Garret principal discusses her battle with cancer

For the past six months, Garrett Junior High Principal Melanie Teemant has been battling breast cancer. And while she’s winning, she realizes she still has a ways to go.

Following a routine mammogram in March, Teemant said doctors found a mass and had her soon begin chemotherapy in May, just before this past school year ended. By then it had increased in size to stage III.

“I don’t have any genetic predisposition and I had no symptoms,” she said. “That’s why the annual mammogram is so important because you wouldn’t necessarily have any symptoms that would make you wonder about it or not.

“It was a shock. I realize that just because you do all the right things in life that it doesn’t mean you’re not going to have challenges.”

A week after finding the mass, she was sent to an oncologist who confirmed that it was, indeed, cancer.

“Your immediate thought is how bad is it?” she said. “In the beginning it was hard for me to even say the word cancer. It was tough to tell my family, especially my four adult kids. They had a lot of questions that I couldn’t answer at that time. My initial thought was that this could be life-ending. But I’ve known a lot of women who have had breast cancer and luckily survived.”

The National Breast Cancer Foundation states that one in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, including approximately 382,000 this year. However, it also states that advances in early detection and treatment methods have significantly increased breast cancer survival rates in recent years, and there are currently more than four million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

As for the chemotherapy, Teemant, 64, said she had good days and bad. And if she had a bad one, she would take it off from school. And because of that, she knew her diagnosis was something she had to share with her staff.

“I told them right before I started chemo because I wasn’t sure of the outcome,” she said. “They have all been extraordinarily supportive. They didn’t see me go through most of it (chemotherapy) because summer came and my last treatment was a week after school started again. They’ve all be helping in any way they can and are always asking how I’m doing.”

Once word spread this school year of Teemant’s battle, Boulder City High School teamed up with Garrett to help raise money for the Cure 4 the Kids Foundation in honor of Teemant. In all, $3,167 was raised. An oversized check was presented during a recent BCHS volleyball match in which players all wore pink in honor of October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Six months have passed since receiving her diagnosis. Teemant has completed her six chemotherapy treatments, and is now in the phase referred to as “maintenance therapy.” Cancer.gov states that this is given to help keep cancer from coming back after it has disappeared following the initial therapy. It may include treatment with drugs, vaccines, or antibodies that kill cancer cells, and it may be given for a long time. In Teemant’s case, she gets a shot every three weeks with the goal of rebuilding her immune system.

Doctors have said the mass is now one-third its original size. However, they have since found some lesions on her liver that doctors are also addressing. She may need to visit a liver specialist in California, if deemed necessary, for a histotripsy. Teemant said it’s a treatment that uses ultrasound waves to attack the live tumors. Because of her success with the chemo, her doctor feels she’s a good candidate for histotripsy, which is an alternative to surgery.

“My doctor is very pleased with how I responded to the chemo treatments,” she said. “That’s why she’s comfortable is delaying any type of mastectomy or lumpectomy in order to deal with the liver first.”

While she’s remained positive throughout her entire cancer fight, Teemant admitted that it hasn’t always been easy.

“I’ve definitely had my moments,” she said in regard to thinking about her own mortality. “I updated my trust and things like that. That’s the practical side of me who puts things in place so that people don’t have deal with anything. But my doctors have never told me I need to put my affairs in order, which is very comforting.

“But on those days where I didn’t feel so great, it wasn’t always easy to stay positive. I met people who have been on chemo for two years. So, you count your blessings where you get them and that carries you. This has given me a greater appreciation of the time I have with family and others. Making time for those small moments, and the people in your life, are what’s most important.”

As an educator for the past 29 years, eight of which have been at Garrett, Teemant continues to teach as she wishes to get the word out about the need to have mammograms and regular check-ups.

“For many, including myself, cancer is a very personal thing and you almost want to keep it to yourself,” she said. “But at the same time, it’s also hard to ignore. But by sharing it, you control the narrative. It also took me time getting used to telling people without crying. Then you realize how important it is to share your story. Now, I’m happy to talk about my experience with everyone.”