Patient Story: Janna

After two of her sisters were diagnosed with breast cancer, Janna Cannon, age 57 of Sauk Rapids, decided not to put off her mammogram. Ten days later, she too, was diagnosed with breast cancer. All three sisters’ diagnoses came within 15 short months.

“I wasn’t going to have reconstructive surgery,” Janna said. But after exploring the possibility with her surgeon, John Houle, MD, Midsota Plastic Surgeons, she didn’t have a second thought about having a Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator (DIEP) flap procedure.*

“It was a positive, life-changing experience,” Janna said. “It gave me hope — after being taken apart and put back together — of being not only the same me, but a better me.”

Today, Janna spends her free time with family or on the golf course. After going through her cancer experience Janna says “It’s a better me, with a bigger smile!”

* The “Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator” (DIEP) flap is a breast reconstruction procedure. DIEP flap is the latest and most technically advanced procedure for reconstructing a patient’s breast using her own tissue from the abdomen. DIEP flap may cause less pain, allow for a shorter hospitalization and decrease the chances of some complications.