At 32, Whitney Bing was living her best life. She was living in her hometown surrounded by family and thriving in her career as a lead technologist in Interventional Radiology at Candler Hospital. Her eldest daughter had just turned four years old and her youngest was approaching her first birthday. It was June 2022, and the Bing family was about to embark on a trip to Sea World when Whitney felt a lump in her left breast.
It was about the size of a nickel and felt as if it had a solid shape to it. Whitney didn’t panic because she’d felt a lump before, when she was 29. Her doctor had ordered a mammogram and it turned out fine; like nearly half of all women who have a mammogram. She had dense breast tissue, making it difficult to distinguish what could be tissue and what could be a tumor.
After she returned from vacation, Whitney reached out to her OB/GYN Dr. Aishawarya Sarkar, who then ordered a mammogram. In between, Whitney asked an ultrasound technician working on her floor about the lump.
“She looked at it, and she said I definitely needed to have someone look at it,” Whitney recalls.
Following her mammogram at Telfair Pavilion at St. Joseph’s/Candler, she was told that she needed two biopsies, which Dr. Sarkar immediately called in. Before going home, radiologist Dr. Jordan Dixon, who performed the mammogram and biopsies, came to Whitney and asked, “Do you want me to keep it straight?”
The young mother of two, with no history of breast cancer in her family, replied, “Just tell me whatever you think I need to know.”
Dr. Dixon told her there was definitely something there, but they’re sending it to pathology and should know in a couple of days, which Whitney describes as “a punch to the gut.”
Within a week, she got a second punch. Dr. Dixon called her at work to tell her she had stage 1 ductal carcinoma, which would later move to stage 2 after an MRI revealed multiple tumors. But it turns out that the things that shaped her best life, would be the same things that helped save it as she faced down this new reality.
“My PA and radiologist for the day, Dr. Robert Dunlap, were all there for me. My coworkers, too. I just cried, cried, cried,” Whitney recalls. She called her husband and her father to give them the news.
“Everybody was so supportive,” she says. “That makes such a difference.”
Things moved quickly from there. She was connected with oncologist Dr. Grant Lewis and breast surgeon Dr. Catherine Ronaghan at the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion, who asked if Whitney wanted to take “the fast track or the slow track.”
The fast track involved six rounds of chemotherapy every three weeks followed by a double mastectomy. The slow track would be electing to participate in clinical trials where Whitney would be less likely to lose her hair or to feel as sick, which Dr. Lewis said many women her age wanted to try.
“I don’t have time to play like that,” Whitney recalls thinking. “I need to be around to be the best mom to my kids.”
She requested that her team place her port, and Dr. Ronaghan, who also places ports, had no problem with that.
“I really trust my team and know how we do things there, and I preferred for them to do it,” Whitney says. “It was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I felt comfortable, and it was one less thing for me to worry about.”
Her team continued to provide support. She’d take the week off following chemo to recover then return for two weeks and repeat the cycle. And even though her husband suggested that she quit work during her treatment, Whitney didn’t want to.
“I felt like if I wanted to stop working then that might just be it,” she says. “I just didn’t want to give up any aspect of my life. So, I just slowed down.”
Whitney was pretty pragmatic about losing her hair and even had to console the friend who shaved her head, but the double mastectomy was harder to take. In addition to being out of work for six weeks, she couldn’t lift her children. She was also emotional for another reason, which still chokes her up just thinking about it.
“I knew it was what I needed to do, but as a woman, as a wife, raising two young girls, so many questions come up about how this is going to change life,” she says. “But my husband was very supportive. I was really worried about my oldest daughter and how she would perceive me, and she was fine. I don’t know why I’d even think like that—”
Whitney leaned into her family who rallied to support her. They sat for seven hours at the hospital while she underwent surgery. They took care of her children when she couldn’t give 100%.
“So many things happened that made me feel comforted,” she says.
Not one to make a fuss, Whitney didn’t invite friends and family to commemorate the end of her treatment with the tradition of ringing the bell at the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion. But when she went across the street to return to work, her coworkers had set up their own celebration, which included a special bell made just for her.
Today, Whitney has undergone reconstructive surgery and is cancer free. But she sees the experience as forever changing her for the better. Not only did she experience the loving support of her friends, family and coworkers, but she also feels as if she’s more understanding—more compassionate.
“At my work, we place ports just like I had, every day. We work with patients who have had bad diagnoses,” she says. “I tell people it’ll be OK and to stay positive. It’s made me want to be a better human for other people.”
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: 'It’s made me want to be a better human for other people:' Cancer survivor shares journey
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