Name: Donna Clark, RN, BSN, OCN
Age: 51
Occupation: Oncology Nurse
Date of diagnosis: September 2014
Type of diagnosis: Stage 3C Endometrial Uterine Cancer
Date of last treatment: May 29, 2015
I am a 51 year-old Pensacola, Florida, oncology nurse who was diagnosed with Stage 3C Endometrial Uterine Cancer in September 2014 at the age of 49. I feel very blessed & thankful of God to be in remission as of May 29th 2016, which marked the one-year anniversary date of my completing all treatments (cancer surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation).
In August 2014 I sought help from my physician for what I thought was going to be a quick fix to a “benign” problem. I had a long-known history of irregular menstrual cycles with vaginal spotting in between cycles thought to be precipitated by my required lifetime use of blood thinners, but during August of 2014, I sought MD help for a menstrual bleeding that just wouldn’t stop and I thought a uterine ablation would be a quick fix. How wrong I was because two surgeries later, it turned out to be officially advanced stage cancer that probably had been inside me unknown for quite awhile.
My first reaction was shock because after all, I’m a 20 year oncology nurse who could’ve, but didn’t recognize my own body symptoms for what they truly were….it’s SO true the saying that it’s different when it’s yourself and not some other person. Both my parents had cancer also. Some of the obstacles I had to navigate were worries about the possibility of the unknown such as not making it to (and beyond) my 50th birthday in 2015, and grieving over the loss of my ability during my treatments to continue working as chemotherapy nurse because of side effects during 9 months of cancer treatments.
I was saddened when my former oncology employer medically terminated me, while I was doing my own chemotherapy, because I’d exhausted my work’s leave of absence policy called FMLA. Having oncology experience and being an oncology patient at the same time was a blessing and a curse for me, because I sometimes had the head knowledge about what I needed to do, yet sometimes folks just assumed that I knew all and they forgot to treat me as a regular patient who felt uncertain just like any other person navigating their cancer journey.
I’m blessed to have a great support system. I’m a realist with a stubborn tenacity. My strong faith in God, my husband of 29yrs Ben, my family & friends, doctors, and my oncology nurses have all gotten me successfully thru the good & bad days of cancer, and kept me focused on all the good I have. My long-time oncology nurse friend Wanda Greeley stepped up to the plate & administered all of my chemo treatments, as I long ago administered chemotherapy to her mother. Life does have its own twists and turns and I couldn’t have made it thru months of chemo without Wanda by my side. To honor Wanda, I wrote an essay about her service to me, and this finalist essay appeared in a national book called “Extraordinary Healers Volume 10”. Cure Magazine collects essays all year long and publishes the best ones in this yearly book of theirs. Wanda was there for me with my husband from chemo start to finish and we rang the office’s celebration bell together on my last chemo day. I’ve remained active in my local Oncology Nursing Society (ONS). A scholarship won to attend ONS Congress last month really helped me get caught up on all the new oncology educational updates I missed out on during treatment. The transition from oncology patient back to a working oncology nurse has been a relatively smooth one because I am now a member of the Cancer Club. When an oncology patient tells me they feel very tired I now totally understand. And because I understand what they tell me, I can better use my oncology training to help them. I finally returned to work last October, and my new employer of 8 months, Mitchell Cancer Institute in Fairhope, Alabama, welcomes my experience as a cancer survivor to help their patients in the clinic, and it’s a good fit for everyone involved. God is always there for me in good times and bad and He definitely orders my steps according to Psalm 37:23-24. My long term goal is to eventually become an official oncology nurse patient navigator to further help others thru their cancer journey.
My cancer treatment has come and gone. I have been in remission for 12 months and my journey continues forward. I fought hard to recover and had the benefit of a local cancer rehab program, oncology support group, and a survivorship navigator’s services. I have so much to remind me that life is precious and goes on in a beautiful way. Like everyone else, I go to my scans with some anxiety, but I focus on the blessings I do have and tell myself it’s going to be okay. And if my cancer recurs, then I am again blessed with the support I need to deal with it a day a time. We cancer survivors all have our own path to take but we are all on this journey together.
