Deb Campbell | FBC Bellville

Dana talks with Deb Campbell. She is the assistant director of an area children's theater program while dealing with lung cancer. Deb has an inspirational story and an important message for ladies.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This inspirational lady wasn't going to leta tough childhood stop her. She loves
theater. As a matter of fact, she was recently the assistant director of
the children's performance at Belleville Baptist Church. What's Up, Zach? It was
the best show ever and she's doingit while she's dealing with a very rare
form of lung cancer. What inspiresand motivates Deb Campbell and a message for

(00:26):
us ladies. She is my gueston My Houston Women podcast sponsored by Gallery
Furniture. Well, I'm at Deb. One morning, my husband and I
went to the Bible study class beforechurch, and around the room, John
asked us if there's anybody who wouldlike us to pray for them, anybody
we would like to pray for,And this beautiful lady stands up, and

(00:50):
I would have had no idea whatyour story was, Deb, no idea,
because you're vibrant, vivacious, funny, lovely. And before we get
to your story, I just wantto talk about your dream that you sort
of fulfilled at a children's presentation atchurch where you allowed my son, my

(01:12):
fourth child, And it's so prescientbecause I always said he was the perfect
child. You allowed him to beJesus. I love him. So tell
us about your dreams. You alwayswanted to do theater, right I did.
I've actually done theater since I wastwelve, okay, and then it
was my minor in college, andI was drama ministry director at two churches

(01:34):
for twenty years, so if Ihave done a lot. And I also
before we moved from Gainesville, Texas, we were involved with Fulfilled Stage up
there and I directed to Neil Simonplays. I loved directing more than I
do acting. But I was alsoin three plays so and then Galen was
actually my husband was in a WestSide story up there. So we were

(01:56):
very involved in theater before we movedto Belleville. That is amazing. Now
it's definitely a passion. The costumesthis was called. That was all miss
Becky Bailey. I was there asa team player, so okay, all
right, But Becky Bailey, shewas. She was a mastermind behind it,
all the costumes, down to theset, everything. One of the

(02:20):
best presentations ever. It was thetax Collected, the little bitty short tax
collector. He was amazing. Andthat's having to go into a tree because
Jesus is coming to town. Andit was a wonderful procu We loved it.
We loved it. It's fun.Thank you you're telling me that you
know this was this is your life. You love doing this, and I
just can't remember my passion. Yeah. So when I first met you,

(02:45):
it was you talking about it's gottenreally bad. You needed prayers for your
Yes, we're talking about Deb's cancer. Yes, my second out with cancer.
Yes, So I did have Idid have cancer, all right,
believing. I did have breast cancerin two thousand and seven, and it
did go into remission. It wasa stage zero, but it was high

(03:07):
grade beast moving and went into remissionthen and I had radiation to the breast.
And then in twenty nineteen it wentrogue and got like six times its
size, which it was never supposedto grow or get smaller. And UH
went with that. Nobody was listeningto me that something was wrong. I

(03:27):
got pop at it. Oh,you're just at that age things are going
to change. Well, I'll comethe other side's not changing. And then
in twenty twenty one, I endedup finally getting a full mass stuck to
me and come to find out therewas pre cancers cells in that breast.
Wow. So yeah, I havea lot to say about that too,
about women being their own best advocate, because absolutely it is important. So

(03:49):
the second time, I guess wecan just can I start from the beginning,
just talk about it, just talkingabout it, Okay. So I
so I want to say that I'ma child of God first, and an
honored wife, mama and a bonusmom, grandma, and a grammy to
ten grands. We're a blended family. My husband and I have been married

(04:13):
seven years. My husband, myson, my daughter, and my two
grands that are here locally are mybest medicine and my loves of my life.
I also have fought women. Yougotta have women in your life that
are strong and will pray for you. I have five strong women in my
life that we've span If you putall of the years we've known each other

(04:34):
together as over ninety years, isthat crazy? And so they're my five
ride or die. And God's justsurrounded me with an amazing church and a
support system my whole entire life,even before I was a believer. My
life first is be still and knowthat I am God. I find that
humorous and I think that God,and I get a giggle of it because

(04:58):
being still is not my wheelhouse.So I am not still, yeah right,
I mean when they tell me torest, I'm like, that's so
cute. Rest. But I goto Versus Mark sixteen thirty three, which
is I've told you these things sothat in me, who may have peace,
but in this world you will havetrouble. Take heart, I have

(05:19):
overcome the world, because it's importantto know that, especially in the situation
I'm in right now. And Ialways say, it's not a religion,
it's a relationship with Jesus, rightyeah. And my motto is love God,
love people, because when Jesus wasasked by his disciples, what's the
greatest of the commandments, he said, you love the Lord your God with

(05:41):
all your heart, mind and soul. And the second is just as important
to love your neighbor as yourself.And I really try to live that daily.
I really do so. Like Isaid, I survived breast cancer and
then and I had a cause sincemy early thirties, misdiagnosed for twenty years.

(06:04):
At every one time I went todoctor, I said what is this
cough? And they'd say, oh, it's this it's that it's asthma's this
asthma's that kind of asthma. Noone ever said like COPD or anything like
that. Well in twenty twelve,by there are no accidents, I know
with God, but by accidents.They found nodules in my lungs on a

(06:24):
scan they were doing for something else. They called them nodules. They're actually
tumors. So Indie Anderson followed themfor two years, sent me on my
merry way. It's got worse thantwenty eighteen. I saw a lung specialist
who decided to do surgical lung biopsiesand wedge resections and found out that I

(06:46):
had interstitial lung disease, so notCOPD, not asthma. And it's called
NICK, which is diffuse idiopathic pulmonaryneuroindricrine cell hyperplasia. That's why they call
it DIVNIK because it's so long.Right, So I also have stage four
neuro dricrine lung cancer. Uh DIPNIKcan turn to that, which mine did.

(07:10):
It doesn't necessarily always, but it'swomen my age, usually of Caucasian
race. Some of them have hadbreast cancer. I think they just don't
know enough about it. Neuro dricrinelung cancer is one percent of the neuroindricrine
cancer, so it's rare. UpNick is rare of rare. I just
recently did a study, according tomy specialist in Nashville that only six They

(07:33):
only had sixty two participants, Sothat'll tell you how I'm new it is.
So there's no trials or what Ihave, there's nothing because it hasn't
been created. There's there's nothing outthere. So what I have is not
curable. It's not un go inremission. It's I wanntry I say,

(07:55):
it's it's it's just basically maintenance.So so last year I wasn't getting the
answers I needed at MT. Anderson, honestly, and I sought out a
specialist who only does type of cancerI have in the interstitial lung disease I
have, and went to Nashville,which I do still see him. I
go in in November. He's inVanderbilt Ingroom Cancer Center, and he said,

(08:20):
too, you know, I feellike everything looks stable, and you
know it looks good. I'm gonnatake all of your scans from twenty eighteen
to my tumor board. We're gonnalook at him and you know, we'll
see, we'll see what comes up. Two weeks later, I'm at Mom's
first he calls me and he sayswe need to have a chat, and
I said, okay. He said, things are not stable. He said,

(08:41):
we put all your scans together andit's twenty eighteen to now. They
have been growing more rapidly than theslow progress the slow growing nature of this
cancer. So what I would likeyou to do is in touch with a
lung transplant team, and I wouldlike you to get on you know,

(09:01):
now you have to know with neuralendocrine cancer unless you are in a late
greater state or it is mesastized,which mine has both lungs outside of the
lung say they usually don't do,you know. So I was like,
well, okay. So I wasn'treally happy with that phone call at first
because I was thinking everything unky dory. So I did get in touch with

(09:24):
the transplant team. We had along conversation with them with my family and
friends. They said, I'm sorry, but you're not a candidate. And
the reason you're not a candidate andwe wouldn't even touch you basically with a
ten foot pool because because of theextent of the malignancy and your lungs we
we put you on. If wewere to put you on immunosuppressant drugs,

(09:46):
it would spread your answer rapidly.So you know, it's a god thing.
I'm telling you. If people thinkof that, say, well,
there's no hope, there is hopebecause I have Jesus hope, right because
I have Jesus. But we'll tellyou that. Look at that. And
I asked him, I said,okay, let's just say you were able
to do it. How much timewould that give me extra because it would

(10:07):
have to be a full lung transplant. And he said two years. And
I said, you know, I'lltake my chances the way I'm going right
now, because I mean, youknow, suppressant drugs, I wouldn't be
able to see my friends or familyor go to church for what six months
outside? Okay, So then theygive me the lung transplant the same thing
on the other side, then whatdo I have a good six months.

(10:28):
I'm gonna take my chances on theside. So that's kind of where I
am with that. I was ona ten milligram, which is the highest
dose of it's daily oral chemo whicha lot of people here and they think,
oh, okay, it's the sameas when you go to get an
infusion. It's just daily. AndI was on the highest milligram and in

(10:48):
March. Not being dramatic, butit's the truth. It almost killed me
because the toxicity level got so badin my system that I was very sick
for a very long time. Andso they lowered the well, they took
me off for a while and thenlowered the dose. The scans and March
showed that it was doing what it'ssupposed to do, which is to keep

(11:11):
new grows from happening and to youknow, start lessening the ones that are
there, which it was doing.Well. Now we're at a lower dose,
and so now the question, andI'm waiting on Nashville to get back
with me after they see the scansfrom June and compare them to March.
Now that we're on a lower dose, isn't doing the same thing? And

(11:31):
if it's not, what do wedo next? Because I don't want to
be taking something that I don't needto be taking right So anyway, but
I always say, but God,right, he knows he's in control,
and I believe he can heal mefrom this, you know what, and
I'm going to praise him anyway.If he doesn't, I'm going to praise

(11:52):
him even more because man, alternativeis pretty cool. I believe that.
But the altern it was pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So I want
to do a little PDA out tothe ladies, if that's okay. So
I said, please, ladies,my age, ladies, my age,
which I'll be sixty one in October. If you have a chronic cough that

(12:13):
keeps being misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD, but nothing helped, ask about interstitial
lung disease. Not all interspecial lungdisease is cancerous and most important, be
your own advocate and most important,Yeah, you don't advocate, ask the
questions all of them. Know yourbody and listen to it. And fire

(12:35):
doctors who like Kate or or simplyrefuse to answer your questions or dismiss your
symptoms because you're a woman. OhI love that, dab I did.
I did that for so many years, and I'm like, this is you
know, until I got this disease. That literally in twenty eighteen, there

(12:56):
was very little knowledge on the internet, you know, doing good gool doctor
that you could find about it.So I had to be my own advocate
and start learning about what I have. And you know, I may not
be able to say this on theair, but I fired him Dee Anderson.
I mean, they just weren't whatI needed. They weren't giving me

(13:16):
what I needed. And if you'renot getting it, then you need to
go get what you need. Yourinsurance will take care of that. I
mean a lot of people are like, oh, well, I can't because
nope, you know what, ifyou can go to this, this facility
or that facility, we're gonna letyou go to another one. So be
your own advocate. That's that's mymain That's my main thing. But mostly

(13:39):
I just want people to know thatJesus is real and he's out there.
He's with us every day. Evenwhen I didn't know him, he was
with me through my whole life andkind of paving the way I've I've heard
people say, well, if youcould, if you could go back and
be any age, what would youwant to be? What would you want
to be? And I said,I don't because everything that's happened to me

(14:01):
along the way has made me whoI am. Just a little backstory.
I want too much into it.But I grew up in a house where
my mother was an abusive of analcoholic. My dad was in the Navy,
and they divorced when I was two, and he died when I was
eleven, and so he davy,person's gonna come rescue me? Right,

(14:22):
So it's a lot that I couldbe angry about or you know, mad
about. You know, when Ihad my children at thirty and thirty two,
I broke that cycle. I hadbecome a Christian, and both of
my children are Christians. They walkedwith the Lord. My daughter's married to
a youth pastor, and my sonis an archaeologist in the field. And

(14:50):
God has just really blessed me withso much in my life, so I
could be more happy with who Iam. You know, I like to
get at guests who delight people.And when I saw you on stage this
Sunday after, I know you werevery like, is this the same woman?
It's amazing, And hey, I'vegot a guest. Come here,

(15:11):
Mitch. Here, here's this isthe guy who played Jesus. Yes,
I'm doing getting busy. Yeah,like my most favorite people in the world.
I heard your lovely voice as Iwas sneaking up to say hi,
and I was like, oh,this is incredible. I remember our conversation

(15:33):
right before, right during when wewere backstage. Well, that's your treat
for the day. Okay, thankyes, it is. Hopefully I'll get
to see you, see you anin per person and realize what does that?
What does it? The kids say, I r L. Yeah,
that was after my time, butthat is well, this is Jesus and

(15:58):
this is us and deb you're thebest and I'm glad that you are feeling
great and you're You're just amazing.And I wanted to share your story to
give people lots and lots of hope. Yes, and and you know,
and I would say, you know, I would give my number out to
the world if they needed my help, because you've got to have that person
too that can help you. Andit's been there, you know, So

(16:22):
anyone can contact me and if theyneed to reach you, we can definitely
do it that way. I wouldlove to do that, all right,
Love, we will see you atchurch. Take me here. You did
excellent. Thanks for joining us,Thank you for having me