Photo By John Ingle | Master Sgt. Nicole McKinstry, 82nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron Dental Clinic clinical...... read more read more
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SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Nicole McKinstry left on her third deployment of her short Air Force career in security forces in late 2002, a healthy and vibrant young woman serving in the military just as her mother had done years before.
She returned to Holloman AFB, New Mexico, in May 2003 and began the tedious task of checking off post-deployment in-processing checklist items, the traditional fare of “sign here” and “do you want to” matters that typically welcome back Airmen to their home base. A greeting of sorts to let them know nothing much has changed while they were off in some austere location or, better yet, some vacation destination masquerading as a military outpost.
One office visited, one item checked off the list. Another stop at another office, and another signature and a “welcome home.” The usual stuff.
A physical exam was also part of the in-processing poke and prod for McKinstry, nothing the soon-to-be 28-year-old Radford, Virginia-native was too concerned about.
Dr. (Maj.) Wendy Davis, McKinstry’s provider at the time, however, was concerned about preliminary findings during her exam. She discovered a lump in McKinstry’s right breast area.
It would soon be diagnosed as a form of breast cancer, already advanced to Stage 2. McKinstry said it was a shocking finding, especially for someone in her young, child-bearing years.
Devastating Diagnosis
As a member of security forces, McKinstry said she was active in running, weightlifting and nutrition to meet the physically demanding aspects of the career field. She was, in her estimation, completely healthy. She said she had no signs or symptoms of any sort of ailment, let alone breast cancer.
She had been told her entire life she just had “lumpy breasts,” so she wasn’t vigilant about getting checked out by her primary care physician or a specialist. She said Davis, though, was adamant about further investigating the suspicious lump and ruling out any possibility of cancer, or confirming what her gut was telling her.
“She ordered the test that saved my life,” she said. “I came back with a suspicious mammogram – that was Monday. By Wednesday, I’m having a biopsy and by Friday I was notified it came back – it came back pretty bad and they flew my mom out there. In one week, my whole life changed.”
This whirlwind of traumatic activity occurred within about eight days from discovery of the lump to multiple advanced diagnostic procedures to having to make a decision on the course of action. It was one she didn’t want to make alone and there was only one person who could help her.
Mom knows best
McKinstry, now a master sergeant serving as clinical support flight chief in the 82nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron’s Dental Clinic at Sheppard AFB, and her leadership worked through the proper channels to get her mother, Sharon Smith, brought to Holloman to examine all the options available. The single mother of six – McKinstry is the oldest girl – boarded a plane for New Mexico.
She said she turned to the internet to learn as much as she could about breast cancer, but most of what she found wasn’t pointing to a positive outcome for her.
“Having my mom there was a benefit because she was able to understand all of the medical stuff and help me make decisions that were best for me,” she said. “We signed a medical power of attorney that when they went in and did the lumpectomy, if they found anything else, I gave her full permission to take them off, do whatever just so that I could live. I’m blessed to have that relationship with my mom.”
McKinstry said her lymph nodes came back clear after the lumpectomy, but her battle with breast cancer wasn’t over. She would still have to undergo months of chemo and radiation therapy. It was mom, again, who stepped in to make sure her daughter was receiving the best care possible.
Holloman AFB didn’t have the facilities to provide the proper cancer treatment, McKinstry said, so her mother petitioned leadership to allow her to receive the stringent regimen at the Carilion Clinic network in Virginia. She would spend nine months at home surrounded by family as the treatment took away her strength and her hair, but never her will to continue on.
Family is everything
McKinstry said she is a huge proponent of military medicine and what it offers those who wear the uniform now and in the past as well as the families who serve alongside in support of their loved one. That also includes the convalescent leave she was able to take to be back home in Virginia with her mother, brothers and sisters during her post-lumpectomy treatment.
It meant everything, she said, to have her family there, joining her in her fight. Whatever happened, she said she knew she would be surrounded by the ones she loved most.
McKinstry said her family made sacrifices for her, whether it was her mother sitting and taking care of her when the treatment made her sick, or her siblings going with her to appointments.
“I think the hardest part for my whole family was when I lost my hair because that made it chemo-real. That was the face of cancer when I lost all my hair,” she said. “When your hair is dying, your follicles hurt. So, the only way to alleviate the headaches and the pain was for me to shave my head. After we did that, I think the family was okay.”
Up to that point, she said, she would scratch her head, and clumps of hair would come out. It was her brother Xavier Calsee who took her to his apartment and shaved her head to take that pain away.
Even her church back home embraced her plight by becoming advocates for women’s health and increasing breast cancer awareness within their town of less than 20,000.
A life to live
It took nine months for McKinstry to complete her rounds of chemo and radiation therapy. She was declared cancer-free on her last day of the lengthy and trying treatments. But she would have to take Tamoxifen, a breast-cancer fighting drug that works to prevent the disease from returning, for five years.
McKinstry said she returned to Holloman to continue her service, which is where she also met her husband, Staff Sgt. Jevre McKinstry, now a military training leader in the 366th Training Squadron. She said her doctor told her some patients coming off Tamoxifen are a bit skeptical about having children, but it was something she wanted.
After about a 1 ½ years off the preventive medication, they had their first child, Jevre Jr., whom she calls their miracle child. He is 8 years old now.
“He was probably extra-spoiled,” she said.
The McKinstrys are now a party of five including Asa, 6, and Hannah, 1.
The first seven years of a breast cancer patient’s survival are the tell-tale years, where the chance of recurrence is highest. McKinstry is now in her 15th year of beating the often deadly disease. Her mission now is to be an advocate for women’s health and military medicine.
Don’t pawn it off
McKinstry didn’t take her “lumpy breasts” seriously. That, she said, was one of the most frustrating facts of her fight with cancer. If not for a resident medical doctor who was thorough in her examination and persistent in her concern, she said she might have been in a later stage of the process, one where their might not have been any options at all.
Now she tells women, and men for that matter, to be an advocate for themselves. No one, she said, knows their body better than the individual.
“I don’t want people to be afraid to go to providers and talk about their healthcare,” she said. “I know I was never a good person to go see doctors for stuff because I was always afraid they would find something. But I think taking care of yourself and being aware is better for you, it’s better for your family to get diagnosed earlier and have better options.”
About one year after the first lump was discovered on her right side, another examination revealed a lump on the left side. It, too, was removed, but a biopsy showed it was cancer-free.
McKinstry said self-awareness not only includes seeing a physician, but also being physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually vested in your overall health.
Part of her success story, McKinstry said, is the military medicine network she had available to her and the decisions leadership made to ensure she was put in the best place for treatment. From the medical professionals to Air Force Aid Society who helped fly her mother to New Mexico to the convalescent leave she was afforded, the Air Force made it possible for her to fight the potentially deadly disease and come out of it healthy.
“On my worst day, I have so much to be grateful for and so much to give back,” she said. “When you think about it in context, we have health care, we have dental care, we have optometry. You never know when you’re going to need those services, and because you’re active duty, you’re going to be entitled to some of the best care that people in other communities or civilians don’t have access to.”
McKinstry said she encourages others to be proactive in their own care. If they discover something or feel something isn’t quite right, make an appointment with their provider. That could be the one and only sign or symptom that presents itself.
“You’re the best advocate for yourself,” she said. “Don’t pawn it off.”
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2018 12:31 |
| Story ID: | 305628 |
| Location: | WICHITA FALLS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 67 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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