HAGERSTOWN – It was the Wednesday before Memorial Day that Cheryl Luger went in for her second mammogram of the year.
The first one, before Mother’s Day, led staff at Meritus Center for Breast Health to ask Luger to come
back for another scan.
The results were conclusive: They found two masses. A biopsy the day after Memorial Day confirmed it
was breast cancer.
“I was pretty shocked because nobody in my family had had breast cancer,” said Luger, who is on leave
from Meritus Surgical Specialists where she is a scheduler.
She had a double mastectomy at the beginning of August. But to complicate things, her oldest daughter, who also works at Meritus, is getting married this fall and moving to Savannah, Ga.
Luger credits her experience with the Center for Breast Health, as well as the John R. Marsh Cancer
Center at Meritus, with making a scary and emotional situation more manageable.
“It’s been exceptional care from beginning to end,” she said.
She received the call from the Center for Breast Health at 8 a.m. the Wednesday after Memorial Day.
Ann-Marie Hugh, M.D., the medical director at the center and a specialist in breast surgery, said the
biopsy showed it was adenocarcinomas, a type of cancer that starts in the glands that line the organs.
“She bought into my case super quick,” Luger said.
By 9 a.m., she’d received a call from a nurse navigator at John R. Marsh to set up her first appointment.
That appointment included meeting all of the doctors who would be involved.
“That was a positive thing, meeting everyone at one time like that,” Luger said. “Everyone’s opinions
were shared, and we decided what was going to happen.”
As part of some of the tests prescribed by Dr. Hugh before the cancer center appointment, Luger had
testing done showing she had Lynch syndrome, which is a genetic condition that increases the risk of
many kinds of cancer.
It was decided that Luger should have a double mastectomy, and that reconstructive surgery by
Salvatore DiMercurio, M.D., a plastic surgeon with Meritus Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery in Hagerstown,
should start right away.
Victoria Giffi, M.D., Cheryl’s oncologist with Meritus Hematology & Oncology Specialists, said the goal is to take each case on its own terms.
“We do our best to treat each person individually, taking both recent medical evidence and their
personal preferences into account,” Dr. Giffi said. “I always tell my patients, ‘I treat people, not cancer,’
and I often remind myself that the person sitting in front of me, and where they are in their life, is more important than any lab test or scan that I order.”
The personal care was evident to Luger when she was speaking to Dr. DiMercurio about her
reconstructive surgery.
“He said, ‘I understand we have to have you ready by your daughter’s wedding,’” she recalled. “And it
struck me that he read the notes in my chart. He took the time to look at my case.”
Luger is using her experience to teach others the importance of seeing the doctor and getting a
mammogram regularly.
“I’ve been vocal with people about my story because I was so nonchalant about it,” she said. “I’m very
bad at taking care of myself. I went in for my yearly care with my female doctor, and she noted that I was five months late in getting my mammogram.
“It only takes a few minutes,” she said.
