ATLANTA — Suzette Bryan's life changed forever 14 years ago. She had just recently started doing breast self-examinations in the shower, when she came across what seemed like a lump on her left breast that was not there before.
"I noticed something under my arm and I thought, 'Oh my goodness.' I went back again and said, 'Something is here.' I went to my doctor, he looked at it, and he said you need to go get an ultrasound," she recalled.
After that ultrasound, her doctor told her she'd have to return in six months. But that seemed so far away for what she was going through. So she trusted her instincts and asked for a biopsy and MRI.
"I'm so happy I did," she said.
The biopsy found that Bryan had breast cancer. That phone call is one she'll never forget.
"I was walking in the neighborhood and I sat down at the sidewalk and everything stopped," she described. "It was my doctor telling me that it was cancer. Everything stopped for a minute."
She took a class at Northside Hospital that helped educate her on her options. For about a month, she would get up in the mornings and gain as much information she could.
"[It was] to make an educated choice on my surgery, if I was going to have chemo or radiation, all of those questions along the path," she said.
So she decided to get a mastectomy, which according to Brigham and Women's Hospital, more than 100,000 women each year decide to do. She opted for the double mastectomy.
"Having this one time is about a thousand too many," she said. "I don't want it to come back. So I had a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, then we did four doses of chemo and 33 doses of radiation."
Her journey receiving treatments was about a year-and-a-half, but it is something she'll carry with her forever.
In fact, while on the hospital bed, she started sketching out a product that she realized women who were in her same situation needed.
"After surgery I had four drains coming out of my body under my arms," she said. "Those are necessary because they need to pull out the fluids so it doesn’t collect in your lungs. It was very difficult to try to take a shower. I had to put the bulbs up on the shower ledge and try to maneuver around everything."
She had those drains in for nearly six weeks, and wondered why there wasn't a product that could take care of her drains so that she could shower hands-free, keep the drains dry, and offer compression at the same time.
With that, The Pink Pouch Shower Wrap came to life.
Here are the details of the creation, according to its Amazon site where it's sold:
- Drain management pouch for post-mastectomy or post-surgical women with breast cancer to freely take showers easily and safely
- Wrap around design closes securely in the front for comfort and wound protection in the shower - allows for major personal hygiene areas to be freely accessible to be washed, such as the underarm, full arm, upper chest and shoulders, neck, and upper back
- Made of water-resistant Neoprene, or "diving material," with soft insulated lining to protect against moisture
- Features two velcro flaps on each side for tubing security and three Pink Pouches on each side to accommodate up to six drains, which can be securely attached to the garment in a comfortable sewn Pink Pouches
"Had I not gone through the process I went through, had I not been a breast cancer survivor, I would not have been able to appreciate what is needed for those patients behind me," Bryan said. "So I would’ve never come up with this. Why would I come up with this product outside of where I was placed and what I needed and didn’t have."
Bryan says her product was patented in 2017 and has been in more than 2,000 homes. While it is currently sold out, they are working on restocking to help others going through the same situation she did 14 years ago.
She credits faith, family, and friends for being able to help her through her journey -- and credits mentors who "made it to the other side," for being able to offer her the hope she needed.
"I think there’s always hope, there’s always life after breast cancer and you have to look at the silver lining, you have to look at the opportunity in that challenge," she added.
The American Cancer Society's estimates for breast cancer in the United States for 2022 are:
- About 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women.
- About 51,400 new cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) will be diagnosed.
- About 43,250 women will die from breast cancer.
To learn more about The Pink Pouch, which is sold by the company Life In The Pink, click here.