 I remember the day I was diagnosed with cancer. It was a form of Pancreatic Cancer which had spread to my liver. At the time I was working as a senior assignment editor for Channel 2 in Atlanta. Through my previous work as a cameraman I had had the opportunity to travel worldwide and had met many interesting people including every president since Nixon, as well as Nelson Mandela. I covered the Olympics in Barcelona and had been on a safari in East Africa. In other words, I lived a full life and felt very strongly about fighting this cancer. I did not panic about my diagnosis but decided I would pursue all possible treatment options.
I chose to get a second opinion from a nearby teaching and research hospital in Atlanta. But when I met the physicians at this hospital it quickly became very clear that they were not the kind of doctors I needed. They did not give me any kind of hope and did not talk about offering me a treatment.
I had some dealings with DeKalb Medical through my job at the television station and had heard it was an excellent place to get treatment so I called oncologist Dr. Jayanthi Srinivasiah for an appointment. I had a completely different experience with her. From the first moment she spoke very positively about my treatment. She gave me options and carefully explained how my treatment would work. She never gave me an “expiration date,” but rather approached my treatment as an ongoing process of “learning to live one day at a time.” She gave me hope. That was almost nine years ago!
Dr. Jay and I decided to try different methods of chemotherapy treatment, and over the past eight years we have managed to keep my cancer under control for long intervals. I have gone as long as two years without any type of treatment whatsoever. My tumor has remained slow growing and under control, without ever spreading to any other organs.
For me, my journey with cancer has been like winning the Super Bowl. It isn’t just my ability to endure and fight. DeKalb Medical has excellent doctors and a team of caring people who genuinely seem to have my health at heart. Combine that with the support of my family, fellow survivors and all the people who reached out to me when I needed it the most and it has definitely been a prescription for success!
|