Business owner’s remarkable journey of triumph over breast cancer | Magazine

Geronimo resident and business owner Tammy Harborth’s world changed when she heard the fateful words, “You have breast cancer.”

The wife and mom of three fell to her knees when her doctor told her she had invasive ductal carcinoma in August 2022, but quickly collected herself and began working out her battle plan. Now, a year after a double mastectomy, she’s an advocate for preventative measures, early detection, self awareness and self advocacy.

“After getting a cancer diagnosis — I don’t even like saying that word anymore because it is not going to beat me — I took control of my body, this whole situation,” she said. “Getting that diagnosis was the worst day of my life.”

Each year, Harborth schedules an appointment to get a mammogram and pap smear, which, for her, typically comes back normal. However, that changed in 2022 and the imagining showed an abnormality in one of her breasts, prompting Harborth to get a biopsy.

The two weeks of waiting for results were sheer torture, Harborth said.

“I was on pins and needles for two weeks,” she said. “That Monday morning, every time my phone rang, I thought it was him. Monday morning, 8 o’clock, he said, ‘Tammy, you have invasive ductal carcinoma.’”

After reeling from the initial shock, Harborth set to work seeking the best doctor and then contacted longtime friend Jodi Koenig for advice.

“Her best advice was to stay off the internet and, ‘You leave that all up to me. We’re going to get through this,’” Harborth recalled.

Harborth contacted Dr. Judith Thompson in New Braunfels, but the earliest appointment was two weeks out. However, pleading with the doctor’s office got Harborth an appointment to see Thompson that Thursday.

After looking at the images, Thompson started to give Harborth her options, but only one treatment set in her mind.

“When I had my first appointment with Dr. Thompson, she came back and said it was little bitty, we could do a lumpectomy,” she said. “I said, stop right there. I said, I want a double mastectomy. I don’t want to have to worry about this again. I don’t ever want to deal with this again.”

The next three weeks were the longest in Harborth’s life.

“During that whole month, having that word invasive, I don’t know where it is at, if it is stage 1, stage 4, how aggressive, didn’t know if I was dying and trying to be strong in front of my family and my team,” she said. “Until you go through surgery and find out the diagnosis, you just go crazy. You don’t know what to do.”

On Aug. 30, 2022, Harborth underwent an almost eight-hour surgery to remove both breasts and have expanders set in their place until she could have plastic surgery to replace some of what she was losing.

Harborth was able to keep her nipples until the test results came back showing the cancer was stage 1, but the margins were close to her nipples.

“I said take them off, I don’t want any part of that C word in any part of my body,” she said.

Ten days later, she was back in the hospital for the second surgery. Among the many tests medical professionals conducted, Harborth had them run a BRCA gene test to ensure she was not a carrier of the gene that increases her children’s likelihood of developing cancer. It came back negative.

“Thank God, I was negative. They don’t have to worry about that,” she said. “They still have to do their annual check ups, but I don’t have the gene that carries it.”

They also removed and tested one of Harborth’s lymph nodes to ensure the carcinoma hadn’t spread there and that came back clean as well, she said.

“Hallelujah, I didn’t have to do chemo, I didn’t have to do radiation,” she said. “Yes, I am very lucky.”

Recovery wasn’t easy for Harborth, who said she’s had three cesarian sections.

In the midst of her diagnosis, surgery and recovery, Harborth’s eldest daughter, Tatum, was starting her senior year at Navarro High School. So, as a mother, she did everything she could to ensure her ordeal did not overshadow her daughter’s year.

“I missed two volleyball games,” she said. “When I was finally able to go, I had the tubes in, I sat on the opposite side of everybody because I didn’t want to get hit.”

The night of Tammy’s surgery, Navarro’s volleyball team — on which Tatum and Teagan Harborth were members — played a non-conference game against Steele High School, where longtime friend Jana Cervantes is the principal. The Lady Knights recognized the sisters in support of their mother’s battle with a large banner and a care basket.

“They gave the girls a big ol’ basket and started crying,” Tammy said. “They (the girls, my husband Darrell, and my son Dax) were scared and this group of girls embraced them.”

Similar and other acts of kindness helped carry the Harborth family through, Tammy said.

“I have so many awesome friends and family that cooked for my family for two months because I couldn’t,” she said. “They helped me with my children. They helped me with this place (the Grain Bin). And that’s what got me through it, having wonderful friends and family and, of course, my kids and my husband.”

Tammy is thankful for her two doctors — Thompson and plastic surgeon Regina Fearmonti.

“My two doctors saved my life. They are feisty women,” she said. “You don’t have to go to the big cities to get quality care. Excellent care is right here in our own backyard.”

Since her first two surgeries and her subsequent implant surgery several months later, Tammy urges others — especially women — to take preventative measures.

“How I deal with it, I’ve become an advocate,” she said. “People don’t talk about it. One of the ways I deal with it with all of my women friends, I show them. My kids are old enough to understand what is going on. I have two daughters and when their friends come over, I show them. Because this is real life. You have to be aware of your body. You get a knot on your leg, a sore here or there or anywhere on your body, you be aware and you get it checked out. It could be too late.”

Across Tammy’s chest are scars that show the various cuts on her breasts and chests from all of the surgeries, but she doesn’t see them as just reminders of what she faced.

“I’m scarred for life,” she said. “They’re my warrior scars. They’re my survivor scars. The way I deal with it, I show my boobs to everybody. I’m proud of them. I’m alive.”

Emotions still flood her when she thinks of the things she could have missed with her family, how much her life changed and how precious life is. But she doesn’t dwell on any of it. With the help of her family, friends and community, Tammy continues to smile and laugh through the hard times.

“Yes, I kept a smile on my face. Sure I was scared. I was scared to death. I cried and I cried a lot,” she said. “I chose to do the flip side and not cry about it, smile and handle it. I couldn’t sit back in the corner crying about it because there ain’t nobody that can fix it except for you. I have a different outlook on life. Things don’t bother me because I’ve been through hell and back. It has been a tough year.”

And while Tammy is now among the 1 in 4 who have received a breast cancer diagnosis, she sees herself as more than a statistic.

“Looking at myself in the mirror, I’m happy because I’m alive,” she said. “I’m sad because I’m the same Tammy, but I’m a different Tammy. I’m a survivor, a warrior. I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”