Real Life Drama
She opens the door to the examination room, immediately noticing the 6 x 4 foot anatomical drawing of the human eye in front of her. The same eye that stared back at her when she was notified of the possibility of cancer. The same eye that stared at her while Dr. Cohen performed a biopsy on her lower left thyroid. The same eye that’s staring at her now, confirming her worst fear.
At eight months pregnant, Jamie Brown should be out buying diapers, preparing the nursery, and getting a few weeks rest before her second baby girl is born. Instead, she began to experience severe neck and shoulder pain. Knowing she couldn’t take medication while pregnant, Brown visited Liz Weiss, a manual physical therapist in Marlboro, New York. In February of 2013, it was Weiss who first spotted the lump growing on the left side of Brown’s neck, and advised that she get it examined.
“I was about 33 weeks pregnant when Liz suggested I go to a doctor. When I got to my appointment, my doctor noticed how pregnant I was and he patronized me,” Brown states. She continued by explaining that the doctor insinuated her pain was a derivative of being a hormonal, pregnant woman. Yet, he appeased her concerns and sent her in for an ultrasound of her neck.
Less than 24 hours later, Brown receives a phone call. It’s her doctor. He’s informing her that she must come into the office to hear her test results: in person. Upon her arrival, Brown is notified of two large nodules forming in her thyroid and is told to immediately speak with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (ENT) for further analysis. Within a week, the ENT specialist, Dr. Jason Cohen, performed another ultrasound and began to discuss treatment plans with Brown. “I went to the doctor’s appointment by myself,” Brown said, “and once I stepped into his office all I heard were statements like, ‘ in the event of cancer,’ ‘when cancer situations like this come up,’ ‘cancer, cancer,cancer,’ I left in a whirlwind of cancer and all I could do was breakdown on the phone with my husband. It felt like he was on the other side of the earth.”
Brown immediately called both her husband and her father, who is a physician, for reassurance. She knew then, how serious it was. The tone of her father’s voice on the phone went from calm and encouraging to stern and technical. With the word of cancer being thrown around, Brown couldn’t help but believe it. Even though it wasn’t necessarily confirmed yet, because they couldn’t perform a biopsy while she was pregnant, she knew in her heart what would come of the next few months of her life.
Back at Marist, Brown’s colleagues worried about her health. The administrative coordinator, Carol Miloni, knew the battle ahead would be grueling for Brown. Both Carol’s mother and sister had their thyroid removed and the recovery was difficult. “Because I had seen my mother and sister go through this treatment, I knew Jamie would be okay. I was worried though because she was pregnant. I didn’t know how her pregnancy would affect the cancer,” Carol stated. Teri Canigliozzi, the Manager for Online Programs at the school, remembers feeling overwhelmed with questions. “I had never known anyone who had thyroid cancer; how serious was this? What will happen to Jamie and the baby? Will they be okay?’” In the time leading up to the surgery, Brown’s colleagues were stricken with grief but the work continued to forget ahead. Canigliozzi took over much of the responsibility. The transition was fairly simple, because the two had worked together for years prior to this tragic event. “Jamie and I cover each other anyway when one of us can’t be around,” Canigliozzi recalls, “We have sort of an unwritten agreement to help each other.” This support was vital as Brown nursed herself back to health.
In May of 2013, Brown delivered her youngest baby girl, Hannah. The delivery was smooth, and she was grateful to have a happy and healthy baby. However, within two months, Brown was back in the examination room; this time, for a biopsy of her neck. Again, by herself, Brown stepped in the room to see the anatomical eye depicted on the wall in front of her. As she lay down in what can only be referred to as a streamline dentist’s chair, Brown prepares for the biopsy. The doctor begins to numb her neck and as the procedure begins, she sees her newborn just five feet away in her husband’s arms. In an effort to distract her fears, Brown begins to memorize the diagram of the eye. “I still get chills every time I think of that room, and to this day, I can’t go in there alone. I remember that this diagram on the wall was written in Latin. I would sit there and memorize the words so that I wouldn’t freak out,” Brown recalls. Within a week of the biopsy, Brown was notified that it was, indeed, cancer and her surgery was scheduled for that coming August.
The surgery in August was fairly quick and Brown was out of the hospital in 24 hours. It consisted of a neck dissection that reached from the location of the Adam’s apple, all the way to Brown’s collarbone. During the surgery, there was a complication and Dr. Cohen opted to remove a questionable lymph node to reduce the chance of cancerous cells spreading. As Miloni suspected, the recovery was the hardest part of it all and Brown awoke every day seeing the ghastly scar on her neck. She looked in the mirror and thought: Frankenstein. The worst part for Brown was not being able to hold her new born as much as she’d like. “It took me about a year and a half to not be depressed every morning. I wake up and take medication for my neck and I’m constantly reminded that now, I need this thing, these pills, to live. It was hard for me to accept that,” Brown comments.
Every six months, Brown goes to the doctor for a routine ultra sound of her neck; to ensure that the cancer has not come back. The nurses continually bring her back to the examination room with the eye diagram hanging on the wall. It still gives her the chills, but now Brown stares back blessed with the successful surgery and the beautiful two-year-old she has waiting for her at home.