Kristen Magliocca welcomes the surprise and the smiles when she opens the door to her tricked-out SUV and folks spot the interior that echoes her bright pink hair.
Her husband, Rick, gave her Mercedes-Benz G wagon a "Barbie" makeover and presented it to her on New Year's Eve to turn the page on a tough year.
"It makes everybody feel good — and it's just a perfect reminder that I survived cancer," said Kristen, 54, of Charlotte, who welcomes questions about her offbeat ride. That’s because they give her an opening to tout the importance of routine cervical cancer screening.
By her own admission, Magliocca paid little attention to it until her 50s. Then, last fall, her regular Pap test was among the small fraction to come back with an abnormal result.
Pap tests look for cancer on the cervix (the small canal linking a woman's uterus and vagina) and for suspicious cells that could turn cancerous. A follow-up test called colposcopy confirmed that Magliocca had a high-grade lesion, putting her at increased risk for cancer.
So her OB-GYN, Dr. Savannah Peña of Novant Health Mintview OB/GYN - Ballantyne, scheduled an in-office procedure called LEEP to remove it. "For the most part, that's the treatment — it's done. You don't get cervical cancer," she said.
Peña was at an airport gate with her 3-1/2-month-old son strapped to her chest when she received a secure message from the pathologist with Magliocca's test result: endocervical adenocarcinoma, cancer of the cervix.
Magliocca will never forget the "incredibly thoughtful" way Peña delivered the news.
"She actually called me from the airport, holding her newborn baby who was crying, to reach me before I read MyChart," Magliocca said. "She said, 'We are all so surprised. You are among the small percentage the LEEP procedure didn't help. You have cervical cancer.'"
A Pap test is the best way to detect cervical cancer. Schedule one now.
Thanks to her Pap test, doctors caught her cancer in a very early stage, when it is easier to treat. Peña referred Magliocca to cancer specialist Dr. Matt McDonald at Novant Health Cancer Institute - Elizabeth in Charlotte.
At their first meeting, McDonald instantly put Magliocca at ease. "The first thing he said to me is, 'You have cancer, but you're going to be fine,' " Magliocca recalled. "He told me we would do some PET scans and when those results were in, we would have a plan. That was so reassuring."
Her choices were chemoradiation or radical hysterectomy. Magliocca chose a robot-assisted, minimally invasive surgery to remove her uterus, cervix, ovaries and fallopian tubes along with a few lymph nodes to confirm that her cancer had not spread. On Nov. 21, she was in and out of the operating room the same day.
At her follow-up Dec. 9, she got the best news she could have hoped for — the cancer had not spread to nearby lymph nodes. It was gone.
"I'd been telling everyone, 'Please send prayers, good mojo and fairy dust, too,' " Magliocca said with a broad smile. "It worked." On Valentine's Day weekend, five months after her cancer odyssey began, she was released from care and celebrated with her first hot bath in months.
Her life has settled back into its usual rhythm — both Maglioccas busy with their company, New Life Building Supplies, in Charlotte's South End, loving on their grandson, Rico, and enjoying their Great Danes.
Magliocca has emerged from her cancer journey as an unexpected evangelist for preventive care, especially Pap tests.
"I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me on social media and said, 'I saw your story from Novant Health on Instagram — do you mind me asking you a couple of questions?' " Magliocca said of a Jan. 29 post that has nearly 2,000 likes.
That tricked-out Mercedes attracts attention too, and she seizes the chance to share its significance when an opportunity arises. "These things definitely open doors for you," Magliocca said. "If there's one thing I take from cancer, it's to just radiate joy."
