Hope beyond health crises

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This article was published 22/10/2021 (1592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jaynee Medrano is a lot of things. A mother of three, a wife, a volleyball enthusiast, a baker, among many others.

In the span of several months, Medrano added a new facet: survivor — not just of COVID-19 but breast cancer, too.

It was a constant barrage of bad news in a year the 38-year-old Canada Post supervisor says she just wants to see end.

She was diagnosed with COVID-19 on May 17, after her husband, a truck driver, contracted the novel coronavirus.

Medrano had gotten her first vaccine dose less than two weeks earlier, on Mother’s Day, and her doctor told her it was likely she’d contracted COVID-19 before the shot had a chance to take full effect.

The recovery was harrowing. In the weeks she took to heal, her eldest daughter contracted COVID-19 and recovered, and Medrano herself suffered through fevers, muscle spasms and shortness of breath.

“I couldn’t stand. I’m a baker, as well… I make cakes,” she said. “So I tried doing that, but I couldn’t stand for more than five, 10 minutes. I’d get really tired.”

Just days after her isolation period ended May 30, she began feeling “excruciating” pain in her stomach, and she was diagnosed with diverticulitis, an infection based in the intestines. She was hospitalized for six days.

Her employer told her to take her time coming back to work after healing from COVID-19. She was receiving 70 per cent of usual wages through short-term disability payouts, however, her family couldn’t afford for her not to go back to work as soon as she was able.

“I went back to work slowly and just to take off that worry for both of us, that we may not be able to pay for our bills if I don’t go back to work,” she said.

Two years ago, Medrano’s mother, who lived with her and her family at the time, died after a 10-year battle with breast cancer. Her sister recommended Medrano get a mammogram after returning from the hospital in June.

“Of course, that was the last thing on my mind because I was going through COVID, I was just recovering from diverticulitis still,” she said.

After doing a self-exam and visiting her doctor, she was diagnosed Aug. 24 with Grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma, a form of cancer that forms in the milk ducts.

Her first feeling, Medrano said, was grief. She didn’t know how to tell her children and husband she now had the disease that had just taken away their grandmother and mother-in-law.

“My world just shattered,” she said. “I questioned it because I’m healthy, I’m active, I played volleyball, well before COVID happened I was in leagues all year round… Just to have that news fall on me, I was scared, because my kids are still young, I’m young.”

Medrano decided to attack the problem aggressively, opting for a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery, which she received Oct. 8. She came home from the hospital on Thanksgiving and is still recovering.

In a few weeks, she’ll know if the surgery was enough to stop the cancer in its tracks or if she’ll need further treatment. She will need between six months and a year, depending on if further treatment is required, before she’s able to go back to work.

The looming costs, both daily life (such as mortgage and bill payments) and aspects of treatment that will come out of the family’s pocket, inspired her to launch a GoFundMe webpage. In the time since it was first put online Oct. 3, it has raised $9,000 of its $10,000 goal.

It’s something Medrano said she’s thankful for, but adds the goal of making her story public is informational: how quickly even the healthiest person’s life can fall apart and avoidance measures, such as regular breast exams or taking precautions to protect against COVID-19.

“For me, before getting diagnosed, I was healthy, young. It was the last thing probably you would think that could happen to you,” she said. “Maybe my story will help others not take that for granted.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_