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Team Shaw member finds positivity in darkest moments

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jonathan Bass
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. - --  A pink ribbon of text permanently adorned on her arm reminds her of who she is: a survivor.

After finding a lump in her right breast in 2009, Jenyfer Johnson, 20th Civil Engineer Squadron hazardous material and waste manager, battled breast cancer for the better part of a year. Now after being free of cancer for five years, Jenyfer is officially in remission.

For Jenyfer, a Lansing, New York native, staying positive throughout her fight with cancer came down to her ability to find positivity in hardships.

But the diagnosis didn't stop her from finding a glimmer of positivity in the situation. Jenyfer laughed as she remembered her doctor saying, "It lit up like a Christmas tree," when the results of the MRI came back showing the tissue around the tumor shining.

She and her husband Dean Johnson, 20th CES systems administrator, shed a few tears, but Jenyfer stopped and told Dean, "Let's not cry, it's not going to do any good."

Within a matter of days Jenyfer had a mastectomy to remove her breast.

During the mastectomy her surgeon performed a sentinel node biopsy to see if the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.

When she came out of anesthesia, Jenyfer received the bad news that the cancer had spread to four of her lymph nodes, and they had to be removed.

Jenyfer began chemotherapy sessions within two weeks of her surgery and it was there that she realized how she needed to react to this challenge in her life.

In chemotherapy, Jenyfer met a fellow patient who was in stage four, a much more advanced stage of cancer. During one treatment, she gave Jenyfer a gift. It was a get well card, but the significance of the card hit Jenyfer and Dean close to the heart.

"Here she was, bound to a wheelchair, withering away, and she thought to give me a get well card," Jenyfer said.

Dean said that moment gave them a renewed appreciation for life. Jenyfer, normally a very structured and methodical woman, realized her priorities needed to change. She used her strong social network to create that change in her life through her use of humor.

A few days after the first session of chemotherapy, Jenyfer saw her reflection in a door and thought, "I look like Doc. Brown from 'Back to the Future'!"

Before chemotherapy started, Jenyfer made an agreement with Dean. She said that if her hair were to look bad from the chemo, he would have to cut it off.

Jenyfer figured men could walk around with a basic training cut, why couldn't she?

"(Jenyfer's hair) was coming out in big clumps," chuckled Dean, a retired technical sergeant. "It was crazy looking."

Dean cut off Jenyfer's hair. She tried a wig but hated it and ultimately decided to wear silly hats, he said.

Dean played a vital role for Jenyfer during this crucial time demonstrating his love for Jenyfer every day by acting as her rock to lean upon when she needed him.

"Dean pulled me through every appointment," said Jenyfer. "He never missed a doctor's visit, he went to every radiation treatment, and he missed only one chemo treatment.

But he made my son take me on that one," she added, laughing again.

Jenyfer endured eight chemotherapy sessions and then two months of daily radiation treatments in her fight against cancer, and found positivity through her humor, cutting off her hair, and having Dean to lean upon.

To remind herself of what she accomplished, Jenyfer adorned her right arm with a tattoo that reads "survivor." The pink ink is on display for anyone to see and know that Jenyfer is exactly who she says she is.