Breast Cancer Artist | YMyHealth

Rhonda Miller, who is aptly nicknamed, “Sunshine,” is always looking to brighten the days of those around her. She does this by helping out her local community in Macon, Georgia.

In recent years, this most often comes in the form of sharing her artistic talents with others by painting magnificent canvases and displaying her art in shows for all to see.

A locally beloved and self-taught folk artist, Miller uses bright colors and abstract figures to express her feelings and share her stories with the world. She has many important ones to share, including as of two years ago becoming a breast cancer survivor.

Miller’s giving heart and need to help others is what led her to YMyHealth. While she is a member of Gen X, she found us on Instagram and asked if she could share her story to help millennials not face the same health battle that she has. We are honored to be the platform to do so.

She was only a few years older than today’s oldest millennial (now age 43), when she was diagnosed and in her late 30s to early 40s when her cancer was likely developing all the while undetected.

Now, she paints a picture for us of why early detection is something we must make time for, the critical importance of following up on your screening results, and what can happen when you do not, but instead let fear of tests be your guide.

Rhonda's breast cancer journey

Miller never noticed any signs or symptoms that would have tipped her off that she had breast cancer. Well, at least any that she had ever been taught.

“I was always told to feel for a lump,” she said. She did not feel one, instead she felt some pain. Pain is more often than not, not a sign of breast cancer.

“My right breast was always hurting so I finally got it checked but only to find out it was my left breast that had cancer. I was diagnosed in January 2022,” she said. She was 52 years old at the time.

Doctors diagnosed Miller with Stage 3B breast cancer. It’s an invasive cancer with a tumor that is large—about 2 inches across. At this stage, the cancer has spread beyond the breast tissue either into the chest wall or to nearby lymph nodes, or both. It may also have spread to the skin of the breast. Up to nine lymph nodes near the armpit or the breastbone can be affected.

Every treatment date on her long journey that year is still etched in her mind.

After she was diagnosed her healthcare team immediately had her do chemotherapy from February to August 2022-Aug 2022. Her last day of chemotherapy was on August 16,2022. A few weeks later on September 17, 20222 she had double mastectomy.

Six weeks later she began radiation five days a week—Monday thru Friday. She completed it in February 2023—a full year after her treatment began. Miller also had immunotherapy that began overlapping with her radiation, starting January 2023 and completed that in May 2023.

Once she finished all of her treatment, every 2 months she had a blood test to check for cancer.

Miller (fourth from the left) after receiving an amazing send off from her healthcare team after completing her final chemotherapy treatment.

Pre-diagnosis knowledge and awareness

Before being diagnosed with breast cancer, Miller knew little about it.

“I really didn’t have much knowledge on breast cancer. All I ever did was run races and make donations,” Miller said. “I didn’t know how devastating it can be in its effect on a woman.”

What she did know though was that she was supposed to be getting a mammogram every year after age 40. She actually had her first mammogram at 35 after one of her uncle’s was diagnosed with breast cancer and every year following that.

She has an extensive family history of cancer. Her mom, grandmother, aunts, and uncles on her my maternal side all had breast cancer or another type of cancer. “Only one of my uncles lived to be over 60,” Miller recalled.

While she did go every year to get her mammogram, when she got her last one in 2021, the results came back showing that they saw a lump on the scan.

“They told me to come back but I ignored it because every year I get a mammogram it’s the same results: benign. But this time the growth they found was not in the same place,” Miller said.

“I didn’t have any insurance, so I had to get a grant for a 3D mammogram and then grant money for a biopsy. I didn’t go back because I was so afraid of the needle going into my breast.”

Challenges faced during treatment

Physical challenges

The recovery after her double mastectomy and grueling chemotherapy and radiation regimens was physically very challenging. She could not stand up and paint, and still cannot do as much as she used to due to the lingering side effects from treatment that have impacted her vision and zapped her energy.

Mental and emotional struggles

Miller experienced significant amounts of loneliness during treatment due to the strict hospital restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic that coincided with the timing of her chemotherapy and radiation. The hospital did not allow any visitors. This made it difficult to cope with her diagnosis and go through challenging treatment.

“I didn’t know what to feel; I was just trying to live,” Miller said. “I felt like I was on my own getting treatment. I needed someone though to hold me while I cried to figure out ‘Why me? Why did I have to get this? I suffered enough with my childhood past in foster care.”

Financial and practical difficulties

The exorbitant treatment costs led to Miller to apply for Medicaid to cover them. At one point, an art gallery in Macon held a showcase of Miller’s works to raffle off and raise funds to help with medical expenses.

From a practical standpoint, Miller experienced difficulty doing those everyday chores of life—like cleaning, cooking because they take energy and her cancer treatments to so much of that energy out of her, so she could survive.

The role of art in Rhonda's journey

For Miller, not only did art helped her to stay focused before breast cancer and find healing from her traumatic childhood in the foster care system where she endured emotional and physical abuse, but it also helped her to survive breast cancer.

“I was already doing art, but I didn’t have a drive for art until breast cancer came along,” Miller emphasized. It is has continued to shape her work and help her share her story to educate others.

Lessons for younger generations

Common misconceptions about breast health

The top three misconceptions she finds people have are:

1) Mammograms are painful.

2) Getting a mammogram will give you cancer.

3) Being too young to get breast cancer.

Mammograms save lives. Don’t be afraid, she emphasized. Miller told us to put getting a mammogram into perspective like this:

“It only takes about 15 minutes rather than 15 months of chemo treatments,” she said.

She also wants people to know that the fact is not only do you need the strength and stamina to go through treatment, if your diagnosed, you need a lot of outside support and help. “You need money to survive and help around the house with cooking and cleaning,” Miller pointed out.

She believes given the complexities of preventive care and breast health far more education is needed at health events than “just squeezing a mannequin’s breast.”

Advice on screening and health care

She wants people under age 50 to not be afraid of getting preventive care and make any follow-up screenings their doctor recommends a priority. Do not put them off out of fear.

“I have met many millennials, and they tell me they hate getting mammograms and are scared. So, I go with them to help ease the fear,” Miller explained. “Too many times they hear it hurts, but the real truth is, it’s just so uncomfortable.”

As for when something is seen on your mammogram, making it so that you have to take that next step of a biopsy, do not be too scared to even get the test like she was.

“The horror of getting a shot in your breast for a biopsy is scary, but and young women need to know to not be scared,” Miller said. “I wished I hadn’t been so scared to put it off, and that I had been educated about it.”

Conclusion

Now as a breast cancer survivor, Miller is still getting used to her ‘new normal.’ Yet, in that process cancer has notably changed her outlook on life and her mission.

She has learned to have patience and not sweat the small stuff. Although admittedly some days she wants to quit. But she knows she can’t because what she is doing, especially for younger women, is just too important.

“I know I am helping younger women now. They see me and watch my story,” she said.

Miller’s message of hope and awareness is this: “To all millennials, fight and advocate but most of all get a mammogram. It may save your life.”

Cancer Art: Rhonda Miller's Palette of Survival and Hope