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Giving Hope When All Seems Hopeless
“It’s cancer.”
At some point in your life, you or someone you love will hear those words. They’re chilling. They mean that everything that you know and understand is going to change.
But they don’t mean that you’re alone.
As most of you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is one of the three most common kinds of cancer in Tarrant County, along with colon and prostate cancer. This October, the staff of the Joan Katz Cancer Resource Center (JKCRC) at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth wants you to know that they’re here to help you on your journey from diagnosis to survivorship.
I recently spoke with Angie Fraticelli, BSW All Saints’ Director of Oncology; Amanda McGreevy, a nurse navigator; and Toni Young and Kristi Evans, lay navigators and breast cancer survivors. We spoke about what makes JKCRC special.
“We have, in full, seven navigators,” Angie said. “We have five nurse navigators – a breast cancer navigator, lung, gynecological, head and neck cancers, and a general navigator for other diagnoses. Plus our lay navigators, Kristi and Toni.”
Group Therapy
Photo courtesy of Joan Katz Cancer Resource Center at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth
Nurse navigator Amanda said, “We meet patients at all different times in their cancer journey – from the mammogram to their diagnosis through their surgery to survivorship. We get to help guide them through.”
Navigators are advocates, cheerleaders, guides, and educators. They are a friendly face when the world is crumbling around you. They are a helping hand when figuring out insurance gets overwhelming. They’re a shoulder to cry on and a friend to laugh with.
“We’re able to give that emotional support from somebody who’s been there and done that,” lay navigator Kristi said. She’s a 14-year breast cancer survivor who took advantage of the services offered by JKCRC. Lay navigator Toni, a 19-year breast cancer survivor, went through her cancer journey before the Center existed.
“Without navigators, you’re alone,” Toni said. “We give everyone a personal business card with our contact info so that we can help whenever.”
Amanda added, “You’re always going to have the fear. Cancer is scary. But having the navigators helps alleviate some of that fear because you don’t have to rely on Google.”
Toni laughed, “Believe me, Google is NOT your friend.”
Art Therapy
Photo courtesy of Joan Katz Cancer Resource Center at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth
In addition to the nurse and lay navigators, JKCRC offers support groups, art therapy, exercise programs like yoga and rehabilitative exercise, nutritional support (every patient going through chemotherapy gets a cookbook to help support their nutritional needs), and a comprehensive survivorship program that addresses physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing.
“The support doesn’t end,” Amanda said. “Just because someone is 30 days postop, we don’t end our relationship with them.”
“Survivorship means forever,” Kristi added.
Additionally, the Survivor Gals Salon is located inside JKCRC and offers wigs, mastectomy bras and prostheses, compression products, as well as scarves, hats, and skin care products. “We have a partnership with them,” Angie said. “We can assist uninsured or underinsured patients with prostheses or wigs if they are eligible.”
All non-medical services at JKCRC are free to patients and their families, regardless of whether they are being treated at BSW All Saints. It doesn’t matter if you’re female or male, insured or uninsured; you are welcome.
Yoga
Photo courtesy of Joan Katz Cancer Resource Center at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Angie, Amanda, Kristi, and Toni urge you to get a mammogram. They also strongly suggest downloading the Know Your Lemons® app. This app educates you on the 12 signs of breast cancer, helps you calculate your risk, allows you to make a screening plan, and reminds you to perform your monthly self-examinations. And make sure the men in your life download it, too. While breast cancer isn’t as common in men as it is in women, men do get it, and because they aren’t as aware of it, they are more likely to catch it at a later stage.
At the end of our conversation, I asked the navigators what they are most proud of.
“I’m most proud of the comfort and hope I can bring,” Kristi said. “I know how scared I was, and I’m just glad I can pay it forward.”
Amanda said, “When someone has just left the doctor’s office, getting the worst news possible, and I can sit and talk with them for a couple of hours, and they’re entirely different when they leave, that’s the best. They know they’re not alone. That’s the reason we’re here.”
“It’s giving someone hope when they’re hopeless,” Toni said. “When they’re tired, afraid, and scared, you can’t help but be lifted up when you can help them.”
Photo courtesy of Joan Katz Cancer Resource Center at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth
