Adrienne Newson

"I was over- whelmed. I was emotional. I didn't think there would be a tomorrow, really. I was that afraid."

Adrienne Newson was taking a shower one Monday morning when she felt a noticeable lump in her breast. Terrified, she immediately called her OB-GYN's office and made an appointment to see him the next day. He scheduled her a mammogram for that Thursday, and the results indeed showed a suspicious lump. Before she had left The Women's Center at CRMC, the radiologist there told her that she needed to have an ultrasound-guided biopsy.

Her head started spinning. That's when Nurse Navigator Erin Young stepped in.

"I think Erin called me about 10 minutes after I left the building," said Newson. "I was sitting in my car in the parking lot, shaking, and Erin then took over and said, 'Okay, I'm going to make an appointment for you to have a biopsy.' Shortly after, she called me back and said, 'Come tomorrow morning.'

Newson had her biopsy on Friday, and on the next Monday she was diagnosed with invasive ductile carcinoma — an aggressive form of breast cancer

"I can't describe the fear," said Newson. "It was gripping. I was overwhelmed. I was emotional. I didn't think there would be a tomorrow, really. I was that afraid.

Young came to Newson's house that night to help calm her fears, and the next morning she informed Newson that she had scheduled her for a 9 a.m. appointment with Dr. Scott Copeland of Middle Tennessee Surgical Specialists.

"Erin was there again — my guardian angel — and again, I was terrified. I was trembling. I was shaking in my seat," said Newson. "But he took my hand in his and he said, 'I know you've never had cancer before, and we're going to take care of you.' It was like he had literally lifted a weight from me. And so he explained the whole thing — what I had and what they were going to do and the differences between lumpectomy and mastectomy. We decided on a lumpectomy and scheduled the surgery."

Newson — who walks several miles each day — walked six miles with her girlfriends the day of the surgery, then she showered and went to Cookeville Regional for the procedure.

"There Erin was, again! She just appears at all the right times," said Newson. "As I got prepared for my surgery, I was shaking, and there they were, holding my hand."

In addition to the lumpectomy, Copeland performed a sentinel node biopsy to detect whether the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. When Newson awakened, her husband informed her that the test had come back negative and that her cancer had been completely removed.