She needed to schedule her mammogram, so Fiorentino, 64, finally made an appointment at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) in April, right before she and her husband were setting off on a trip to Florida. “I’d been so busy taking care of Dad, then helping Mom adjust to her new life, my own care took a back seat,” she says. When she received the results, it was a shock.
“I was scared when I got the results of the screening mammogram that said I needed further testing and then the diagnostic mammogram revealing I had bilateral ‘masses’ that needed to be biopsied,” Fiorentino says. “In those moments, fear of the unknown felt very surreal and unsettling.”
She sought out care at Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute, where her father had been treated, because she says, “the doctors and medical professionals there are top-notch.” She met with surgical oncologist Lori Alfonse, DO, Deputy Physician in Chief of the Cancer Institute, who is fellowship-trained and specializes in breast surgery.