As soon as she learned she had breast cancer, Krissa Hammerstad knew she wanted to fight it. She had no choice.
“I looked at (my primary care provider) and said ‘Are you telling me I have breast cancer?’ And she says ‘Yes,’” Hammerstad explained. “And I lost it for a couple minutes, but I think that was the only time I shed tears because I put it in instantly that I was gonna fight this, and I was gonna win.”
Hammerstad, 32, received her diagnosis last year. Originally from Whitewater – where she grew up on her family’s dairy farm and graduated from Whitewater High School in 2012 – she has lived in Janesville since 2023.
She gave birth to her son Bentley when she was 19 and started working at Luebke’s Tube and Hoses in Janesville. Three years later, she had another child, her daughter Rose.
Hammerstad first noticed a lump on her right side while she was lying in bed last January. But she wasn’t sure whether she should say something because her family doesn’t have a history of breast cancer, or cancer in general.
But in February, Hammerstad decided she should ask her primary care doctor. Her doctor suggested it might be a clogged duct so asked Hammerstad to watch for any changes in her menstrual cycle, which could indicate more serious concerns.
Hammerstad didn’t notice anything off in her cycle, but the lump did not recede. She decided to make another medical appointment, and the on-call physician referred her for an ultrasound in the beginning of March.
Then on March 18, Hammerstad had a biopsy and a mammogram. And that’s when her primary care provider called. She asked Hammerstad to come in person to go over the results just three days later.
Hammerstad’s father accompanied her on the trip to the doctor’s office. That’s when her primary care provider told her she had cancer. That day, Hammerstad cried. But she also decided she would conquer the cancer.
After her appointment, Hammerstad went to work where she broke the news to a key coworker: her mother. Then they called their family friend, Dayna Osborne. A nurse practitioner, Osborne was able to provide some much-needed support.
Hammerstad said she prepared her kids for the worst when she told them, and warned them she might be very sick. Bentley is 13 and Rose is 10, and Hammerstad said they sort of knew what to expect because they had watched their grandpa get really sick.
Still, Hammerstad said “it was a lot for them to take in.”
It was especially hard for Rose to see her mom shave her head.
Krissa Hammerstad while cutting her hair with her son
“My daughter had a really hard time because I cut my hair really short, and then before my third treatment, I shaved my head,” Hammerstad said. “And she lost it because she was like ‘Mom you have such beautiful hair,’ and I said ‘I know, but it’s gonna come back bigger and better.’”
But Hammerstad said her kids were helpful around the house during her treatment, and learned to keep themselves entertained if Hammerstad needed to sleep or rest.
Because Hammerstad developed breast cancer young, she had to take a genetic test after her diagnosis. She learned she has BRCA1 gene mutation. That gene, responsible for suppressing tumors when healthy, can indicate a higher risk of cancer. The mutation can also be passed along as an inherited mutation to her children.
Hammerstad said this means there’s a 50/50 chance she could pass it on to her kids, but they can’t get tested for the mutation until they are 18.
Hammerstad added that it took her a long time to decide whether to get a double mastectomy, because she was young and worried she might want to have more kids. But eventually decided she was done having children, and wanted to treat the cancer.
“It was really hard, and now I’m glad I did it,” Hammerstad said.
After telling her family, Hammerstad started scheduling chemotherapy as quickly as she could. A week after finding out her diagnosis, Hammerstad had her initial appointments to set everything up, then started chemotherapy on April 8.
“I said I was not messing around,” Hammerstad said. “We are starting right away.”
Hammerstad went through 12 weeks of chemotherapy happening once a week, except for the last few treatments which happened every three weeks.
“It wasn’t bad,” Hammerstad said. “It didn’t affect me.”
She said she was fortunate because chemotherapy was not painful for her and she didn’t have any major side effects. She went to work before and after every treatment.
For surgery, Hammerstad wanted a surgical protocol that Mercyhealth didn’t offer, so while she did her chemotherapy at Mercy, she went to UW hospital for her surgical interventions.
Hammerstad wanted a D-flap surgery to reconstruct her breasts using her own natural tissue. Adding the reconstruction to the surgeries to remove cancerous tissue, she would have three total surgeries. Hammerstad had the first procedure in November 2025.
The first one was a double mastectomy, and then she got expanders to essentially grow the tissue back. Then the second surgery will be implants to permanently replace the lost fat and tissue, and that will happen this November.
Krissa Hammerstad during treatment
Then the final surgery will happen in the next year.
The cancer is in remission after chemotherapy and surgery, and Hammerstad said she’s just “living life” now. She’s busy with work, taking her daughter to softball and helping on her uncle's farm.
She has appointments every six weeks to check in, but Hammerstad keeps moving. She didn’t stop during treatment either, and kept doing things with her kids. She encouraged other people with breast cancer to do the same thing.
“You gotta keep busy,” Hammerstad said. “Don’t sit and dwell on it.”
Hammerstad also developed close relationships with many of the nurses on her care team, who she credits with helping her through the process.
She said the nurses at Mercyhealth “treat you like family” and she and her dad brought them lunch on many occasions.
Hammerstad said there were so many people she wanted to thank, and specifically acknowledged how much her dad supported her.
“My dad went to every single appointment with me except for one,” Hammerstad said. “He went to every single chemo with me except for one. Otherwise he was basically at every single appointment.”
Hammerstad also thanked her kids, her dad, her mom and her mom’s boyfriend, Debbie Baker, the Pohl family, Laura Monson, Dr. Robinson, Dayna Osborne, all the nurses at the infusion area at Mercy Health, her grandmas Jane and Millie, and all the people that checked in on her.
“Trust me I know who my friends and family are after this chapter,” Hammerstad said.