At age 59, Snyder went in for her routine mammogram on March 2, 2007. It was like any other day for her. She thought nothing of it.

When she arrived at work the next week, there was a message on her answering machine from the Breast Cancer Screening Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital, Civic campus.

“Alarm bells start going off, so I called right away,” said Snyder.

Snyder was told to come in for an ultrasound, so she did. She sat with her husband after the test was completed and waited for the results. Her mind started racing.

“The radiologist comes in,” she said. “‘There is something there, it’s inconclusive; we need to do a biopsy,’ he says. I burst into tears.”

She went back the next day for her biopsy. Four to five samples from her right breast were drawn.

After the procedure Snyder returned to work; a much needed distraction from the looming thought of breast cancer.

She received the results 24 hours later. It was March 6, 2007 – one day before her 59th birthday.

“I was in the cafeteria at work having lunch and my cell phone goes off. It’s my family doctor. ‘We’ve got the results from your biopsy,’ he says. ‘You have breast cancer.’”

Snyder immediately phoned her husband. When she uttered the words breast cancer, there was silence on the other end.

“We’ll deal with this,” said her husband after a few moments passed.

The conversation gave her a sense of déjà vu. At this point, her husband was in remission from colon cancer.

Now that this was a reality, Snyder was handed over to the Ottawa Regional Women’s Breast Health Centre at the Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus.

“At this point everything is very surreal, I’ve alerted the kids, the family, work,” Snyder said.

She recalled taking four to five days off before her first surgery.

While Snyder waited to be called for her surgery a porter came into the room.

“He calls out my name and I don’t answer,” she said. “He looks at the chart and says ‘Mrs. Snyder?’ and I say, ‘no, she ‘ain’t here’. He laughs and says ‘yeah right, OK c’mon’”.

Dr. Bodurtha was in charge of the procedure. He took out one lymph node. It was positive for cancer.

“I just fell apart,” Snyder said. “Because it meant an additional surgery and it meant chemo and radiation. I don’t know if I was prepared, I didn’t know what to think. I watched my husband go through chemo, and if there was any side effect to be had, he had it.”

Snyder took a week off work, but after that decided her worst enemy was to stay at home. She needed to keep busy.

Her next surgery was scheduled in June. The surgeon took out 16 more lymph nodes. A surgical drain was put in and Snyder was told to rest but she went right back to work.

Snyder started to do some research about her cancer but eventually found it did more harm than good.

“One of the things I would tell women is that even if they are called back for an ultrasound after a mammogram, don’t put the cart before the horse.” Snyder said. “Do not at any circumstances go on the web. It is the worst place to go.”

Often websites will have conflicting diagnoses of what stage of cancer you are at, said Snyder.

“It’s like hieroglyphics,” she said. “You are going into a realm that you have no idea about. They will tell you that you’ve got one foot in the grave.”

The next step for Snyder was chemotherapy. She required eight treatments. Her husband accompanied her to all of them.

“When you walk into the cancer centre, it’s one of the most unnerving things you will ever see.” Snyder said. “Every bed, every chair has an occupant. The first thing I said to my husband was: this is God’s equalizer. It doesn’t matter what race or religion you are, it affects everybody. That’s an eye opener.”

The first four sessions were an hour and a half. The final four were four and a half hours.

“They were really long,” Snyder said, when referring to the final sessions. “Before I got a chair and now I get a bed. You’ve been upgraded, your accommodations have changed.”

Before long, Snyder began to see her hair fall out. She decided to shave her head and wear scarves.

“Every hair on my body was gone, but it grows back,” Snyder said. “You stop looking in the mirror. You do it so you can get your scarf on right.”

With much surprise to Snyder, she didn’t have any side effects from the chemotherapy other than hair loss.

“I don’t like to tell people this,” she said. “To be quite honest, I breezed through it. That’s why I chose not to be a mentor to people because I can’t really tell you the bad side of it. For me, a lot of it had to do with attitude.”

Snyder admitted that it was much easier for her than it was for others she knew, but she emphasized that a positive attitude was essential.

The next step for Snyder was radiation. She required 25 sessions. Her husband was by her side again, attending all of the sessions.

“What I would do is close my eyes and (pretend) I was somewhere else,” Snyder said. I read an article about a woman who would pretend she was out with her husband on the town.”

Snyder made it through chemotherapy and radiation. It has been just over a year and a half since she was diagnosed.

“Women have to understand that getting breast cancer is not a death sentence,” said Snyder. “You cannot let it become all consuming. When you find out you have breast cancer you have to look at all the options. If you have a support team around you it makes the whole thing a little more bearable.”

She emphasized that her husband’s support was what helped her get through it. She believes the best thing is to keep busy and try to work if you can. She said she would have gone mad if she just stayed at home dwelling about it.

It didn’t faze Snyder very much that she lost her breast. Her husband wasn’t concerned either. He was worried about losing her.

“I never believed that I had it in me,” said Snyder. “You find that inner strength. You find something in you that lets you cope. You have two choices; you can either roll over and die, or you can fight.”

meghan.graham@nepeanthisweek.com