From Doubt to Diagnosis: A Story of Gratitude

Dr. Chris­t­ian Zwick and Glen­da Lewis, LPN, both in Vas­cu­lar Surgery, are the recip­i­ents of Quin­cy Med­ical Group’s Unpar­al­leled Care Award. They were nom­i­nat­ed by their patient, There­sa Mast, who shared her jour­ney when a rou­tine mam­mo­gram result­ed in a breast can­cer diagnosis.

“I need to begin my sto­ry with an apol­o­gy to Dr. Zwick and Glen­da. ​‘Sor­ry that I didn’t trust you,” Mast shared.

She con­tin­ues, ​“In August of 2018, a rou­tine mam­mo­gram showed that I had some­thing sus­pi­cious on my right breast. Dr. Zwick, assist­ed by Glen­da, per­formed a biop­sy, the result was a benign mass. Phew! Dr. Zwick told me to come back in six months for a fol­low-up. I heard ​‘no can­cer, have a nice day!’ Need­less to say, I was scared, not very knowl­edge­able, and defi­ant. After that, my year­ly mam­mo­grams revealed the same mass and I would get a call back which I refused to acknowl­edge because it wasn’t cancer.

“In late 2021, I took the time to set up my patient por­tal and as I read over my past test results and googled the med­ical terms, I dis­cov­ered that not only was the mass still there but that I have dense breast, a pre­cur­sor to breast can­cer. In 2022, I went for my screen­ing and the tech­ni­cians again found the mass on the right side. Dr. Zwick and Glen­da con­firmed that the mass was can­cer and explained my options. As he was talk­ing, he decid­ed to check my left breast and found anoth­er lump, which result­ed in the dis­cov­ery of a Lob­u­lar tumor, a very obscure sneaky car­ci­no­ma, almost invis­i­ble in dense breasts. In ear­ly Decem­ber 2022, I had a bilat­er­al mas­tec­to­my, per­formed by Dr. Zwick. He saved me from what could have been a very life-chang­ing outcome.

“Fast for­ward to this past May, I mes­saged Dr. Zwick’s office regard­ing some cos­met­ic con­cerns with rem­nants of my mas­tec­to­my and oth­er issues, but I didn’t know who to turn to. Glen­da called me in for a con­sul­ta­tion with Dr. Zwick. Dur­ing my vis­it, she asked me what else I need­ed; she is such a good lis­ten­er. When I left that day, I had a surgery date, labs ordered, a refer­ral to an oncol­o­gist, a nurse nav­i­ga­tor, and a refer­ral to a gynecologist.

“I have such a huge debt of grat­i­tude to both Dr. Zwick and Glen­da. First, for catch­ing my breast can­cer ear­ly and sav­ing me from a dis­as­trous prog­no­sis phys­i­cal­ly and then sec­ond­ly, for emo­tion­al and men­tal sup­port by tak­ing the time to guide me in the right direc­tion for my best care.

“This was indeed a divine inter­ven­tion, ask­ing the right peo­ple the right ques­tions to get the right answers for over­all pos­i­tive heal­ing results. There is peace when you have a plan.

Bless you, Dr. Zwick and Nurse Glenda!”