Jennifer Lemon

Mammographer Jennifer Lemon was recognized in January with an Eagle Award after being nominated by a patient who said Lemon showed her heartfelt kindness during a mammogram. The nominator said Lemon goes above and beyond to make her patients feel comfortable and at ease during the uncomfortable exam.

Lemon was hired at CHI St. Alexis in Minot in 2007 as a radiographer. She was pushed into mammography in 2009, which she said she didn’t like at first but that it was a blessing because she loves to do it now.

“I love the one-on-one interaction with women,” Lemon said. “I love seeing them every year and knowing that they’re okay. In radiology or CT, which I loved, we get the sickest of the sick and the most hurt people and then you X-ray them or do their exam and they leave and you never see them again – you worry about them. In mammography if there’s an abnormal find or something scary is there, they’ll still come back to get checked out. … You become family – you see them every year and catch up and it’s great.”

Though she loves what she does, as with any medical field, finding the abnormal is tough.

“The pain of loving someone as a patient, and kind of a family member, and watching them go through such a struggle is hard. With breast cancer, especially the patients that come regularly, you do become pretty attached to them. … It’s hard watching them go through that battle,” she said.

Lemon said if breast cancer is caught early it is highly treatable. She said she wants to do her part to getting patients through the clinic doors by making sure their experience in the mammography department is a positive one.

“I love them. I want them to be comfortable and come back every year knowing that it’ll get caught because if they have a bad experience, they’ll never come back and then what’s the use?”

She said mammography technology has come a long way and the exams only last about five minutes. The state of the art equipment is able to find the smallest of abnormalities in the densest of tissue with less compression.

She encourages patients to, “Just come in and get it done,” and said once the exam is over many patients state the experience wasn’t as uncomfortable as they thought it would be.

Outside of work, Lemon is a busy hockey mom. Her 15 year-old son plays on Team ND which takes the Lemons across the country. She said hockey has taken them to Chicago and Denver and that Jayce has been asked to play in Boston and Nashville. Lemon said that it’s amazing to be able to watch her son succeed at what he loves.

Eagle Awards announced in January

The Minot Area Chamber EDC has announced the recipients of its Eagle Awards for January 2024.

The recipients are: Jazmine Wolff Schultz, Prairie Sky Breads; April Allen, Minot Automotive Company; Lindsey Bertsch, Main Street Books; Jennifer Lemon, CHI St. Alexis Minot; Blanca Arambul, Taco Feliz; Yumi Arambul, Taco Feliz; and Cody Erz, Badlands Restaurant & Bar.