From relapse to restoration | Corewell Well being

Sue Lokker has helped lots of of sufferers dealing with a most cancers prognosis.

A Corewell Well being interventional radiology nurse, she regularly calls sufferers who’re scheduled for needle biopsies or for line placements for chemotherapy or stem cell assortment and finally transplant.

She had not often missed a day of labor throughout her 35 years as a nurse till August 2021, when she underwent a hysterectomy for endometrial most cancers.

“That was discovered very early,” she mentioned. “It was microscopic.”

All appeared nicely till a few days earlier than a routine post-operative appointment.

However that morning, “I observed an enormous lump in my neck,” Sue mentioned. At first, she thought maybe she’d pulled a muscle.

Her physician ordered an ultrasound. She’d additionally had a breast MRI that week, a part of her routine care due to a household historical past of breast most cancers.

“They discovered that my chest was stuffed with enlarged lymph nodes,” Sue mentioned.

A needle biopsy revealed Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “That was an enormous blow,” she mentioned.

Similar to that, Sue went from caregiver to affected person.

An sudden relapse

Sometimes, Hodgkin’s lymphoma responds nicely to chemotherapy, with a treatment fee of 80 to 90 p.c. Sue felt optimistic going into therapy, which concerned six cycles of chemotherapy each different week.

“I truly did very well,” she mentioned, noting she skilled some fatigue however no main uncomfortable side effects. “I labored the entire time.”

As an interventional radiology nurse, Sue interacted with a number of sufferers with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“That was one of many robust issues after I was working,” she mentioned. “You’d open up a affected person’s chart and also you’d see, ‘Oh, their lymphoma got here again.’”

A month or two after her final infusion, a PET scan revealed an enlarged lymph node. A follow-up scan revealed spots on her chest and in her armpit.

Sue, 57, returned to interventional radiology, this time as a affected person. After a needle biopsy failed to supply an satisfactory specimen, she underwent a surgical process.

Her Hodgkin’s lymphoma was again.

The magic quantity

That’s when she met with Rupin Shah, MD, a doctor with Corewell Well being’s Blood and Marrow Transplant program.

The following line of protection for sufferers with a relapse of Hodgkin’s lymphoma is an autologous stem cell transplant. In an autologous transplant, stem cells are taken from the affected person versus a donor.

“It will probably treatment a big variety of sufferers,” Dr. Shah mentioned.

Dr. Shah had not met Sue earlier than however regularly consults with interventional radiology to have traces positioned previous to stem cell transplants.

“She by no means imagined she’d be in that place,” he mentioned.

The BMT group decided that Sue can be a superb candidate—she had a help system and was in good bodily form. She would wish all these assets for the trail forward.

She would bear three rounds of intense, in-patient chemotherapy.

“You employ second-line chemotherapy to attempt to put the illness again into remission earlier than transplant,” Dr. Shah mentioned. “In Sue’s case it was a whole response and that offers us a sign that she’ll do nicely and hopefully stays in remission.”

The following section of therapy concerned amassing her stem cells. The magic quantity: three million.

To organize, Sue needed to give herself day by day injections to stimulate cell manufacturing.

Every morning, her mom, Donna Grooters, would drive her from her Hudsonville residence to Corewell Well being’s bone and marrow transplant clinic to seek out out whether or not she had hit her purpose.

“The [bone and marrow transplant] group is so fantastic,” Sue mentioned. “I believe they have been as upset as I used to be day by day when it didn’t occur.”

When it did, the group despatched her texts with balloons and celebration hats. The transplant was on.

Ten days later, Sue was admitted for six days of high-intensity chemotherapy geared toward eradicating the lymphoma. It additionally wipes out the bone marrow and causes uncomfortable side effects together with hair loss, mouth sores and nausea.

An emotional day

Transplant day lastly arrived—on Dec. 1, 2022—which additionally marked the group’s 1,000th mobile infusion.

On one hand, the one to two-hour course of felt “anti-climactic,” Sue mentioned.

“Then again it was so emotional, as a result of the method to get there may be simply so taxing,” she mentioned.

The times after the transplant would even be taxing, when the uncomfortable side effects of the extraordinary chemo entered excessive gear: nausea, no urge for food, rashes, mouth sores and fatigue.

Her physician and nurses gave her three jobs: Drink, eat and transfer.

“And have a optimistic perspective,” Sue mentioned. “You assume it’s sounds simple, nevertheless it’s not if you don’t have an urge for food and don’t really feel good.”

However Sue adopted their directions to a T, logging 70 kilometers strolling the hallway of the BMT unit.

When the hospital meals didn’t enchantment, her husband, Dan, introduced up treats from the cafeteria.

“The group, the workers on that ground, was simply superb,” she mentioned. “It’s in contrast to something I’ve ever seen.”

All through her therapy, Sue leaned on household, buddies, her church group and her religion.

“It helped me by means of a lot,” she mentioned. “I do know there’s a plan. And God’s been in each element.”

Subsequent to her favourite chair is a field jam-packed with playing cards and letters from family and friends, together with a plaque that reads: “In all issues give thanks.”

That sense of gratitude has buoyed Sue all through her most cancers journey.

One evening, within the midst of therapy, she couldn’t sleep.

“And all I may consider was what number of blessings I’ve,” she mentioned.

“Individuals ask, ‘How will you be so optimistic?’” Sue mentioned. “I couldn’t consider one adverse thought. All I may consider have been all of the blessings of my household and buddies.”

A well-known wake-up name

Sue returned residence after simply 20 days within the hospital—wanting the typical monthlong keep.

She smiles as remembers the primary morning.

Within the hospital, the nightly soundscape consists principally of the ding of name lights.

Her neighbors have a goats and donkeys that bray within the morning.

“I’m mendacity in mattress within the morning and heard these donkeys braying and I mentioned, ‘I’m residence!” she mentioned. “It’s the donkeys, not the decision lights!”

“You’re actually drained initially,” she mentioned of the primary weeks post-transplant. She has step by step regained energy, strolling day by day, feeding the donkeys, even venturing out to lunch or dinner with buddies.

Sue has finished “exceedingly nicely,” Dr. Shah mentioned. Her PET scans present that she stays in full remission.

The following section of therapy entails immunotherapy infusions, given each three weeks for a 12 months.

As she continues her restoration, now she and her mom spend time on their ordinary routines: grocery buying, lunch outings and thrift buying, as a substitute of journeys to Corewell Well being.

Sue seems ahead to touring once more, beginning in April with a visit to Utah the place she hopes to cross climbing by means of a slot canyon off her bucket listing. She’s additionally trying ahead to tenting and gardening.

On March 2, Sue returned to work. Her private expertise, she mentioned, “will change my observe going ahead.”

“It additionally makes you understand how all people’s received a narrative,” she mentioned. “It makes you’ve got extra grace that you simply prolong to different individuals since you don’t know what issue they’re going by means of.”