A truly inspiring story for anyone whose life has been affected by cancer.
One Central Florida woman, a former journalist, who beat the disease and used the difficulties she faced as a driving force to make sure other women don't have to go through the same struggles.
Lisa Crites, a former News 13 health reporter, sat down with News 13 to talk about her journey, and her innovation designed for women battling breast cancer: the shower shirt.
"Essentially from a clinical standpoint, when you have a bilateral mastectomy, which I did a few years ago, you have these nice little post-cervical drains; anywhere from 4-6 of them in your body after surgery for 2 to 3 weeks and you can't shower in them," said Crites.
After Crites' operation, she realized she couldn't take a shower, and was very limited during her recovery. So she went to the drawing board and came up with a design and just kept moving forward with it.
"When I went through this I had to shower in a trash bag and I was thoroughly frustrated. So basically someone has to create a shower product and that's what I did," said Crites.
Numerous hospitals have already jumped onboard, ordering shirts for their breast cancer patients. But the journey has only just begun.
Crites says they have been fighting for four years to get Medicare coverage; luckily a congressman and congresswoman who are both cancer survivors went to bat for Crites' idea, helping to create the necessary legislation to ensure preventing infection after surgery for a breast cancer patient was covered by insurance companies.
Crites' support -- which happened to be bipartisan -- led to the Post Masectomy Infection Reduction Act. Shower coverings will either be paid for by health care providers, or patients will be reimbursed provided the purchase was deemed medically necessary.
When asked about how she's been able to adjust, and how much Breast Cancer Awareness Month means to her, Crites makes it clear she's far from finished.
"You know I never wanted breast cancer to define my life. I wanted to only refine my life," said Crites. "And I'm hoping through my initiative in keeping women from showering with trash bags after breast amputation, that's a few steps toward that refinement."