Warrior of the Month: January 2024 Jodi Muscarella Blohme

“Welcome to the Pink Sisters Club. It’s not a club anybody wants to be a member of.”

These words come from our January Warrior of the Month Jodi Muscarella Blohme. Jodi, a resident of Daphne, is a survivor of triple-negative breast cancer. This life-altering diagnosis was revealed in June of 2018. 

According to Johns Hopkins, triple-negative breast cancer is a more aggressive form of breast cancer; furthermore, it has an increased risk for faster growth, recurrence and metastasis.

Prior to her diagnosis, Jodi never imagined she would be inaugurated into the Pink Sisters Club. 

“Years prior, doctors had spotted something on a mammogram that they were monitoring, but nothing ever came of it. Several years later in 2018, I got the phone call where the nurse had prompted me to come in right away for a follow-up ultrasound because there was something of great concern seen on my mammogram,” Jodi said. 

From then, Jodi began facing the treacherous unknowns that would soon lead her into the hardest battle of her life. With an incredible oncologist at USA Mitchell Cancer Institute, Jodi was presented with an extensive treatment plan. When she discussed obtaining a second opinion from MD Anderson, her oncologist strongly supported her. 

Because she could not get into a local breast surgeon for two weeks, Jodi and her husband traveled to MD Anderson, where everything was confirmed once again. Once she returned, she was indecisive on where she wanted to receive treatment. She met with her local breast surgeon in Mobile, Alabama. Due to irreconcilable differences in her options as a patient, Jodi ultimately decided to have her surgery performed at MD Anderson. . 

“I'm just really strong as a patient, when we find out something, if you have a gut feeling about something, you need to advocate for yourself.  Advocating for myself was getting a second opinion. It's my body, and it's my life,” Jodi said.

With the decision to travel to Texas for her surgery, her oncologist from MD Anderson provided her with two options for chemotherapy. She could receive chemotherapy in Texas, or she could obtain the same treatment in Mobile. Jodi chose the latter option which allowed her to stay in her own home and be surrounded by those closest to her during the most difficult season. 

Just one month after her diagnosis, Jodi underwent a segmental mastectomy, an excisional biopsy and a mastopexy. Up until two days prior to her surgery, Jodi was originally scheduled for a double mastectomy. 

“Many women think, ‘Okay, I've got breast cancer. Take my breasts, give me a mastectomy. My breasts don't define me.’ All of these thoughts come in our head, at least in mine. Many women I speak to have expressed the same thoughts. It was in my right breast, and I'm like, “Take them both because I don't want to deal with this. I don't want this to come back,’” Jodi said. 

“That's such a misnomer because breast cancer in your right breast is not going to hop over to your left breast. Just like cancer in your right arm is not going to hop over to your left arm. Now, yes, there's a risk of it spreading.”

This decision takes immense thought, but she ultimately chose to divert from the double mastectomy after further discussion with her MD Anderson doctors. 

To prepare for her recovery, Jodi and Pete rented an apartment near the hospital to live in with their two children for roughly a month. After her surgery, she was determined to feel as “normal” as one could. Conquering the first battle (her surgery) and preparing for the next (Chemotherapy), Jodi’s family wanted to create that sense of normalcy she longed for. They would leave the apartment, go on walks at the park, attend events and participate in other activities to help Jodi feel as though she was not ill.  

By August, Jodi returned home to Daphne, where she could then receive her chemotherapy treatments surrounded by her loved ones. After roughly six gruesome months, Jodi completed her chemotherapy infusions in January 2019. She then received radiation therapy until February 2019. Since then, Jodi has received spectacular reports from her oncologist; there is No Evidence of Disease [NED].”

Through it all, Jodi chose to fight this battle with every bone in her body. She was not going to let cancer win.

“You hear those words, you've got cancer, and it's just something that you've never expected to hear. It’s not anything that somebody prepares for,” Jodi said. “Then, unfortunately, all the worst thoughts come to your mind as far as ‘How much longer do I have with my kids and my husband? Is this curable?’ Then, you go down the rabbit hole of Dr. Google. You just feel like, ‘Okay, I've just been run over by a big truck. What am I doing? How do I handle this?’” 

With the fear of the unknown looming over her head, Jodi automatically switched into fight mode. She reassured herself that she was going to be strong and would beat this disease. In that same light, she felt that she needed to be strong for her family as well. Through it all, Pete was the only one she allowed to see her on her dark days. 

“The biggest thing for me was really accepting and doing my best to fight, so I could continue to be here for my family. My parents lived here in Daphne close to me, and I knew this was going to be very difficult for them. Seeing me go through the cancer treatment process,” Jodi said. “You receive a cancer diagnosis, and you feel like you’ve been hit by a Mack truck. Following that, you’re preparing for which surgery option is best for you. You end up with scars that you’re always going to have, that you will see on a daily basis. It’s very difficult for cancer patients moving forward. Everyday waking up and seeing themselves, and healing from this process,” Jodi said. 

However, her diagnosis was only one life-altering event she would face. Roughly six months after finishing her treatment, Jodi’s mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and she sadly passed away nine months later. 

While her mother was older and did have pre-existing health conditions, Jodi began feeling a sense of something not many discuss… survivor’s guilt. She would often question, “Why her, not me?” 

“When you say what’s the hardest thing, everything was hard: the diagnosis, the surgery, the treatment, being strong, pushing through…Then my mother getting a diagnosis and losing my mother to lung cancer made the things even more difficult as I was trying to figure out why her and not me,” Jodi said.

Between both Jodi and her mother’s diagnoses, her family was severely impacted by cancer in such a short time span. The cancer diagnosis came at a time when her son was already living on his own, and her daughter was heading off to college. This impacted both of them in a difficult way that was unknown to Jodi at the time. However, throughout treatment, they were able, at times, to be home with Jodi and support her through it all. 

“It was just difficult for everybody here with me and also while my kids were living on their own. It was difficult for them going through it, knowing what I was going through,” Jodi said.

Just as no child ever wishes to see their parents experience the type of pain cancer causes, no parent wants to see their child hurting knowing there is nothing they can do to take the pain away. Jodi knew her parents were struggling to see their baby girl of six children in such immense pain. When Jodi would visit her parents, she decided she would only see them if she was feeling good to protect them from seeing her ill on her darkest days.

“During my cancer treatment, it was very difficult for my parents to see me in the infusion room getting treatment. I tried my best to go to my parents house to visit them when I was feeling my best, so that they wouldn’t have to see me in a ‘sick’ state. It was very difficult for both of my parents to see me going through the chemotherapy process and realizing that I’m sick with this disease that they can’t help me with,” Jodi said. 

With the loving support of her family no matter how difficult the journey was, Jodi never gave up. Even now, she is surrounded by the loving support of her family and friends. When she was facing her battle head on, she struggled to allow others to see her vulnerability. She gathered the courage to start being more open about her daily life with cancer. Jodi created an invite-only Facebook group, so she could routinely keep her closest family and friends updated. This journey was something no one could understand just how hard it would be to do things we all take for granted. Many days, Jodi was unable to practice daily activities like eating and drinking. 

According to Jodi, she is the type of person that does not like to accept help. While both MD Anderson and the USA Mitchell Cancer Institute provided Jodi with anything she needed at her fingertips, it wasn’t until she broke down on the phone with her nurse navigator that she agreed to attend a counseling session. 

“That's the strange thing. I didn't think I needed it. I went, and my husband's sitting there with me in the room,” Jodi said. “The counselor is talking to me, and I'm just spewing all these emotions and feelings. Pete's looking at me like, ‘Where is this coming from?’ And, I guess I had been holding it in because I wanted to be the strong woman who can handle all of this. This is no big deal. And in reality, it's a huge deal. I wasn't expressing my emotions. I was keeping it all bottled up.”

To help conquer these emotions and her battle, Jodi promised herself she was going to keep active against cancer. 

“I was very headstrong. I told my husband, ‘I'm going to beat this, and I'm going to keep active against cancer’. And, that's what I did. That was my way of trying to beat it because I felt if I'm strong, if my body's strong, if I keep active, then I can beat it. If I don't keep active, then I'm going to get weak, and I'm not going to beat it.”

Jodi had already started running prior to her diagnosis, but running was a gateway to her success throughout her journey, including her chemo treatments. 

In 2018, Jodi participated in her first ever Bras Across the CAUSEway 5K & Fun Run during her treatment.

“I did that event, I was completely bald. At that point, I had just finished 12 weeks of chemotherapy. I had already been running, like, maybe four years at that point. And so, I just knew, like, you know, if I can't run this event, I can walk it, but I'm gonna do it,” Jodi said.

While she earned a sense of pride from completing the course, this race sparked many emotions for the warrior. 

“That was a real emotional event for me. Because of where I was in treatment. The survivorship walk at the beginning was nothing but a crying fest for me. I just cried the whole time. Part of it was, everybody out there cheering you on, but the other part is the song that they chose to play. Every song they play for the survivorship walk each year is always emotional,” Jodi said. 

Through Bras Across the CAUSEway and from her transparency on social media, Jodi has captured the hearts of many. However, there is a heavy weight of being a warrior.

“After you have gone through all of the treatment and you finish everything, everybody looks at you like, ‘You're a survivor. Oh, you're a warrior. Oh, you're so strong. Oh, you're so inspirational,” Jodi said. “That's very kind of everybody, but then at the same time, I sit back and I'm like, ‘Whew.’ You know, that's a lot of weight to carry sometimes as a cancer patient and as somebody who's gone through all of that. That can sometimes be heavy. Because when people look at you, that's what they're seeing.”

As a survivor, Jodi does not always feel as if she has been brave, but the most difficult time to hear those words was as she was in treatment. While everyone saw this brave, strong woman on the outside, Jodi was doing the only thing she could do to have a fighting chance at winning this battle.

“With a cancer diagnosis, it is not like I have a choice to be brave. It’s like that’s the only thing that I felt I could do. It’s just like thrown at you. You’ve got cancer now; you either crumble or you can try to be brave and strong,” Jodi said.

Along with the overwhelming magnitude of being a survivor, there was an extremely high likelihood of Jodi’s cancer to recur within the first three years after she completed treatment.

“Once you get to that three year mark, you've got all this anxiety building up, thinking you're going to hear those words again… That it's back. Then, all of a sudden you get to five years.  And that of course was just three days ago. And then today [Friday, January 5], I wake up, and I go to my oncologist in Fairhope. He does my blood work. He looks at me, and he says, ‘Your blood work is phenomenal.’ ‘Yes, that's what I want to hear! Another successful appointment,’” Jodi said.

Even with a good report, Jodi does still experience side effects, but it is unknown if it could be connected to her chemotherapy. Her oncologist stated that because she had chemo five years ago, there is no way of knowing if it is because she had the treatments or because she is five years older. 

Regardless of it all, Jodi chooses to celebrate every day and every milestone, big or small. She recently celebrated the five year anniversary of her final chemotherapy infusion on January 2. 

With every victory, Jodi is using her story for a greater purpose. She is a servant of the Lord, and He is not done with her yet. Through it all, she loves to share her journey in hopes of potentially helping someone.

“It's not a club anybody wants to be a member of. But when you're handed that card that says, ‘You have breast cancer,’ you meet all these incredible people who either have it or have been where you are. You're a part of this family of women and men that can support one another,” Jodi said. “Out of that, you end up with friendships for a lifetime. You still celebrate your victories. I will meet with women or men and help them when they ask ‘What did you do during chemo to help with neuropathy?' and give them suggestions. Because I feel like if I can help one person with my story, that's all I can ask for. So far, I think I have helped quite a few, and that makes me feel really good that I was able to help and give back to somebody in some small way.”

Along with helping other patients, Jodi has assisted those who have a family member or friend in the battle. Many would ask her what they should do for their loved one that is suffering. 

“Listen, you don't ask a cancer patient, what can I do for you? You just do for that patient. That is my word to everybody that asks me, ‘What can I do for my friend who was just diagnosed with breast cancer?’ Because most people are going to say, ‘Oh no, we're fine.’ I did at least. I was notorious. I'm not going to tell you what you can do for me because I don't even know what I need right now.” 

Since her first race in 2018, Jodi has become increasingly involved with Bras Across the CAUSEway and our local warriors, and we are pleased to announce that Jodi will now play an essential part on our team spearheading our sponsorship committee. 

“You know, cancer was a part of my life. It is not my life. It will always be a part of my past. I’m working to keep it a part of my future by continuing to share my story, so I can help others.”