Diane Helvie was born and raised in New Orleans. In the early 70s, she worked as a nurse at Touro Infirmary. Over the next several years, Diana met her husband and they welcomed two beautiful children. The family moved to Alabama where Diana went back to school, majoring in French Studies at Auburn University.
While they enjoyed their time in Alabama, Diane and her children eventually made their way back to New Orleans – and were happy to be home again. Diane crossed paths with Touro again in 2015 when her son Stewart suffered a head injury. He was treated at Touro Infirmary. Diane speaks highly of his experience and recovery at Touro. “It was personal and intimate,” says Diane.
Diane has also celebrated new life at Touro, welcoming her granddaughter who was born at Touro on November 9, 2016. Touro has been there in different ways for everyone in her family, most recently for Diane herself.
Self-Awareness Saves Lives
In August of 2017, Diane felt a lump in her left breast through a regular self-breast examination. “I do a self-breast exam every month. When I felt my left breast, I thought it felt different from my right breast,” recalls Diane.
She quickly called to schedule a mammogram. Diane’s intuition was confirmed, and the mammogram discovered a triple negative tumor, which is stage two breast cancer. Diane was referred to Touro Hematologist Oncologist George Zacharia, MD. Under Dr. Zachariah’s care, she immediately began chemotherapy. Diane received sixteen rounds of chemotherapy, initially once per week and gradually decreased to once every two weeks.
Due to Diane’s self-awareness and urgency, her cancer was detected early. A triple negative breast cancer responds best to chemotherapy in the earlier stages than many other forms of cancer. On December 27, she completed her last chemotherapy session in Touro’s Infusion Center.
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