Great News for Danielle Wiggins: No Chemo!
- The hairdresser for Danielle Wiggins, the beloved Cleveland, Ohio-based television news anchor fighting breast cancer, isn't going to need to make her that wig anymore!
- Wiggins shared with her fans that her doctors say that "test results show no need for chemotherapy in my breast cancer treatment plan and I was cleared to slowly return to my normal life."
- It seems her hairdresser was making Wiggins a wig in preparation for losing her hair during chemotherapy (because hair loss is a common side effect.) However, since Wiggins won’t have to go through chemotherapy, there’s no need for a the wig!
In a Sunday morning Facebook post, Wiggins, 40, shared with her fans that her doctors say that "test results show no need for chemotherapy in my breast cancer treatment plan and I was cleared to slowly return to my normal life."
Read MoreIt seems that Wiggins’ hairdresser was making her a wig in preparation for losing her hair during chemotherapy treatment (because hair loss is a common side effect of chemotherapy.) However, since Wiggins won’t have to go through chemotherapy, there’s no need for a the wig.
Congratulations, Danielle!
Danielle Wiggins' Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Wiggins revealed in March that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She said her journey began at the end of last year, when she turned 40 years old. The Cleveland Clinic sent her an email to schedule a mammogram (the process of using low-energy X-rays to examine the breast for cancer diagnosis and screening).
She scheduled the appointment for December, but in November, she touched her breast tissue and felt something that didn't feel right. "Something feels off with this," she remembered thinking.
Once she had the mammogram, the results came back abnormal, so she was scheduled for a diagnostic mammogram. The procedure showed a small lump the same one Wiggins had felt months prior. She went in for a biopsy two weeks later, which confirmed her worst fear: she had breast cancer.
Wiggins asked her doctor if there was something she did wrong to cause this unfortunate diagnosis, but the doctor said: "Sometimes it's just bad luck."
"She said I had the most common form, but she said, 'But you're 40.' I started crying. I just learned that nationally the guideline is 50 years old to get a mammogram. If I would not have gotten a mammogram until I was 50, I would not have made it until I was 50 years old," Wiggins said.
"I don't know how I feel sometimes," she added. "It's just moment by moment. In this moment, I feel great. Maybe in five more minutes it will be like, 'Oh my gosh, I cannot believe I have cancer. I am only 40 years old.'"
"I want life. I want people who bring life around me. On the morning show, it has been a great distraction. You'll hear me in the background laughing, but it helps because it brings life."
Last month, she disclosed that she had surgery for her breast cancer and it "went well."
"My medical team at the Cleveland Clinic was able to extract the known cancer through surgery. I was recently informed the cancer was caught in the early stages," she said in an April 5 Facebook post.
The Importance of Getting a Mammogram
Dr. Connie Lehman, director of the breast imaging clinic at Mass General Hospital in Boston, previously SurvivorNet that it’s very important for women to get a mammogram every year, especially if you haven't yet gone through menopause.
When Should I Get a Mammogram?
"We know that cancers grow more rapidly in our younger patients, and having that annual mammogram can be lifesaving," Dr. Lehman said of the importance of getting a mammogram to diagnose breast cancer. "After menopause, it may be perfectly acceptable to reduce that frequency to every two years."
"But what I'm most concerned about is the women who haven't been in for a mammogram for two, three, or four years, those women that have never had a mammogram," she added. "We all agree regular screening mammography saves lives."
"I want to be completely clear: If you are between 50 and 74 and you have not had a mammogram in the last two years, you are overdue. Please get a mammogram."
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