Carmin Ogata, Auburn graduate in education, will be cancer-free for nine years Oct. 20.
Carmin, who works in Auburn at Amedisys, said she started to feel unwell after giving birth to her son in 2004.
"That Christmas, I felt a lump under my arm," Carmin said. "It was about the size of a grapefruit and felt like a bruise."
Carmin said her first thought was cancer because her mother is a breast cancer survivor.
"I was only 31 years old, but I always had it in the back of my mind that I needed to be aware of how I was feeling," Carmin said.
Despite her worries, her first mammogram did not show any abnormalities.
Around that time, Carmin went on a cruise with her husband.
"I normally have a lot of fun on vacation," Carmin said. "But this time I was exhausted and I just didn't feel good. I had an infection, and I was just sick as a dog."
Again, Carmin's tests came back clear.
"I had one question for them," Carmin said. "Who do I call when I know it's not fine?"
As a last resort, Carmin visited a surgical oncologist.
"I grabbed his hand and said, 'I need to show you something,'" Carmin said. "I took him to where he could see the lobby, and there sat my husband with my 4-year-old daughter and my 1-year-old son. I said, 'I just want you to know that I am very serious about this. I've got to raise those kids you just saw. I know what is wrong with me, I just need you to treat it.'"
The next day, Carmin's doctor removed four of her lymph nodes.
"He called me later and told me to sit down," Carmin said. "He told me 'You just saved your life.' Every lymph node they removed was cancerous, and I was at stage two."
In addition to chemotherapy, Carmin underwent a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy.
According to Carmin, her family and friends were key to her recovery.
"I had wonderful and supportive friends," Carmin said. "It's so important to have a team that fights with you."
According to Carmin's husband, Clay Ogata, his wife's cancer still does not feel like reality.
'It was crazy," Clay said. "It seems so long ago. It was like coming out of a dream. She was a trooper."
Carmin said the experience changed her life in unexpected ways.
"This was a time a lot of my friends were still getting married," Carmin said. "I was in a wig at one of my best friend's weddings. Wigs are a lot of fun, actually."
Carmin said she was surprised at how her cancer affected her friends and her family.
"My daughter was four years old," Carmin said. "I took my wig off one time, and she started crying. She said 'I don't like your ball head,' because she couldn't say bald. That broke my heart because then I knew it was scaring her, and how scary it must look to other people. People would look at me, and they would start crying. That was a weird feeling, because I felt fine."
According to Carmin, she did not feel like she really had cancer until after it was gone.
"While you're going through it, it is kind of surreal," Carmin said. "You just go through the motions because you don't really have time to feel sorry for yourself because that won't do you any good. It just catches up to you all at once."
Rachel Mennell, director of prevention programs and outreach at breastcancer.org, said there are ways women can minimize their risk of breast cancer.
"When you're proactive, you can set the stage for a better prognosis," Mennell said. "Being vigilant about your health in general. For people who believe they are at a high risk because they have a relative, they need to be their own advocate. Get mammograms talk to a genetic counselor. Those are the best things we can do right now."
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