Journey to Recovery
SARVER — Tina Ruffner had cancer, but she also had a support system that helped her through her biopsies, radiation and chemo treatments and recovery.
And it didn't hurt that her husband, Andy, is a nurse.
For Ruffner, 44, a customer service specialist at United Plate Glass Co. in Butler, a regular mammogram appointment Sept. 28, 2019, showed the presence of a lump in her left breast.
“Northing really jumped up. Looking back now, there were some red flags. There was some tenderness,” said Ruffner, who does breast self-examinations.“When I knew I had to go back for a biopsy, I was able to find it myself. Maybe it was irritated by the mammogram.”The biopsy confirmed the Coal Hallow Road resident had a fast-growing invasive ductal carcinoma.After that, she said, everything happened quickly.Her gynecologist, Dr. Maureen Russell, connected Tina with a radiation doctor, Dr. Hung Chi Ho; an oncologist, Dr. Melissa Cyr; and a surgeon, Dr. Donald Keenan.Her husband, an outpatient surgery nurse at Harmarville UPMC, helped answer her initial questions. And his mother, aunts and uncles were retired nurses.“It was a godsend for me. I had a plethora of people to ask questions to,” Ruffner said.“A co-worker had gone through something similar and she helped me with my questions. She was the very first person I called after my biopsy,” she said.
Things began to happen quickly because her cancer was extremely fast-moving.Andy Ruffner said, “On a scale of 0 to 100, it was a 90. With something like that you want it under 20.”Days before the start of treatment she had a port installed because the chemo drug was caustic to veins.She began her chemotherapy the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Medical Oncology, 129 Oneida Valley Road.She found the staff there to be extremely supportive.“I met Stacy (Meyer, the oncology patient navigator) at the chemo center early on. They put me in touch with her right away. She brought me hats and halos and wigs. She was a neat, upbeat person,” Ruffner said.Her treatment designed to stop fast-growing cells, caused her hair to fall out. And she underwent three blood transfusions.The therapy left her without an appetite and listless.And the COVID-19 pandemic began before her chemo treatments were done.Being cautious because he worked outside the home, Andy Ruffner said, “I would come home from the hospital and strip naked in the garage.”Ruffner said she hardly missed a day of work during this phase of her treatment.“They said that was good that I shouldn't sit at home sulking over all that I had gone through,” she said.Of course, when the pandemic hit, she had to work from home.“I do data entry, so they set me up at home. It was OK. It made it easier for me to finish my treatment,” Ruffner said.Her chemotherapy ended April 30. After giving her some time to recover, Ruffner underwent a lumpectomy June 15.Then she began a course of radiation treatment July 20 at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Radiation Oncology on Technology Drive.“I went Monday through Friday for four weeks. It was a cakewalk,” she said “It was not as rough as the chemo.”“I lay on a table at a sort of open MRI station. They did a lot of coordinating to center on the affected area to prevent skin or organ damage.“There was some irritation of the breast, but that was normal. They gave me creams to treat the skin,” she said.The medical staff explained it was to take care of any microscopic cancer that may have been left,Treatment ended Aug. 17. Now she is on schedule to go back to see Cyr every three months and she's been prescribed a preventive drug. She will keep her port for another year before considering having it removed.
Ruffner credits her family, doctors, co-workers and employers for making a harrowing time in her life a bit easier.“I have had a huge support system from family, from work. I'm feeling pretty good now,” she said.“My parents George and Judy Durci have been a constant. They are always there,” she said.“I'm very thankful. Butler has some very good doctors. Because of them, I didn't have to go to Pittsburgh,” she said.She'd like to pass a warning on to other women.“Go get checked. Go see your doctor. Go get your mammogram,” she said. “If I had waited a year, I might not be here.”
