Ellen Perkins is a 34-year Georgia law enforcement veteran. Following her storied career, she found her most challenging role in life in a much different arena — her fight against breast cancer.
Originally from Chicago, Ellen and her family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, when she was 14. She finished high school there and one year of college. Her mother’s job transferred to Atlanta. This led Ellen to the University of West Georgia to finish her degree.
Inspired by her father, who is from Mexico City, Ellen initially wanted to be a high school Spanish teacher. She went to the Universidad Ibero-Americana and lived with her Mexican side of the family for one year in Mexico. However, her true calling took her in a different direction.
“I first started working in law enforcement at West Georgia College. That led me to my work as an investigator and ultimately to the District Attorney’s Office. It was a very rewarding career, and I loved the people I worked with, including the attorneys that worked in the Office and many law enforcement agents,” said Ellen.
Ellen retired in 2011 and believes that she made the right choice in her career. She and her husband, Cliff, love to spend their days traveling and being with family. Cliff is a retired lawyer, also well-known in the community. They love to spend time at their lake house near Bremen, fishing, canoeing and playing with their dogs.
Religious about her annual mammograms, Ellen had no idea that anything would be different in the screening in August 2022.
“I would check myself occasionally as well as having yearly mammograms,” Ellen said. “My gynecologist also checked during my annual visits and there was never any indication that anything was amiss. He was the one who scheduled my mammogram for that year. I remember when I went for the test that the radiologist told me that the Tanner MyChart app should have my results more quickly than in the past and to check it later that day to see. When I left, there was just something about that statement that made a red flag go up for me.”
Later that day, she noticed a note in the app that said she needed to make a follow-up appointment for another mammogram.
“I have very dense breast tissue and sometimes it can be difficult to find things when that’s the case,” Ellen said. “If they see something that may be suspicious, you may need to go back for another mammogram and ultrasound just to make sure. After my ultrasound, they told me that they found something suspicious.”
Ellen was referred to renowned breast cancer specialist, Raul Zunzunegui, MD — or “Dr. Z” to his patients.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather at the thought of having a possible malignant tumor,” Ellen said. “I was 71 and never had any problems. I was just paralyzed with fear at that moment. I was scared and did not know what to expect.”
After a biopsy on Sept. 26, it was confirmed that Ellen had an invasive carcinoma known as lobular carcinoma in situ (ILC). In early November, Dr. Z performed a sentinel node biopsy to see if the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes.
“Thankfully, it had not,” Ellen said. “I had stage 1 breast cancer. Dr. Z was very thorough. He did an MRI of both breasts which found that I had additional smaller spots near the main tumor. He needed to know more about those spots before we could decide whether to do a mastectomy or a lumpectomy.”
An MRI biopsy revealed that spots in the breast near the larger known cancer were also malignant.
“That meant that my only option was a mastectomy,” Ellen said. “It’s important to remember that neither my gynecologist nor Dr. Z were able to feel any of these lumps with a manual exam. That’s why mammography is so important. Women need to know that they don’t have to feel anything to have breast cancer. My tumors were located toward the back of my breast. That, coupled with the dense breast tissue, made them difficult to find. If it wasn’t for the mammograms and the doctors being so thorough it could have been much worse had it been found later.”
Dr. Z also told Ellen that the radiologist was key in finding her breast cancer.
“We are so blessed to have dedicated local doctors who are excellent at what they do,” Ellen said.
Ellen began chemotherapy treatments in November 2022, and they lasted until February 2023. She had treatments every two weeks. Once the treatments were complete, she had her mastectomy in March. In April, she began taking hormone blockers to help block estrogen which feeds cancer. She will continue those blockers for five years.
“I would have thought the surgery would come first and then chemotherapy, but that’s not the case for everyone,” Ellen said. “After chemo, my tumors were totally gone. It destroyed the cancer and there was still nothing in my lymph nodes. I still had the mastectomy to prevent the cancer from recurring. I didn’t mind that — I wanted to make sure the cancer was gone with no chance of it coming back or spreading.”
For some women, the thought of a mastectomy is disturbing, but Ellen did not hesitate.
“We did talk about reconstruction, but it was my husband who said no to that before I did,” Ellen said. “He told me, ‘I just want you healthy and I want the cancer gone.’ I felt the same way. We just wanted to go on with our
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lives and be past this chapter. I understand younger women looking at reconstruction options, but for me, I’m in my 70s and it just wasn’t important to us.
“I was just glad the cancer would be gone and I could feel good again.”
Ellen is extremely grateful for her doctors, Dr. Z and medical oncologist Bradley Larson, MD, with Northwest Georgia Oncology Centers.
“I don’t even know where to begin about Dr. Z,” Ellen said. “From the minute you meet him, you like him. You can tell he is very competent. He’s caring and takes time to explain everything in detail. He even takes time to call and send you detailed messages on the Tanner MyChart website with explanations of test results so that you have a full understanding.”
This meant so much to her and her husband. A lot of the fear is the not knowing, and Ellen had plenty of questions. But her care team made sure she fully understood the cancer and the treatment.
Dr. Larson also gets high praise from Perkins.
“He’s been doing this a long time and he explained things to me step-by-step,” Ellen said. “Melissa Walker, Dr. Larson’s nurse practitioner, was a comforting source for me to fill in the details of my treatment plan and its side effects, with how they can help with them. It was also very overwhelming at first but with her assistance I was kept well informed.”
What kept Ellen strong throughout her journey was her faith.
“When you face something like this, you don’t know where it’s going to lead you,” Ellen said. “I knew in my heart God had a plan for me. This must have happened for a reason and it would turn out for good no matter what.”
Ellen also felt the love from her friends and family, who checked in often and kept her in their prayers. A couple of her friends have been through breast cancer themselves who brought care packages of items they knew she would need.
“I was given blankets and throws because they knew it got cold in the treatment center,” Ellen said. “They sent me peppermints and ginger to help with nausea and a diary to help me keep track of medications, side effects, treatments and doctors’ appointments. One special friend even gave me a nightcap for my head. You wouldn’t believe how cold your head and ears get at night after you lose your hair. These were things that that only other cancer patients would know you need. I also must mention the women at Shiloh Baptist Church who make toboggans for cancer patients for free. I wore those toboggans every day for months.”
Ellen said she is eternally grateful to her mother-in-law, Margaret Perkins, who gave her a copy of the last issue of Purposefully Pink shortly after Ellen was diagnosed.
“I was so inspired by all the articles,” Ellen said. “I hung on every word I read. I was just in the beginning stages not knowing what was going to happen. Seeing the stories of these strong women helped me so much and I want to do the same for others facing this challenge. It was validating for me to see that other women had the same fears and concerns that I was having. Their positive remarks about the doctors were encouraging. It was reassuring that I was in good hands and to hear about it from those who had gone before me.”
Ellen was approached by Tanner Cancer Care’s nurse navigator, Nicolle Rooks, RN, about participating in Purposefully Pink and was undecided at first.
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to do it,” Ellen said. “I needed to share my experience so that it might help someone like it helped me. It’s important for women who have breast cancer to know they are not alone.”