{"id":24195,"date":"2020-05-12T19:03:48","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T19:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cmshub.wpengine.com\/?p=313910"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:16:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:16:48","slug":"breast-cancer-patient-fights-to-have-mastectomy-during-covid-19-restrictions-and-succeeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/breast-cancer-patient-fights-to-have-mastectomy-during-covid-19-restrictions-and-succeeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast Cancer Patient Fights To Have Mastectomy During COVID-19 Restrictions And Succeeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robin Roberson was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of this year. The diagnosis was stressful enough, but then the coronavirus pandemic put a wrench in her treatment plan.<\/span>Elective surgeries have been cancelled all over the U.S. due to the coronavirus, and this included Roberson\u2019s double mastectomy surgery that was slated for April 4th<\/a> at a hospital in Oklahoma City<\/a>.<\/span>It\u2019s alarming to think that cancer treatment is considered \u201celective\u201d in some cases, but, unfortunately, that\u2019s the case for many patients.<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: YouTube\/KJRH -TV | Tulsa | Channel 2<\/span>
\n<\/span>Roberson was diagnosed in late January with two different types of breast cancer. She also had a strong family history; she had lost<\/a> her maternal aunt and<\/em> her paternal grandmother to breast cancer, and with the disease on both sides of her family, she was worried about delaying treatment.<\/span>She had already delayed just a little so that she could be there for her son\u2019s wedding<\/a> in March. Waiting even longer was out of the question.<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: Instagram\/crowdcween<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span>So she did some research \u2014 and eventually she found the Cancer Treatment Center of America (CTCA)<\/a> in Tulsa. They were available and willing to do her double mastectomy.<\/span>\u201cWorking with a center like CTCA, they are focused completely on cancer,\u201d Roberson told KJRH<\/a>. \u201cSo, the covid crisis didn\u2019t really affect them as much.\u201d<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: YouTube\/KJRH -TV | Tulsa | Channel 2<\/span>Kevin Tulipana is the regional medical officer for CTCA Tulsa, and he reaffirmed that the center is still doing everything possible to be able to treat patients in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span>\u201cThere are very few cases that would be truly elective,\u201d Tulipana said<\/a>. \u201cCancer doesn\u2019t wait, cancer is not going to wait for COVID, it\u2019s not going to wait for anything else, so we have been doing what we can to get access to patients as much as possible.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: Instagram\/crowdcween<\/span>However, after finding the center, Roberson hit another snag: her insurance company refused to cover the treatment at CTCA. They actually almost made her go out of state to get the procedure done, but CTCA worked quickly and diligently with them to be able to treat her in Tulsa.<\/span>\u201cCTCA really spearheaded it along with my husband\u2019s company,\u201d Roberson said<\/a>. \u201cThey are self-insured so that helped because they had to really work together to almost fight the insurance company if you will.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>Roberson got her mastectomy scheduled as soon as possible. Just before she went in for surgery, her friends surprised her outside with special signs and uplifting music.<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: YouTube\/KJRH -TV | Tulsa | Channel 2<\/span>Now Roberson is sharing her story in the hopes that other patients will be advocates of their own health.<\/span>\u201cI want to encourage people to explore other options especially if they\u2019re living with a cancer diagnosis and are needing that life-saving surgery. Please look at a facility like CTCA \u2014 it is dedicated to that,\u201d Roberson said<\/a>.<\/span>Learn more in this video.<\/span>Proper BCS greatergood_ctg_abovevideo<\/span><\/span>Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robin Roberson was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of this year. The diagnosis was stressful enough, but then the coronavirus pandemic put a wrench in her treatment plan.Elective surgeries have been cancelled all over the U.S. due to the coronavirus, and this included Roberson\u2019s double mastectomy surgery that was slated for April 4th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44293,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24195\/revisions\/44293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}