Tanner News

“Tanner is a small town,” laughed Jacqueline Dost, director of solid waste for the Carroll County Board of Commissioners.

At church, she sees Brad Larson, MD, an oncologist at Northwest Georgia Oncology Centers; she bumps into Tanner radiation oncologist Anil Dhople, MD, at Sunset Hills Country Club; and she knows well the fellowship-trained breast specialist Raul Zunzunegui, MD — “Dr. Z” — since he cared for her best friend, Maryanne Ives.

So, when Dost was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year, she leaned on her community, which included these physicians at Tanner, other Tanner staff and her friends and family in Carrollton and beyond. 

That’s a benefit of living in a small town: “They truly care,” said Dost.

Dost came to Carrollton 20 years ago because of her husband Klaus’ job. Thirteen years ago, Klaus passed away within a span of just nine months due to an aggressive form of colon cancer, leaving behind Dost and their two teenage sons. 

“Because of that, I have always been hyper-vigilant about my own testing,” said Dost. “I want to preserve my own health and for my two amazing sons. My goal is to live a long life for them.”

Through her regular mammograms, Dost knew there was a spot on her right breast that the team at Tanner Breast Health wanted to continue watching. She wasn’t particularly worried when her mammographer asked her to come back for an ultrasound on that area at the end of December after a recent screening mammogram. 

Dost even asked if it could wait until she returned from vacation.

Dost had the follow-up ultrasound on Jan. 4. Then she got a call from Dr. Z. 

“He was looking at it as well as radiology,” said Dost. “He said, ‘we may need to do a little bit of a needle biopsy.’”

Again, she wasn’t too concerned. The needle biopsy — which uses a needle to obtain a small sample of cells for lab testing — was Dost’s first. It wasn’t pain-free, but it was minimally invasive and as comfortable as the team could make it. 

“Dr. Z is the consummate professional,” she said. 

Knowing Dr. Z as she did during her friend’s cancer journey, Dost knew he would be reassuring but would also tell her exactly what was going on — if something was going on. She remembered that the call came on a Friday afternoon — “he called personally” — and it was cancer. 

With her husband and best friend both dying from the disease, “the initial word — cancer — was shocking and disturbing,” said Dost. “I’m only 60 years old. I ran a half-marathon last year and am in decently good shape. I was joking up until that point with my kids that God can’t have that bad a sense of humor to do that to my children, for both parents to have a fatal cancer diagnosis.” 

Dr. Z recognized that fear. 

“Even though he was using the word ‘cancer,’ he was very reassuring that this was a very treatable condition,” said Dost. 

The spot was relatively small, with a low risk of spreading. 

Dost would need a lumpectomy to remove the cancer and a surrounding margin, followed by radiation. Her cancer — a lobular carcinoma tumor — was also estrogen- and progesterone-positive. 

“There’s no good cancer,” said Dr. Z, “but if you have to have cancer, it’s a good kind of cancer to have.” 

Then there’s the community aspect again. 

“An experience like this can be very stressful and anxiety-inducing,” she said. “And because of the way Tanner’s professionals work together, a lot of that anxiety and stress was relieved for me.

And communication and care coordination were also key in Dost’s care.

“I knew this is the next step and so on,” she said. “I knew that Dr. Dhople and Dr. Larson were talking to each other, and I knew that Dr. Z and Dr. Dhople were talking to each other — not just the communication with me as the patient but also with them as a team coordinating my care. And every single nurse, every receptionist, every navigator, everybody was professional, kind and patient. Everybody answered my questions. The things that were important to me were important to them.” 

Dost’s lumpectomy took place on Feb. 24. She had a minor setback with fluid building up in the cavity where the lumpectomy removed the cancer, but ten days of antibiotics solved that.

Dost would next undergo radiation, then go on an estrogen blocker for the next five years to reduce the chance of cancer reoccurrence.

Her oncologist, Dr. Larson — a friend who also sat down with her children to tell them when their father was diagnosed with cancer — explained all her medication options.

“There are potential side effects, so I really appreciated him being very thorough and explaining those to me,” she said. “I’m not an internet junkie who goes through and looks up everything online — I don’t want to scare myself. He was very straightforward with the fact that I could try this first inhibitor — which is the frontline and what is recommended — but that if I developed side effects after a couple of weeks, I could go down the list since there are multiple options.”

On March 29, Dost began the first of 20 radiation treatments — Monday to Friday over four weeks — radiating the entire breast for the first three weeks, then targeting the tumor area the last week.

Dost has traveled the world but has yet to make a big trip since COVID-19. During her treatments, she said, “While on the table, I would meditate on some cool place to go.”

It became a running joke with her radiation therapy nurses: “Where are you going today?”

Then came what Dost describes as a “glorious day”— her last official day of radiation therapy.