It is a date Tara Cook will never forget. On July 29, 2022, the 51-year-old Conway resident learned she had breast cancer.

Cook had completed her annual mammogram in January 2022 and received the all-clear. However, during her monthly self-breast exam in April, she noticed something unusual.

“This was a hard knot that wasn’t sore,” says Cook. “It didn’t hurt or anything, so I called and made an appointment at Tidelands Health Breast Center for the week after school got out because I’m a schoolteacher.”

Tidelands Health Breast Center is part of the Tidelands Health Cancer Care Network, the region’s most advanced provider of cancer care and a member of the MUSC Hollings Cancer Network.

Over the years, Cook was accustomed to feeling some cysts during her self-exams, but this lump felt different.

All women ages 20 and older should conduct regular monthly breast exams.

According to the American Breast Cancer Foundation, cysts can develop in women of any age, though they more commonly occur in women under age 50, particularly before menopause.

“When I first felt the knot, I was confused because I just had a mammogram and thought that this was probably another cyst, and it wasn’t anything,” says Cook. “But I did feel that with all of the problems I have had with my breasts, they needed to be looked at.”

In that moment of discovery, Cook felt a mix of emotions—worry, fear, optimism and uncertainty. Her fears were later confirmed when she was diagnosed with a fast-growing stage 3 invasive ductal carcinoma, which accounts for about 80 percent of all breast cancer cases in women.

Tidelands Health breast surgeon Dr. Angela Mislowsky, Cook’s surgeon, says her cancer was HER-2 Positive, which is a faster-growing subtype of cancer.

“With this type of cancer, our first course of treatment is usually chemotherapy, not surgery,” says Dr. Mislowsky. “It allows us to watch how the cancer responds to chemotherapy. If we do surgery first and then chemotherapy, we don’t necessarily know if the cancer is responding to it. If the cancer continues to grow during treatment, we know we can stop and go right to surgery.”

Once the diagnosis was confirmed, Cook said knowing exactly what it was and the plan to beat it helped her move forward. This plan included three months of chemotherapy, double mastectomies and six weeks of radiation.

“Tara responded well to chemotherapy and given the advanced stage of her cancer at diagnosis, we knew radiation would be necessary,” says Dr. Mislowsky. “She chose to have double mastectomies, so we performed the cancer mastectomy first before starting radiation and completed the other mastectomy after her radiation treatments.”

Radiation is typically done after surgery because it helps prevent the cancer from returning. According to Dr. Mislowsky, the X-rays target the cancer’s DNA, preventing cells from dividing and causing them to die.

Cook says she couldn’t have navigated this journey without the support of her husband and her care team at Tidelands Health.

“I love my doctors at Tidelands Health,” says Cook. “Any questions I had, they explained in detail, and they gave me so much encouragement. They’re just caring and amazing people that really want to help and be there for us.”

More than two years after her diagnosis, Cook remains in remission and is moving forward, including getting breast reconstructive surgery. Through this journey, she has gained a renewed perspective on life.

“I have learned that I am strong, that I’m capable, that I can do anything,” says Cook. “Life is short, and we should celebrate the small things and the large things and just be happy.”