May 21, 2025 • 24 mins
Cancer has evolved from a terrifying death sentence to a manageable condition for many patients, thanks to remarkable advances in treatment approaches. This transformation lies at the heart of our latest episode, featuring a candid conversation with Ruth Henry about her personal journey with biliary cancer.
Ruth shares how her diagnosis began with severe abdominal pain that led to the discovery of a malignant growth blocking her bile duct. Rather than focusing solely on eliminating her cancer, Ruth's medical team employs a strategy aimed at controlling the disease's growth while maximizing her quality of life. This paradigm shift represents one of the most significant changes in modern cancer care—treating cancer as a manageable chronic condition rather than pursuing aggressive treatments that often devastate healthy tissue.
The personalization of cancer treatment emerges as another crucial aspect of Ruth's experience. Every treatment she receives is meticulously tailored to her specific circumstances—her weight, height, age, and current health status. Blood work performed before each session ensures medication dosages remain precisely calibrated for her body on that particular day. When side effects become challenging, her medical team adjusts the frequency or strength of chemotherapy without abandoning effective medications. This individualized approach allows Ruth to continue living actively despite her diagnosis.
Perhaps most surprising is Ruth's relatively manageable experience with chemotherapy side effects. While she experiences fatigue and changes in appetite, proactive measures from her medical team have helped her avoid severe nausea and other debilitating effects often associated with cancer treatment. The healthcare professionals at her cancer center provide not just medical care but practical wisdom for navigating life during treatment—from hydration strategies after infusions to timing medications for optimal comfort.
As Ruth approaches her one-year treatment milestone, she reports feeling increasingly well as her medical team finds the perfect balance of therapy to control her cancer while minimizing side effects. Her story offers a refreshing perspective on living with cancer and illustrates how modern approaches are transforming outcomes for patients. Whether you've been touched by cancer personally or simply want to understand how treatment has evolved, this episode provides valuable insights into the changing landscape of cancer care.
Looking to learn more about modern cancer treatment approaches? Subscribe to our podcast for part two, where we'll dive deeper into treatment strategies and medical advances changing lives for cancer patients everywhere.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kevin (00:00):
Welcome to our podcast.
When life gives you lemons, I'mKevin and I'm Palmi.
Palmi (00:08):
We consider ourselves disability advocates and intend
to spotlight some disabilityissues and things we find
interesting that we frequentlyencounter when we're out and
about.
Also some history on disabilitythat we find interesting.
Kevin (00:23):
Welcome, Palmi Welcome everybody back to our podcast.
Palmi (00:28):
Hey, yeah, Kevin.
Kevin (00:31):
So what do we have on tap for today?
Palmi?
Palmi (00:34):
We're talking about cancer.
Cancer has touched everybody'slife at one point or another.
I'm sure it has touched ourlife several times in the past
and currently your mom isfighting cancer.
We've been back and forth toTennessee several times this
last couple of months trying tosupport her and your dad, and we
(00:56):
just recently got back and wewere lucky enough that she
agreed to do an interview withus on her points of view and her
progress and what her currentstatus is fighting cancer.
It was a nice interview.
Kevin (01:24):
Yeah, the thing that really surprised me about the
whole deal, because she's veryopen about the treatment she's
receiving and such is it.
Stuff we learned in schoolabout cancer has changed so much
right.
Palmi (01:34):
There's been so many advancements on it's not
necessarily a death sentenceanymore.
They um.
Their attitude towards canceris not to necessarily to, in her
case, is not necessarily to getrid of it.
It's to stop it from growingand then to have her life be as
(01:58):
pleasant as possible as long asthe cancer cells are not growing
right.
So before we get into theinterview, let's take care of a
couple housekeeping items.
(02:18):
What we want to do is encourageall listeners to give us
feedback on fan mail, soeverybody that does use fan mail
gets an automatic shout out.
So either use your first nameor give us a pseudonym, or it's
a way that you'll know that weshout it out to you when you
(02:41):
leave fan mail.
We don't get like a return emailaddress.
If you're not able to use fanmail for free, for example, if
you're outside the continentalus, you're feel free to use
email and just put in there.
(03:01):
You wanted to use email or fanmail, but it was not free for
you to use in your case.
And no, we don't collect emailaddresses.
So you're always welcome to gothere or whatever you feel you
should, but make sure youinclude in those emails, if
(03:26):
you're using them to replace fanmail, a name that we can say
hey, joe Schmuck gave us acompliment or a criticism, and
either one is fine, but we wantto give you a shout out for that
(03:47):
.
So what are we going to dobefore the interview kicks off,
Palmi?
Let's just do a little bit of an get a little bit of an
understanding about cancer.
Here's the definition that wefound Cancer is a disease where
some of the body's cells growuncontrollably and spread into
(04:09):
other parts of the body.
It can start almost anywhere inthe body, which is made up of
trillions of cells.
Normally, cells grow and divideas needed, but sometimes this
process breaks down, leading toabnormal cell growth that can
form tumors leading to abnormalcell growth that can form tumors
.
Kevin (04:26):
Yeah, basically there are two types of cancer that we're
going to talk about Bloodcancers, like leukemia, or
things that get into acirculatory system in your body,
(04:48):
like lymphoma, and theybasically spread to other parts
of your body.
The other type is solid tumorcancers.
It's like if you have a tumorremoved and they biopsy it and
they just say it's cancers andlater say it's cancerous, and of
course after that procedurethey'll check to be sure that
(05:09):
that was the only tumor thereand they got it all if it was
malignant.
Now, that was what your mom hadCorrect, yeah, her first
indication she had cancer wasshe grew some static tumor
cancers around her liver, one ofher ducts.
(05:33):
It prevented her liver fromdoing its job and draining
correctly.
So basically her liver was notfunctioning normally.
They didn't realize it wascancer until they opened it up
and saw what was blocking.
They just thought blockageRedux for the locker incorrectly
(05:56):
.
Palmi (05:56):
They just thought it was blockage, maybe a stone or
something like that was whatthey went in thinking.
Kevin (06:01):
Right.
Palmi (06:02):
So cancer cells differ from normal cells in several
ways.
They ignore signals to stopgrowing, evade the immune system
and can spread to other areasof the body through a process
called Metastasis.
Yeah, there you go.
Some tumors are benign,non-cancerous, and you hear that
a lot of times.
(06:23):
When they go in and take abiopsy They'll say it was either
benign or malignant, which justmeans cancerous and can invade
nearby tissues.
That's what they're alwaysafraid of when they go in and
open it up that they'll spread,become more, become cancerous.
(06:43):
If you are curious aboutsymptoms and causes and
treatments, we're going to diveinto more of that on another
segment, another episode thatwe're going to do after this
episode, after we do ourinterview.
Kevin (07:07):
Basically, what we're doing is kind of similar to the
previous episode that we madeinto two-parters, but this part
the first part is going to havethe interview in its entirety.
Palmi (07:15):
The second part we're going to just talk about points
that perhaps we need to explorea little better to understand
what went on during theinterview and what goes on
nowadays with cancer treatment,about her specific treatment and
(07:36):
how she her treatment wasplanned and the process of it,
and so we'll understand a lotmore of that and be able to
explain that a lot more afterthe interview.
Kevin (07:52):
So, without further ado, here's the interview.
Palmi (07:56):
Hi Ruth, we're sitting here with Ruth Henry.
Ruth (07:59):
Hi, it's nice to talk to you.
Palmi (08:02):
Our episode this month, this week, is going to be about
cancer and Ruth Henry is KevinHenry's mom and we're down here
visiting in Tennessee and wethought that we would get a
little bit of personalexperience from someone that has
(08:22):
been going through it recently.
Could you give us a little bitof background and how you were
diagnosed with the cancer andwhat kind of cancer it was?
Ruth (08:30):
Sure, I started developing severe abdominal pain and when
I went to the emergency roomthey did scans and they found
that something was blocking mybile duct to my liver.
When they went in there to seewhat it was, it was a malignant
growth and what it's called isbiliary cancer, because it was
(08:55):
actually affecting the bile duct.
It wasn't the liver itself.
So of course then the cancertrip began.
Scary to hear at first, butsomehow I knew my primary care
doctor and I'd been going to himfor years and I knew he was
(09:17):
going to help me find the besttreatments possible.
And I think he did.
And cancer has had so many newfindings, new ways to be treated
, new ways to keep you having aquality of life.
If you ever find yourself inthat position.
(09:40):
It's scary, you hard to thinkabout it, but don't be scared.
If you have a good cancer teamand you'll develop your own team
, they'll help you to make theright decisions, and that's what
happened there.
Palmi (09:59):
That's basically what happened, and you've had a lot
of.
You felt like you were beingtaken care of, they understood
you, they listened to you, right.
Ruth (10:09):
Being at a cancer center.
It's different than yourregular doctor visit.
I'm not sure how to explain it,except you develop such a close
relationship with your team,which is your oncologist, your
cancer nurses, even the personthat schedules your appointments
.
They do the best they can tomake you feel comfortable.
(10:30):
It really becomes not the scaryplace to be when I go in for my
infusions.
It's like going someplace whereI feel safe because I feel like
I'm being well taken care of.
Palmi (10:43):
Yeah, I've gone to a couple of treatments with you
and they, they know your name,they I mean they they know what
you like, they, they offer youthings that they've offered you
before you know, and they knowwhich arm you prefer to have
your.
You know everything taken careof on and stuff like that.
It was very homey, is what Igot from it.
Ruth (11:03):
And it's not just that.
It's things like and I know Ifeel like I have a very good
oncologist, but I'm alwaysamazed when he knows who my
family is, because we sit andhave conversations that aren't
just scary medical talk.
They get to know me, they knowhow many children I have.
(11:28):
They know no one lives reallyclose to us.
They reschedule appointmentsfor me if I have family coming,
like happened this time whenPommy and Kevin were coming.
The care is different than anyother medical care I believe you
would ever have.
Palmi (11:45):
And which?
What is your medical centerthat you go to?
Ruth (11:48):
I go to the Cancer Center in Cookville, Tennessee, and it
is staffed by Vanderbilt doctors, so it's connected to the
Vanderbilt Medical Center and Ifeel like from the first day
that they took me and my husbandin to tour and to see where
(12:13):
things happened and get uscomfortable with being there,
they have always tried to makeit not a scary place, right,
it's just really different thanwhat you imagine, while still
being, of course, you're worriedabout the outcome.
Palmi (12:33):
Yeah, Now scary things have happened.
I mean, it hasn't gone asplanned.
All along there's been somescary issues.
Ruth (12:41):
I've had some extenuating circumstances.
One I'm 82.
But you're a fit 82.
Yes, I was in good shape whenall this started, right.
But also because of having thecancer, a couple of other
medical issues not caused by thecancer, but because they were
(13:02):
investigating things to do withthe cancer, they found these
other issues that I had,basically old age type of things
that required surgery,hospitalization, and so that was
a little more difficult.
They weren't just treatingcancer, then I was being passed
through another specialist, thenback to the cancer center and
(13:26):
and all the the medicalprofessionals worked together to
make sure that there was acontinuity of my medical cancer
care.
That could continue.
Palmi (13:39):
They worked together then , yes, knowing that you still
had to continue the chemo andstuff like that.
Ruth (13:45):
Yeah, Knowing in the long run I needed to finish the chemo
Right.
I was put on a very strongregimen of chemo that they
weren't sure that I wouldtolerate well because of my age,
but I have.
They're very pleased with theway it's going and they have
(14:05):
been able to in the recent timesbecause chemo is hard on you.
Don't let anybody tell you anydifferent.
Chemo is hard on you, somechemo more than others.
And chemo is hard on you, somechemo more than others.
And so when the chemo startedaffecting my body in different
ways, they just changed.
(14:25):
They didn't change the drug,they changed how often I got it.
They changed the strength ofthe drug.
Palmi (14:32):
And it was based on your daily, on the draws, the blood
work you always get blood workEvery time you go in.
Ruth (14:38):
You get blood work for everything.
They check everything Becausethey're affecting the chemo.
Right, because the chemoaffects different.
Chemos have different sideeffects and at the time now I'm
getting two different kinds ofchemo and also an immune system
(14:59):
treatment.
Palmi (15:00):
Can you explain that a little bit?
That was something I'd neverheard of.
You told us that you, basically, will always have the cancer,
right?
Yes, they're not trying to getrid of the cancer, right,
they're trying to Control it,control it and that's a new
thought in the cancer treatment.
Ruth (15:19):
Yes, a lot of the problems before I'm going to say in
fairly recent years they havedecided if the cancer can be
controlled and kept at a placewhere it's not being aggressive,
then they can decrease yourchemo, they can adjust your
(15:40):
chemo, they can change to justimmune system therapy so that
you don't the chemo is notdestroying your body, your
healthy tissues.
So it's like a balancing act,is that?
Palmi (15:57):
particular to your type of cancer.
Is that a?
Ruth (16:00):
standard thing all through .
It's becoming a way oftreatment, because as long as
the cancer can be controlled, ifit's not growing, if it's not
being aggressive, then it canjust hang out there all at once
and it's not bothering you, ormy type isn't anyway.
(16:21):
Right, I can only speak to whatI'm getting Right.
Right.
And every treatment that isgiven nowadays is made for you.
It's made for your weight, it'smade for your height, it's made
for your age, I imagine evenDNA types.
I mean, it's when I go I getblood work done before I ever
(16:44):
start, before they order mychemo, so that when my chemo
dosage comes up to begin theinfusion it's made for the
weight that I am that day.
It's all very individual and Ithink that's why these
treatments are becoming sosuccessful now.
Palmi (17:06):
And so many more successful outcomes.
Ruth (17:09):
Yes, I have friends that have had similar treatments,
that still basically have cancer, that still basically have
cancer and they're leadingactive, happy lives for many,
many years and when somethingstarts to, they feel like the
cancer is maybe starting to getmore active again.
(17:32):
They just tweak your treatmenta little bit, and I'm not making
light of this.
Cancer is still a horriblething to have, but there's ways
to fight it now that doesn'truin your life right right.
Palmi (17:48):
I was surprised, we were amazed and so appreciative that
you didn't have all the sideeffects that we had heard about
in the past.
Where I mean you?
You were sick and you lookedweak, but you didn't lose you
haven't lost a lot of your hair,you didn't lose your appetite.
You did lose some appetite, butyou weren't so sickly, you
(18:10):
weren't eating at all oranything you lost some weight,
but you were very thin to beginwith, so I think you kind of
have that tendency to loseweight to begin with, right.
Ruth (18:19):
Yeah, I never had.
I was never nauseated, right.
For one thing before I everstarted chemo, they gave me a
prescription for two differentkinds of nausea medicine so I
could have them at home if theywere needed.
When I go in for my infusion,I'm given by IV two other kinds
(18:39):
of medicine for nausea and Ihave been lucky, I have not been
nauseated at all.
Have I lost my appetite?
Yes, has my taste for foodchanged?
Yes, sometimes in strange ways.
Yeah, that I never imagined.
But I have never actually beennauseated from the treatments.
(19:02):
That's great.
Palmi (19:04):
That's really great.
Ruth (19:05):
I'm mainly tired, weak loss of muscle, of course,
because you don't feel likegetting up and doing a lot of
things and they don't want youto overexert.
They want you to rest betweentreatments, Right, because
you're healing.
Palmi (19:18):
Right, right and a lot of that might.
Some of that you said youthought some of those side
effects were due to the otherconditions that you had prior to
this.
That were in conjunction withthe chemo Right.
We're not sure what was chemoand what was the other.
Ruth (19:34):
Correct yeah.
Palmi (19:36):
So what was the other?
Kevin (19:39):
thing.
Is there any predicted?
Ruth (19:52):
deserves, in your opinion, special recognition throughout
your encounter with cancertreatment cancer center.
When I go in for my infusions,I'm in the infusion room, which
is always very busy with some ofthe nicest, smartest nurses I
have ever known.
Besides just being doing nursethings the computer work they
(20:16):
have to do.
I get seven different bags ofstuff when I go in for my
infusion.
I'm in there approximately fivehours.
They have different thedifferent medications are all in
their individual bags.
They're all given at certaintimes.
(20:37):
One can be given faster thanothers.
They are absolutely amazing.
They are kind, they are smartand they have all these little
pieces of knowledge just frombeing who they are.
That are just things like youknow, if you just take that pill
(20:59):
a little hour later, it'll makeyou feel better faster.
Or make sure, when you go homefrom an infusion day, drink,
drink, drink, hydrate more thanyou do normally, because the
faster you move that throughyour body, the faster you'll get
rid of that special tirednessyou get right after having your
(21:22):
infusion.
There's all these little thingsthat they know that they can
help you with Right that theyeasily share and they're always
happy.
Yeah, they're not acting likeit's a bad place to be.
They're joking with not just me, with everybody.
I mean.
They get to know their patients, they know what they like to
(21:44):
drink, not just the nurses, thewoman that comes around and
brings you sandwiches and bringsyou snacks and brings you a
warm blanket.
They're all just caring.
They're all on your team, right?
Palmi (22:00):
makes you feel like you're not alone that's right,
yeah, and we're.
You've gone through this forit's been.
Ruth (22:07):
How long now it'll be a year in june.
It hasn't been that long sinceit was diagnosed, yeah and so
we're almost through a year.
Palmi (22:16):
So uh is, are we at the end of the chemo, or what would
the prognosis be at this point?
Ruth (22:24):
What started out as a prescribed times that I would
get the chemo and then hopefullygo on to immune therapy, has
gone on a little longer thanexpected because of those other
medical issues that came up.
For one thing that kind ofmaybe had a little break in the
chemo, but also because what I'mgiving, being given, is working
(22:51):
right and so they never intendfor me to be cancer clear.
Right, but as long as it isactually working on the cancer
that I started out with, theyhate to stop me getting the
medicine that is doing that.
However, they have made it um,I'm getting a less strong dose,
(23:12):
um, I'm getting it further apartin time, so they're trying to
see how they can wean you off alittle bit.
Right, I'm feeling better andbetter because I have less chemo
in my body.
However, it's still working andmy cancer markers are still
going down and I feel reallyquite well.
(23:35):
I'm eating good.
I'm gaining weight back.
I feel really quite well, I'meating good, I'm gaining weight
back, and I just I don't knowhow I can possibly thank all
those people that have been onmy team.
Palmi (23:45):
Yeah, and us too.
Thank them too.
Yep, all right.
Well, thank you for being soopen with us, ruth, and I know
this is very personal.
The reason Kevin's notinterviewing his mom is he was
afraid he was going to breakdown, so he is over there inside
, but he's pretty.
Kevin (24:04):
Hi everybody.
Palmi (24:07):
But he did good.
I think he did good.
We're going to have some moreinformation about cancer
research that we've done andwe'll add that to this interview
.
Kevin (24:21):
We'll see you later.
Wow, that was great interview,palmy.
Excellent job, and we'll givemom a shout out and say
excellent job as well, and we'lltalk to you again next time to
explain some of the things thatyou just heard about, and
(24:43):
perhaps my mom just touched on.
Bye now.
Palmi (24:46):
Bye now.
Kevin (24:47):
Until next episode, take those lemons and make your own
lemonaid.
Welcome to our podcast.
When life gives you lemons, I'mKevin and I'm Palmi.
Palmi (00:08):
We consider ourselves disability advocates and intend
to spotlight some disabilityissues and things we find
interesting that we frequentlyencounter when we're out and
about.
Also some history on disabilitythat we find interesting.
Kevin (00:23):
Welcome, Palmi Welcome everybody back to our podcast.
Palmi (00:28):
Hey, yeah, Kevin.
Kevin (00:31):
So what do we have on tap for today?
Palmi?
Palmi (00:34):
We're talking about cancer.
Cancer has touched everybody'slife at one point or another.
I'm sure it has touched ourlife several times in the past
and currently your mom isfighting cancer.
We've been back and forth toTennessee several times this
last couple of months trying tosupport her and your dad, and we
(00:56):
just recently got back and wewere lucky enough that she
agreed to do an interview withus on her points of view and her
progress and what her currentstatus is fighting cancer.
It was a nice interview.
Kevin (01:24):
Yeah, the thing that really surprised me about the
whole deal, because she's veryopen about the treatment she's
receiving and such is it.
Stuff we learned in schoolabout cancer has changed so much
right.
Palmi (01:34):
There's been so many advancements on it's not
necessarily a death sentenceanymore.
They um.
Their attitude towards canceris not to necessarily to, in her
case, is not necessarily to getrid of it.
It's to stop it from growingand then to have her life be as
(01:58):
pleasant as possible as long asthe cancer cells are not growing
right.
So before we get into theinterview, let's take care of a
couple housekeeping items.
(02:18):
What we want to do is encourageall listeners to give us
feedback on fan mail, soeverybody that does use fan mail
gets an automatic shout out.
So either use your first nameor give us a pseudonym, or it's
a way that you'll know that weshout it out to you when you
(02:41):
leave fan mail.
We don't get like a return emailaddress.
If you're not able to use fanmail for free, for example, if
you're outside the continentalus, you're feel free to use
email and just put in there.
(03:01):
You wanted to use email or fanmail, but it was not free for
you to use in your case.
And no, we don't collect emailaddresses.
So you're always welcome to gothere or whatever you feel you
should, but make sure youinclude in those emails, if
(03:26):
you're using them to replace fanmail, a name that we can say
hey, joe Schmuck gave us acompliment or a criticism, and
either one is fine, but we wantto give you a shout out for that
(03:47):
.
So what are we going to dobefore the interview kicks off,
Palmi?
Let's just do a little bit of an get a little bit of an
understanding about cancer.
Here's the definition that wefound Cancer is a disease where
some of the body's cells growuncontrollably and spread into
(04:09):
other parts of the body.
It can start almost anywhere inthe body, which is made up of
trillions of cells.
Normally, cells grow and divideas needed, but sometimes this
process breaks down, leading toabnormal cell growth that can
form tumors leading to abnormalcell growth that can form tumors
.
Kevin (04:26):
Yeah, basically there are two types of cancer that we're
going to talk about Bloodcancers, like leukemia, or
things that get into acirculatory system in your body,
(04:48):
like lymphoma, and theybasically spread to other parts
of your body.
The other type is solid tumorcancers.
It's like if you have a tumorremoved and they biopsy it and
they just say it's cancers andlater say it's cancerous, and of
course after that procedurethey'll check to be sure that
(05:09):
that was the only tumor thereand they got it all if it was
malignant.
Now, that was what your mom hadCorrect, yeah, her first
indication she had cancer wasshe grew some static tumor
cancers around her liver, one ofher ducts.
(05:33):
It prevented her liver fromdoing its job and draining
correctly.
So basically her liver was notfunctioning normally.
They didn't realize it wascancer until they opened it up
and saw what was blocking.
They just thought blockageRedux for the locker incorrectly
(05:56):
.
Palmi (05:56):
They just thought it was blockage, maybe a stone or
something like that was whatthey went in thinking.
Kevin (06:01):
Right.
Palmi (06:02):
So cancer cells differ from normal cells in several
ways.
They ignore signals to stopgrowing, evade the immune system
and can spread to other areasof the body through a process
called Metastasis.
Yeah, there you go.
Some tumors are benign,non-cancerous, and you hear that
a lot of times.
(06:23):
When they go in and take abiopsy They'll say it was either
benign or malignant, which justmeans cancerous and can invade
nearby tissues.
That's what they're alwaysafraid of when they go in and
open it up that they'll spread,become more, become cancerous.
(06:43):
If you are curious aboutsymptoms and causes and
treatments, we're going to diveinto more of that on another
segment, another episode thatwe're going to do after this
episode, after we do ourinterview.
Kevin (07:07):
Basically, what we're doing is kind of similar to the
previous episode that we madeinto two-parters, but this part
the first part is going to havethe interview in its entirety.
Palmi (07:15):
The second part we're going to just talk about points
that perhaps we need to explorea little better to understand
what went on during theinterview and what goes on
nowadays with cancer treatment,about her specific treatment and
(07:36):
how she her treatment wasplanned and the process of it,
and so we'll understand a lotmore of that and be able to
explain that a lot more afterthe interview.
Kevin (07:52):
So, without further ado, here's the interview.
Palmi (07:56):
Hi Ruth, we're sitting here with Ruth Henry.
Ruth (07:59):
Hi, it's nice to talk to you.
Palmi (08:02):
Our episode this month, this week, is going to be about
cancer and Ruth Henry is KevinHenry's mom and we're down here
visiting in Tennessee and wethought that we would get a
little bit of personalexperience from someone that has
(08:22):
been going through it recently.
Could you give us a little bitof background and how you were
diagnosed with the cancer andwhat kind of cancer it was?
Ruth (08:30):
Sure, I started developing severe abdominal pain and when
I went to the emergency roomthey did scans and they found
that something was blocking mybile duct to my liver.
When they went in there to seewhat it was, it was a malignant
growth and what it's called isbiliary cancer, because it was
(08:55):
actually affecting the bile duct.
It wasn't the liver itself.
So of course then the cancertrip began.
Scary to hear at first, butsomehow I knew my primary care
doctor and I'd been going to himfor years and I knew he was
(09:17):
going to help me find the besttreatments possible.
And I think he did.
And cancer has had so many newfindings, new ways to be treated
, new ways to keep you having aquality of life.
If you ever find yourself inthat position.
(09:40):
It's scary, you hard to thinkabout it, but don't be scared.
If you have a good cancer teamand you'll develop your own team
, they'll help you to make theright decisions, and that's what
happened there.
Palmi (09:59):
That's basically what happened, and you've had a lot
of.
You felt like you were beingtaken care of, they understood
you, they listened to you, right.
Ruth (10:09):
Being at a cancer center.
It's different than yourregular doctor visit.
I'm not sure how to explain it,except you develop such a close
relationship with your team,which is your oncologist, your
cancer nurses, even the personthat schedules your appointments
.
They do the best they can tomake you feel comfortable.
(10:30):
It really becomes not the scaryplace to be when I go in for my
infusions.
It's like going someplace whereI feel safe because I feel like
I'm being well taken care of.
Palmi (10:43):
Yeah, I've gone to a couple of treatments with you
and they, they know your name,they I mean they they know what
you like, they, they offer youthings that they've offered you
before you know, and they knowwhich arm you prefer to have
your.
You know everything taken careof on and stuff like that.
It was very homey, is what Igot from it.
Ruth (11:03):
And it's not just that.
It's things like and I know Ifeel like I have a very good
oncologist, but I'm alwaysamazed when he knows who my
family is, because we sit andhave conversations that aren't
just scary medical talk.
They get to know me, they knowhow many children I have.
(11:28):
They know no one lives reallyclose to us.
They reschedule appointmentsfor me if I have family coming,
like happened this time whenPommy and Kevin were coming.
The care is different than anyother medical care I believe you
would ever have.
Palmi (11:45):
And which?
What is your medical centerthat you go to?
Ruth (11:48):
I go to the Cancer Center in Cookville, Tennessee, and it
is staffed by Vanderbilt doctors, so it's connected to the
Vanderbilt Medical Center and Ifeel like from the first day
that they took me and my husbandin to tour and to see where
(12:13):
things happened and get uscomfortable with being there,
they have always tried to makeit not a scary place, right,
it's just really different thanwhat you imagine, while still
being, of course, you're worriedabout the outcome.
Palmi (12:33):
Yeah, Now scary things have happened.
I mean, it hasn't gone asplanned.
All along there's been somescary issues.
Ruth (12:41):
I've had some extenuating circumstances.
One I'm 82.
But you're a fit 82.
Yes, I was in good shape whenall this started, right.
But also because of having thecancer, a couple of other
medical issues not caused by thecancer, but because they were
(13:02):
investigating things to do withthe cancer, they found these
other issues that I had,basically old age type of things
that required surgery,hospitalization, and so that was
a little more difficult.
They weren't just treatingcancer, then I was being passed
through another specialist, thenback to the cancer center and
(13:26):
and all the the medicalprofessionals worked together to
make sure that there was acontinuity of my medical cancer
care.
That could continue.
Palmi (13:39):
They worked together then , yes, knowing that you still
had to continue the chemo andstuff like that.
Ruth (13:45):
Yeah, Knowing in the long run I needed to finish the chemo
Right.
I was put on a very strongregimen of chemo that they
weren't sure that I wouldtolerate well because of my age,
but I have.
They're very pleased with theway it's going and they have
(14:05):
been able to in the recent timesbecause chemo is hard on you.
Don't let anybody tell you anydifferent.
Chemo is hard on you, somechemo more than others.
And chemo is hard on you, somechemo more than others.
And so when the chemo startedaffecting my body in different
ways, they just changed.
(14:25):
They didn't change the drug,they changed how often I got it.
They changed the strength ofthe drug.
Palmi (14:32):
And it was based on your daily, on the draws, the blood
work you always get blood workEvery time you go in.
Ruth (14:38):
You get blood work for everything.
They check everything Becausethey're affecting the chemo.
Right, because the chemoaffects different.
Chemos have different sideeffects and at the time now I'm
getting two different kinds ofchemo and also an immune system
(14:59):
treatment.
Palmi (15:00):
Can you explain that a little bit?
That was something I'd neverheard of.
You told us that you, basically, will always have the cancer,
right?
Yes, they're not trying to getrid of the cancer, right,
they're trying to Control it,control it and that's a new
thought in the cancer treatment.
Ruth (15:19):
Yes, a lot of the problems before I'm going to say in
fairly recent years they havedecided if the cancer can be
controlled and kept at a placewhere it's not being aggressive,
then they can decrease yourchemo, they can adjust your
(15:40):
chemo, they can change to justimmune system therapy so that
you don't the chemo is notdestroying your body, your
healthy tissues.
So it's like a balancing act,is that?
Palmi (15:57):
particular to your type of cancer.
Is that a?
Ruth (16:00):
standard thing all through .
It's becoming a way oftreatment, because as long as
the cancer can be controlled, ifit's not growing, if it's not
being aggressive, then it canjust hang out there all at once
and it's not bothering you, ormy type isn't anyway.
(16:21):
Right, I can only speak to whatI'm getting Right.
Right.
And every treatment that isgiven nowadays is made for you.
It's made for your weight, it'smade for your height, it's made
for your age, I imagine evenDNA types.
I mean, it's when I go I getblood work done before I ever
(16:44):
start, before they order mychemo, so that when my chemo
dosage comes up to begin theinfusion it's made for the
weight that I am that day.
It's all very individual and Ithink that's why these
treatments are becoming sosuccessful now.
Palmi (17:06):
And so many more successful outcomes.
Ruth (17:09):
Yes, I have friends that have had similar treatments,
that still basically have cancer, that still basically have
cancer and they're leadingactive, happy lives for many,
many years and when somethingstarts to, they feel like the
cancer is maybe starting to getmore active again.
(17:32):
They just tweak your treatmenta little bit, and I'm not making
light of this.
Cancer is still a horriblething to have, but there's ways
to fight it now that doesn'truin your life right right.
Palmi (17:48):
I was surprised, we were amazed and so appreciative that
you didn't have all the sideeffects that we had heard about
in the past.
Where I mean you?
You were sick and you lookedweak, but you didn't lose you
haven't lost a lot of your hair,you didn't lose your appetite.
You did lose some appetite, butyou weren't so sickly, you
(18:10):
weren't eating at all oranything you lost some weight,
but you were very thin to beginwith, so I think you kind of
have that tendency to loseweight to begin with, right.
Ruth (18:19):
Yeah, I never had.
I was never nauseated, right.
For one thing before I everstarted chemo, they gave me a
prescription for two differentkinds of nausea medicine so I
could have them at home if theywere needed.
When I go in for my infusion,I'm given by IV two other kinds
(18:39):
of medicine for nausea and Ihave been lucky, I have not been
nauseated at all.
Have I lost my appetite?
Yes, has my taste for foodchanged?
Yes, sometimes in strange ways.
Yeah, that I never imagined.
But I have never actually beennauseated from the treatments.
(19:02):
That's great.
Palmi (19:04):
That's really great.
Ruth (19:05):
I'm mainly tired, weak loss of muscle, of course,
because you don't feel likegetting up and doing a lot of
things and they don't want youto overexert.
They want you to rest betweentreatments, Right, because
you're healing.
Palmi (19:18):
Right, right and a lot of that might.
Some of that you said youthought some of those side
effects were due to the otherconditions that you had prior to
this.
That were in conjunction withthe chemo Right.
We're not sure what was chemoand what was the other.
Ruth (19:34):
Correct yeah.
Palmi (19:36):
So what was the other?
Kevin (19:39):
thing.
Is there any predicted?
Ruth (19:52):
deserves, in your opinion, special recognition throughout
your encounter with cancertreatment cancer center.
When I go in for my infusions,I'm in the infusion room, which
is always very busy with some ofthe nicest, smartest nurses I
have ever known.
Besides just being doing nursethings the computer work they
(20:16):
have to do.
I get seven different bags ofstuff when I go in for my
infusion.
I'm in there approximately fivehours.
They have different thedifferent medications are all in
their individual bags.
They're all given at certaintimes.
(20:37):
One can be given faster thanothers.
They are absolutely amazing.
They are kind, they are smartand they have all these little
pieces of knowledge just frombeing who they are.
That are just things like youknow, if you just take that pill
(20:59):
a little hour later, it'll makeyou feel better faster.
Or make sure, when you go homefrom an infusion day, drink,
drink, drink, hydrate more thanyou do normally, because the
faster you move that throughyour body, the faster you'll get
rid of that special tirednessyou get right after having your
(21:22):
infusion.
There's all these little thingsthat they know that they can
help you with Right that theyeasily share and they're always
happy.
Yeah, they're not acting likeit's a bad place to be.
They're joking with not just me, with everybody.
I mean.
They get to know their patients, they know what they like to
(21:44):
drink, not just the nurses, thewoman that comes around and
brings you sandwiches and bringsyou snacks and brings you a
warm blanket.
They're all just caring.
They're all on your team, right?
Palmi (22:00):
makes you feel like you're not alone that's right,
yeah, and we're.
You've gone through this forit's been.
Ruth (22:07):
How long now it'll be a year in june.
It hasn't been that long sinceit was diagnosed, yeah and so
we're almost through a year.
Palmi (22:16):
So uh is, are we at the end of the chemo, or what would
the prognosis be at this point?
Ruth (22:24):
What started out as a prescribed times that I would
get the chemo and then hopefullygo on to immune therapy, has
gone on a little longer thanexpected because of those other
medical issues that came up.
For one thing that kind ofmaybe had a little break in the
chemo, but also because what I'mgiving, being given, is working
(22:51):
right and so they never intendfor me to be cancer clear.
Right, but as long as it isactually working on the cancer
that I started out with, theyhate to stop me getting the
medicine that is doing that.
However, they have made it um,I'm getting a less strong dose,
(23:12):
um, I'm getting it further apartin time, so they're trying to
see how they can wean you off alittle bit.
Right, I'm feeling better andbetter because I have less chemo
in my body.
However, it's still working andmy cancer markers are still
going down and I feel reallyquite well.
(23:35):
I'm eating good.
I'm gaining weight back.
I feel really quite well, I'meating good, I'm gaining weight
back, and I just I don't knowhow I can possibly thank all
those people that have been onmy team.
Palmi (23:45):
Yeah, and us too.
Thank them too.
Yep, all right.
Well, thank you for being soopen with us, ruth, and I know
this is very personal.
The reason Kevin's notinterviewing his mom is he was
afraid he was going to breakdown, so he is over there inside
, but he's pretty.
Kevin (24:04):
Hi everybody.
Palmi (24:07):
But he did good.
I think he did good.
We're going to have some moreinformation about cancer
research that we've done andwe'll add that to this interview
.
Kevin (24:21):
We'll see you later.
Wow, that was great interview,palmy.
Excellent job, and we'll givemom a shout out and say
excellent job as well, and we'lltalk to you again next time to
explain some of the things thatyou just heard about, and
(24:43):
perhaps my mom just touched on.
Bye now.
Palmi (24:46):
Bye now.
Kevin (24:47):
Until next episode, take those lemons and make your own
lemonaid.
Host
Jetheswaran Gunasekaran
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