Ella Thibodeaux's story
Ella Thibodeaux never
missed a mammogram
until 2013 when she was
laid off from her job as
an electronic technician.
She thought she’d just
skip that year because
she had no insurance. She thought
skipping one year would not matter.
The next year, her friend told her
that UTMB’s Mobile Mammography
Unit would be coming to Greater St.
Matthews Baptist Church in Hitchcock,
where she is a parishioner.
“That day in 2014, I went to
church, and then I went to the
mobile mammography bus and had
my mammogram,” she said. “I wasn’t
sick at all. I didn’t have any symptoms
of anything. I was just told the
mammogram was free, and I had no
insurance. I was told not to worry
about that, but just to be sure and
go get the mammogram.”
A few days later, Thibodeaux received
a call from the doctor saying
there was a spot on her mammogram
that needed to be biopsied.
“I had to go to the hospital, and
again I said I had no insurance,” she
said. “They said not to worry about
that, and after they did the biopsy,
they said it was stage two breast
cancer. So, I had to have surgery,
and they took all that out.”
Not having insurance was extremely
concerning to her in this situation. Resources
in the form of patient navigators,
coordinators, social workers and
more at UTMB guided her through
the process of applying for insurance
through the Affordable Care Act, and
she paid nothing, she said.
“UTMB just kept saying not to
worry, they will help me, and they
did,” she said.
She started chemotherapy, which
made her very anxious.
“The first week I got my chemo,
they talked to me, they prepped
me and they relaxed me,” she said.
“They told me I could go live my
normal life, and they gave me my
dose. They made sure I had a ride
back and forth, and they made sure
they kept talking to me and I stayed
relaxed about everything.”
Still, her hair fell out and she
couldn’t eat, she said.
She slept constantly and had to
return for another round of chemo
every two weeks.
“I felt so bad,” she said. “And at the
end of the chemo, I was getting ready
for church, and I couldn’t breathe. I
thought I was having a heart attack. I
told myself I would go to UTMB after
church and get checked out, but it
didn’t happen like that.”
She felt so unwell, she went
straight to the hospital and was
examined.
“They thought there was another
spot on my lung, but I knew God
wasn’t going to let me go like that,”
she said. “It turned out to be fluid on
my lung. They took 17 ccs of fluid, and
it was heart failure, not lung cancer.
So, I got a cardiologist as well.”
Receiving the highest quality medical
intervention saved her life, but a
nonprofit organization called Friends
Thru the Fight, which offers financial
assistance to those who are actively
receiving breast or gynecological
cancer treatments, helped save her
emotionally and mentally, she said.
“This group made a huge difference
for me,” she said. “They helped
me through it. I was down and they
picked me up. They said there will be
life after all this. I wasn’t working, and
I had no insurance and they brought
me food, helped me financially and
people came to visit me while I was
going through the chemo. They didn’t
just cure my body, they helped me in
every other way, too.”
Ten years later, Thibodeaux
remains cancer-free, and her heart
health also is good.
Other women need to get their
mammogram no matter what, and
instead of worrying about cancer,
“just go like it’s nothing,” she said.
She owns her home and has
worked as a bus aide for children
in Texas City Independent School
District for seven years.
“Sometimes, I am on the bus with
the kids with special needs, but sometimes
I’m just on any middle or high
school bus,” she said. “And all the kids
on the bus need the love because they
don’t always get it from home, and
that’s what I’m here to give.”
Most importantly, she’s well
enough to do whatever she’d like to
do. She rides the bus in the mornings
and afternoons, but during the
day, she gets calls from her two
adult sons and her grandchildren
asking her to help them with something,
bring them something or do
something with them.
“I have my health back, and I can
do everything I want to with my family
now,” she said. “To women who
don’t think it matters if they don’t
get checked, please get checked.
Cancer is a silent killer. It doesn’t
hurt to have a spot; you don’t even
know it’s there. And don’t let your
non-insured status stop you, you will
get help at UTMB. You just have to
ask — that’s the magic word. Just
ask. Don’t be ashamed. And do not
miss a year of getting checked."
This feature first ran as a feature story in the 2024 Think Pink special section of the Daily News. You can view the full the publication online.