – came to a pause.
Lynn Roemeling:
Well, I had a mammogram that showed up a little abnormal and so ended up getting a biopsy and found out I had breast cancer. It was a whirlwind after that.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Suddenly, Roemeling was the patient and started her care at the Edith Sanford Breast Center with a triple-negative diagnosis, a rare type of breast cancer.
Lynn Roemeling:
It’s a scary thing for anybody to get that diagnosis. To be perfectly honest with you, I was waiting for the day for it to come really, because my family is, has been full of cancer.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Her grandmother and sister both had breast cancer so she had a feeling it was a battle she would eventually fight too.
Lynn Roemeling:
It didn’t come as any big surprise to me. But still, when you hear that, it’s like, ‘oh my gosh,’ you know, what’s going to happen now, am I going to make it through this? How am I going to feel it? You know, you’re just, you’re overwhelmed with emotions at that point in time.
It’s scary. It’s very scary.
I had started treatment practically right away. Got done with treatment and had my double mastectomy. I had my nurse navigator, I have my oncologist, I have my surgeon, I have my plastic surgeon. I also went into a trial. They did ask me if I would be willing to go into a trial, which I gladly did, just because if it can help anyone else in the long run figure out, you know, if this is something good or not, I wanted to go ahead and do it.
My worst enemy was fatigue. It just totally drained me. There were a couple times when I finally had to quit working that they would have to take me out in a wheelchair. And that just killed me because I just, yeah. I didn’t want to sit at home and do nothing.
And I missed everybody. I missed my patients. So it was very, very scary. But I knew that I was in the best place to be, to go through this. And man, you can’t have better support than I did.
Courtney Collen (Host):
That support included a comprehensive care team of specialists to personalize her journey through treatment with their advanced training and technology, tailored care to her genetics and rare type of cancer.
Lynn Roemeling:
To know what I had was here just made it so much better. I mean, to have the doctors here with you and helping you through every minute. I can’t say enough about this place.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Beyond breast cancer, as she alluded to, her family knows cancer sadly too well. The disease took both of her parents many years ago. Her mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and her dad – pancreatic.
Today – her oldest son was diagnosed with prostate cancer, her youngest son – Hodgkin’s lymphoma – and her daughter passed away after fighting colon and liver cancer.
More than most, Lynn understands the value of life and knows she’s right where she needs to be.
Lynn Roemeling:
When I first interviewed at Sanford, I interviewed at three different places and this was the third place. And I interviewed all three in one day and I got here and it was just like, this is where I want to be. This is my job. So I was so thankful when they offered it to me. And now being on both sides, I mean, I knew kind of what cancer was like and so forth and so on because of my family history.
But until you go through it yourself, it’s not quite the same. You see what they go through. But until you do it, it’s not the same.
And so to come back and know or feel like I’m in the spot that I belong in and just greeting these people, I know everybody comments on my smile. Because I’m always smiling and I think that’s half of your battle is your attitude. You need to keep going. You need to keep fighting. You need to have that. And so I try to bring that to every person that comes here. Anybody that I don’t usually bring up that I’ve had it myself, unless it’s a person that is really down and scared. And then I try to mention just, you know, what I’ve been through what you’re going to be going through and it’s going to be OK.
We have a great team here and if anybody can get you through this, they can. They’re here for you every step of the way. I just can’t say enough that, you know, fight. Just fight.
You’ve got it. You do have this.
Courtney Collen (Host):
An attitude of gratitude – and encouragement – for each new patient facing a similar journey.
Lynn Roemeling:
You get patients who are mad at the world. Why me? Why is this happening? They’re mad and gruff … they’ve been dealt a blow and nobody wants to go through this. Our job is to try to get them through it as good as we can. So, if there’s anything we can do, you know, call, stop you and do what you have to. But we’ll be there. And just to, just to be able to, to do this again and be able to let people know, Hey, you know what, you’re in a good spot. It’s going to be okay. And I just am proud to be part of that.
I am so blessed. I was in the right place at the right time. I think it was meant to be. I, I just can’t thank everybody enough here, and I can’t, definitely can’t thank God enough because evidently he wanted me on this earth a little longer to do what I’m doing too. And I’m glad that I can do it.
Learn more
- Breast cancer survivor returns to work with cancer patients
- Sanford providers: Remember regular breast cancer screenings
- Younger age for colon screening catches polyps early
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Posted In Cancer, Cancer Screenings, Cancer Treatments, Here for all. Here for good., People & Culture, Sioux Falls
