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ACEP Now: July 2025Teri Penn, MD, FACEP, rings the bell after completing radiation treatment for breast cancer. (Click to enlarge.)
Sharing My Story
I planned to keep up with my appointments, take the daily tamoxifen for the next five years, and get back to my life as it was before. However, the knowledge that I changed the minds of two close acquaintances and encouraged them to get their screening mammograms was not lost on me. I wanted to tell no one—I told my boss that if someone came up to me at work with a sad look on their face, acting sorry for me, I would quit. I had to reframe my thinking: If I could change two minds within my tight personal circle of friends and family, how many more could I change by stepping out of my comfort zone and sharing my story?
So here I am, more than one year later, already in my second semester, and looking forward to my mission trips to Peru and Nepal. I am back to my normal self, with more insight and gratitude. This is only because I was able to catch my cancer early. There is a chance of recurrence, but I know that I beat it once, and if I need to face breast cancer again, I can triumph once more. I’m asking all of you to remember to take care of yourselves as much as you care for your patients and loved ones.
I am reminded of one of my patients. She was 56 when I diagnosed her with stage IV metastatic breast cancer in the emergency department. When I asked her the last time she had a mammogram, she joked about how it was probably before I was born. She had a good job and great health insurance. I can’t help but imagine how her life would have been different had she just kept up with her screening. I wish I had the opportunity to have told her my story before our fateful meeting when I looked her in the eyes to tell her that she had cancer.
Dr. Penn is an attending physician for MedStar Medical Group and director of quality and education at the Good Samaritan Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine in Baltimore, Md.
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