Patient Stories

I was sitting at my computer paying bills when I got a sharp pain on my right side. I went to the ER where they did a sonogram. They called a surgeon over and he saw something on my sonogram and kept me overnight. The next day, the surgeon called and said I had cancer and multiple tumors in my abdomen, but they didn’t know what kind. Then the surgeon got me to see another doctor. He then showed me all of the tumors on the screen. He wasn’t sure at first, so they did the biopsy. He scheduled a surgery and I was in Baptist for 28 days after the surgery. It took me at least 10 months to recover. While I was in the hospital, Dr. Young came by and told me she was going to be my oncologist. That was the first time I got to meet her. It was determined that I had pancreatic cancer and it was an uncommon type, the islet cell type. The islet cell type is less aggressive than the regular type that takes so many people’s lives. Mine is slow progressing. I started seeing Dr. Young and started a regimen of medications. They had a lot of pills at that time, but they came out with a brand new pill that had just been approved, so I started that one. It was Sutent. It worked for a while, but we tried more until finally we found one that would work. We found another that worked for a very long time, Afinitor. After Afinitor, we tried immuno-suppressives and some of the regular IV Chemos. A variety of those did not work. Now, she’s found this older combination that’s helped a lot. I've been dealing with this for 15 years now. When I found out, I called my sister and my family and close friends and told them that I had cancer. My sister is 18 months older than me. She stayed with me, supported me and hardly ever left the room for those 28 days that I was in Baptist. She slept there every night.

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There are many ways that I coped with everything. The first is that I had a great oncologist. Dr. Young, she can’t be beat in my eyes. She was the best. It was comforting knowing that I was in really good hands. My pulmonologist was Dr. Tim Cannon. My regular doctor at the time was Dr. Scott Harrison. I had a team of amazing, top notch doctors. Another thing was, when I heard the news, there was a famous journalist who got breast cancer and wrote a book called “First You Cry”. I thought that was such a poignant title and related to me. That’s how I first handled it. Then I thought, “Logistically, how do I deal with this?” My family and I have a very similar sense of humor which we used to cope with cancer. Laughter is one of the best coping mechanisms. That’s what I’ve used all of my life. This is the main thing we used to cope with this. Things of irony happened all the time and continue to happen. You just laugh about it, you find the humor in it. I’ll give a prime example: One day, two or three weeks after surgery, I was in a hospital bed. I looked out over the ledge outside of my window and there were two buzzards looking into the window at me. We just started laughing. My sister went to get a cup of coffee. I asked her, “When you go down there, look to see if there are any other buzzards on any other ledges.” She came back and said, “No, I didn’t see any other buzzards.” Then we started laughing some more. They were still looking at me. I said, “This is my hide!” I’m a big man. I swear I saw one of them smacking his lips. They stayed there all day long. It was the little things like that that we found to help us cope. We found humor and irony and laughed about it. Another coping mechanism that helped is what my sister told me. You know, you get to thinking and your mind starts running rampant and your mind is filled with worry and speculation. I was getting more anxious everyday when my sister said, “You need to stop doing that.” She told me this phrase: “Don’t worry about it until it happens.” I used that everyday and henceforth. I use it today. While I was trying to cope after surgery, I used breathing relaxation techniques and imagery relaxation techniques. Those helped me get out of bed. Talking to friends and family was helpful. They were a good support. I laughed with Dr. Young and the entire staff, especially the staff on the back that helped with my IV’s. We got to know each other and each other’s families.

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I’ve never considered myself to be a strong person . Thursday,June 16, 2011 forever changed mine and my husband’s life. That was the day we sat in the surgeons office and was told I had Triple Negative breast cancer - stage 2-B, grade 3. It’s mind boggling how it seems that when this disease comes into your life you learn a new language. Triple negative is a very aggressive form of breast cancer. I never even knew there were so many different kinds of breast cancer. I was 48 1/2 years old at the time. I’m so thankful my husband and I have gone through this together as a team. He has always said , “What happens to one of us, happens to the other. “ we fight together.

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All I could think about was HOW this illness would effect my husband, my daughter, my grandchild and my mother.

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When We got home, I went to the bedroom which we were in the middle of remodeling. My husband had a pistol at the time hidden between the mattresses. Something said,” take the gun , put it to your head, pull the trigger and it will all be over. “ It will hurt your family for a while but they will get over it quicker than they would if they have to watch you suffer. Your husband will spend every dime he’s ever saved for retirement for medical treatment and it’s still going to come back! My daughter, an only child, would have to take time away from her family to try to help take care of me. My mother had been diagnosed with Leukemia 4 years earlier; this would just be too much stress for her. The words, “ The Thief comes to steal, kill and destroy!” John 10:10 came to my mind. I knew Satan was trying to get me to kill myself. I’m a Christian. I know the shepherd’s voice! Out loud I said, “ Satan, I rebuke you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!”

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I went and sat on the deck and tried to comprehend everything that had just happened. I’m a Christian and had NEVER thought about suicide. Through all of this I learned to NEVER say what you would NEVER do. You really don’t know WHAT you will do until you are faced with a situation. Satan came after me at my lowest point and used what I loved most, my family, to try to accomplish his goal.

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Sitting on the deck, my phone rang. It was a number I didn’t recognize. You get a lot of those when you are first diagnosed. I answered and it was a voice with a Caribbean accent! Pastor Luke Adhin, a minister from Trinidad and Tobago, a friend of my brothers. My brother had called him asking for prayer for me.

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Pastor Luke said, Rissa, God told me to call and tell you that , what Satan is going to use to TRY to destroy you, God is going to use to abundantly bless you. He prayed for me and hung up. I didn’t tell him that I had thought about suicide a few minutes earlier before his phone call until two years later when he was sitting in my living room visiting our country.

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God impressed a scripture on my heart, the first of many, Psalm 118:17- “I shall not die but LIVE to declare what the Lord has done for me. “ I have tried to LIVE by this for almost 10 1/2 years now that we have been fighting the cancer.

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God spoke another verse of scripture to me, Romans 8:28 ,” And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. “ALL things Lord! Really- you’re telling me to be thankful for the cancer?? So I started praying, Father , I thank you for the cancer in my life and how you are going to use it for my good and Your Glory. But I also had to say, God, I’m praying this and you know in my heart I DON’T mean this BUT I want to mean it! Help me Father to be thankful.

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A few days later I had a visit from a woman who had a coworker , a 34 year old mother of a 6 week old baby , who had been diagnosed with Triple Negative and needed someone to talk to. THIS is where God started my ministry! Proverbs 3:5-6 was another verse God impressed on my heart . “Trust the Lord, with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. “ I became friends with this young lady . She became like my own daughter. She, her mother and I would go to her chemo appointments, go out to eat— we became family. For two years she and I shared treatments, good days, bad days, tears of sadness and of joy. Her precious little boy turned 2 at the end of August and we were told she was being sent to hospice at 36 years old. I had shared the love of Jesus, who is my ONLY HOPE, with her for two years; I had seen the changes in her life through that time. Three days before she passed away, on my knees and her in her bed in the Baptist hospital, I lead her to ask Jesus into her heart. YES FATHER, I am so grateful for the cancer. ALL things truly do work together for good if you will allow God to do what He wants to do in your life. One of my favorite verses is

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2 Corinthians 12: 9-11 “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

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God allowed me to have cancer.

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Has it brought pain and suffering? You bet it has. It has gone from the breast to lymph nodes, to sternum and ribs, chest wall, lungs, brain and liver. Would I change anything if I could? No, I would not. I want my life to be a testimony of the goodness of God. He has given me so many opportunities to minister to other breast cancer survivors and i an so grateful that my journey has had a purpose.

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“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, hardships, and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

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I was diagnosed in 2006. I was referred to Dr. Qu. He informed me that I had Multiple Myeloma. He wanted me to see a specialist at the Mayo Clinic. I was told it was at the “smoldering stage”. By the grace of God, I received no treatment until 2011. That is when I had a Stem Cell Transplant. I am blessed to have survived for 10 years. I have friends and family to support me. I have been fighting two deadly diseases for sixteen years. I also have amyloidosis. These are only cancer related illnesses. That’s why I tell my story. I am one of God’s miracles. I have some advice for anyone who will go through what I have in the future: cancer is frightening, but there are so many more options for treatment now. The one constant is God.