Survivor of Rare Inflammatory Breast Disease Credits Self-Advocacy, Collaboration for Recovery

Tami Burdick advocates for greater awareness of granulomatous mastitis, or GM, and encourages allopathic and functional medicine practitioners to work together.

Author Tami Burdick, photographed here in 2021, credits self-advocacy and physician collaboration for her recovery from granulomatous mastitis, or GM, a rare inflammatory breast disease. Courtesy of Tami Burdick

“It’s probably cancer.”

That is what Tami Burdick thought when she started feeling breast pain and then discovered a hard lump during a self-evaluation more than eight years ago.

What followed was the beginning of a medical odyssey that inspired her to educate health care professionals and the public about granulomatous mastitis, or GM, a rare inflammatory breast disease that is often misdiagnosed.

April 7 marks the celebration of World Health Day and the beginning of Public Health Week. On any day established to recognize health issues, and every opportunity she gets, Burdick speaks out about GM.

Her book, “Diagnosis Detective: Curing Granulomatous Mastitis,” is a memoir of her self-diagnosis experience.

Burdick, now 47, is a franchise business consultant who has traveled extensively over the years for business. Two months after a business trip in Connecticut in January 2017, she began experiencing a host of symptoms, leading to what she found during the self-evaluation.

Her primary care physician ordered a mammogram and ultrasound. Results showed a BI-RADS 5 classification, indicating a high likelihood of breast cancer.

“My doctor asked me to book an appointment with a surgical breast oncologist before my biopsy, so that made me think that it could be cancer,” Burdick said. “When I had the biopsy, though, the results showed that wasn’t the case.”

Burdick calls functional medicine practitioner Jared Seigler and surgical breast oncologist Kelly McLean her “A team” and credits them with her recovery.

It was McLean who reviewed the biopsy and informed Burdick that she had GM, which affects a little more than two out of every 100,000 women in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.

 “I was relieved it wasn’t cancer but I never imagined how painful and challenging GM would become,” Burdick told The Epoch Times.

GM affects mostly women of childbearing age with a history of breastfeeding, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The illness is not limited to patients who fit that description, though.

GM is underdiagnosed and understudied, the NIH reports. The disease’s pathogenesis is “poorly understood.”

Tami Burdick, now 47, is an advocate for awareness about granulomatous mastitis, or GM, a rare inflammatory breast disease. Courtesy of Tami Burdick

Burdick felt anxiety because there was limited information about the disease.

“It’s a rare condition, and I saw horrendous photos of women who had GM,” Burdick said. “The uncertainty was scary. I wanted answers, but they weren’t readily available.”

The next step was determining a way to treat the condition.

GM can arise from hormone imbalances, fungal infections, and other complications, Burdick learned.

There is also idiopathic granulomatous mastitis, where the cause is unknown.

Burdick asked her oncologist McLean to collaborate on her case with Seigler, who has a private functional medicine practice.

A member of the GM support group on Facebook referenced a gene sequencing pathology test that can identify all species of live bacteria in a sample.

Burdick asked McLean to order the test, and McLean agreed.

“It ultimately helped save my life,” Burdick said of the test that was administered seven months after learning she did not have cancer.

The results indicated that Burdick’s GM was caused by Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii, an environmental bacteria linked to contaminated water, sewer, and soil.

Burdick and her doctors determined that she contracted the bacteria from the hotel shower in Connecticut during her January 2017 business trip.

“Another professional on that same trip, at the same time, in the same hotel had contracted an infection the same way I did through my breast, but it was contracted through his ankle,” she said.

Burdick had the water tested at her home for the Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii. The results were negative.

Research about the bacteria showed that they required a natural point of entry, like a pore or duct opening.

“I hadn’t been in a pool, a hot tub, or any other bodies of water for a long time. It made the most sense that the hotel shower is how it happened,” Burdick said.

McLean noted that she believes clean water is the answer to many diseases and illnesses that we see.

Burdick underwent a course of treatment that included antibiotics and surgery, which left two scars on her chest.

“I see them every day,” she said. “They are my warrior wounds.”

Her bout with GM remains in remission.

A proponent of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) platform, Burdick closely monitors the ingredients in the food and drinks she consumes.

She is hopeful that part of Kennedy’s plan to address the chronic disease epidemic involves promoting more collaboration between traditional medical professionals and functional medicine practitioners.

Her personal story is a prime example of how it can prevent “unnecessary and costly procedures,” she said.

Seigler praised McLean for the collaboration.

Typically, a surgeon would not order immunity system tests and search for pathogenic bacteria, he told The Epoch Times.

McLean said that her “busy clinical load” limits the time she spends with patients. This is why it’s valuable for people to become informed advocates for themselves, she said.

“Tami did a lot of research to educate herself about the disease and treatments. I never could have put in the time and effort that she dedicated to finding answers,” McLean told The Epoch Times.

“What I learned from Tami, I now carry forward to other patients with more confidence and insight into the disease process prior to knowing her. I couldn’t have helped her if I hadn’t worked with her.”

Without the collaboration between McLean and Siegler, Burdick fears she would have undergone a needless procedure.

“She was willing to listen to me and open-minded to my test request, which finally gave us the answers. I would have had an unnecessary mastectomy and reconstructive surgery had we not found that bacteria,” Burdick said.

Burdick believes that self-advocacy, and two medical professionals from different training backgrounds who were willing to work together, saved her life.

“Collaboration isn’t just doctor to doctor, it’s patient to doctor,” Burdick said.

“It’s important for patients to take the time to conduct research, ask questions, and advocate for themselves,” she said. “It’s even more important for medical professionals to have an open mind and listen to their patients. That is true collaboration.”