SSM Health doctor shares own breast cancer journey as reminder to women

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - A doctor at SSM Health has potentially life-saving medical advice for women, but it’s not based solely on textbook knowledge. It’s from her own journey with breast cancer.

Dr. Jennifer Krupp was diagnosed with the cancer in late 2019 after she found a lump in her breast.

“I had all those thoughts of, ‘Am I gonna see my children maybe get married or have kids?’” she said. “That was really difficult.”

She had spent her career caring for others, those with high-risk pregnancies. She had also cared for her own health with an active lifestyle. It’s how she found the lump in the first place.

“I got home from the gym, and I was just trying to figure out if the lifts that I were doing were working the muscles that I wanted them to be working,” she said.

Dr. Dana Henkel said her patient was fortunate to have felt the lump.

“Not all breast cancers present that way,” Krupp’s physician said. “Her noticing and being aware of her changing body really got her off on the path to getting this taken care of.”

Awareness of her body is what started Dr. Krupp on her journey through a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. She is now cancer free.

“I just am not letting this stop me from being myself, so I’m as active now as I was pre-cancer,” Dr. Krupp said. “I’m just living my life the way that I’ve been.”

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