'Hope For The Future': A Laguna Niguel Nurse's Cancer Recovery

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA — Laguna Niguel resident Lynn Maurillo is a warrior. Wife, mother of four, she is a breast cancer survivor, but that is not her defining characteristic. A nurse, she is used to caring for others. As a wife and mother, she focuses on her family, first and like many, she put thoughts of her health to the back burner.

In the fall of 2015, her son died unexpectedly. Then, in March of 2016, she received an earth-shattering diagnosis. Maurillo learned that she had developed breast cancer.

During breast cancer recovery, she would learn that she needed assistance through the mountain of paperwork, social security benefits, and the details regarding leaving and getting back to work. In the meantime, all of her thoughts turned to survival.

"I was working on a cardiac, pulmonary floor in a hospital when I was first diagnosed in March of 2016," she told us. "It was the perfect storm. (My son) passed away, and I wasn't proactive with my health, especially within the first year."

She didn't want to believe that her family would go through any more trauma. They had been through enough with her son's death, she thought.

As women must, she did her at-home checks monthly. Maurillo noticed changes in her breasts but didn't pay much attention. Heartbroken at the loss of her son, she was trying to get through each day. Still, she did go for her annual mammogram appointment.

"They said everything was fine, but four months later, I felt like there was a change," she said. After another mammogram, nothing conclusive was found. Then, doctors called for an ultrasound and a biopsy.

At 6 p.m. on a Friday, a call from her doctor's office confirmed the results were positive. She had breast cancer.

"I was just so stunned. Part of me thought maybe, but the other part thought no way I'm just too healthy. I take care of sick people for a living. It doesn't happen to me."

Unable to reach her pilot husband, two friends arrived to pick her up at the hospital and stay with her until her husband came home from the airport. Maurillo's life became a vortex of doctor's appointments, meeting with surgeons and planning surgeries, and follow up care.
"As a nurse, I wanted to choose the right surgeon, because breast surgery can be pretty disfiguring," she said. Maurillo wanted both breasts gone, not ready to face another occurrence of breast cancer.

And when they went in there, they found the cancer was more severe than anticipated.
"I had a 3-centimeter cancerous tumor and removed, along with 23 lymph nodes. Doctors categorized her with having 3C cancer.

"That is what happens before it goes everywhere in your body," she said. "I feel lucky to have made it. But I had to have pretty aggressive treatment."

Maurillo's next step was radiation and reconstruction.

"It's been quite a journey," she said.

She battled hard to recover, knowing that her family had lost so much with the loss of her son and her children's oldest brother.

"That trauma made them feel like the world is not a safe place anymore," she said. "Losing their brother was bad enough, but at the time, my daughters were still in college. But my
kids rallied, and they were here with after my surgery. I couldn't have asked for a
more loving family."

At the time of her diagnosis, Maurillo was working her dream job as a nurse. She went to nursing school in her 40s, starting work at the hospital at 50-years-old.

"When I got my job, it was a dream come true, and I was so happy to be there," she said. After her cancer diagnosis, she missed a great deal of work during her recovery. "(A friend) told me to get a hold of Allsup, and they helped me with all the forms [and paperwork for Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits]," she said.

When she regained her strength, Maurillo reached out to Social Security's Ticket to Work program.

"I thought that was a safe way to get me back to work because I felt like my job is protected," she told us. During her time off, the hospital went through a series of manager changes. "They didn't know me. The Ticket to Work Program became a safety net for me. And if I had to be off again, I would still have some [income] coming in, giving me peace of mind."

Allsup was also a significant point of support.

"[Allsup] took care of everything," she told us. "When you're in chemo, your brain goes. I've had so many surgeries. It's an extremely stressful situation; there's pain there's medication. So I could call them [Allsup] up and say I've got this paperwork and I don't know what to do. And they would say 'don't worry. We'll take care of it.' I would hang onto every piece of paper that I had, and they [Allsup] did it all."

Under those stressful situations, Maurillo leaned on the support of her Allsup caseworkers.
"When you're fighting for your life, the last thing you want to have to worry about is Social Security asking you to prove this or that, and why you were off work," she said. "Allsup also helped me get SSDI benefits. Then they sent me information about the Ticket to Work program. It took a lot of stress off me."

To this day, Maurillo is easily fatigued. She has always been a physically fit person before breast cancer diagnosis, running at least 5 miles a day for therapy. Now, every day is a challenge.
She has returned to work part-time and monitors her health.

"When I am working with cancer patients, I usually share my story," she told us. "Breast cancer is not always a death sentence, and it's important not to be afraid."

Maurillo hopes that her journey is an inspiration to others.

"I would hope people would use the resources that are available to them, and stay off [work] as I did," she said.

Her focus remains on her family and the future. Her children are grown, and her husband has three years until he retires as an airline pilot.

Over the next six months, she wants to learn to speak French and speak well enough to engage in conversations on her planned trip to France. Perhaps she will teach nursing in the future.

"But if I only have a couple more years on this planet, I want to spend them with my husband and to take care of my parents," she said. "Most of all, I want to stay healthy, so I can stay here and be with my family."