I get to live in this beautiful place that God gave me.
I have three wonderful children and I have six wonderful grandchildren, and I'm reminded
that I have a lot to live for.
In September of 2020, I had an intestinal blockage that sent me to MedStar Georgetown.
The biggest surprise in my life came from that X-ray that showed a nodule in my upper
left lobe of my lung.
The nodule only measured about one inch in size, so very small.
But we found on the CAT scan that this could be a suspicious lesion for lung cancer.
So we used the ION robot bronchoscope to diagnose the tumor and the cameras placed through an
endotracheal tube in the mouth down inside the patient's lungs.
And this small catheter can follow out a pre-planned pathway that we create on a laptop computer.
So this is Ms. Downs' ION Robot Plan.
We can see ahead of time which airway is going to be the correct airway to go down to get
to her target.
And we will follow down through the airway using our virtual views to see which way we're
going to go through the airways to get to her lesion and through that robot, we were
able to place small needles and biopsy forceps, which prove that she had squamous cell cancer
of the lung.
As part of the procedure, we also check lymph nodes using our end of bronchial ultrasound.
And the lymph nodes on the left side of her chest were affected by the cancer.
She has a stage three A cancer, one which needs a multi-modality approach to treatment.
And we're fortunate here at Georgetown to have a multidisciplinary team to help take
care of this problem.
Because she had cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes in her chest, our recommendation
was to proceed with chemotherapy before surgery, with the goal of shrinking the cancer and
hopefully making the surgery easier in the process.
And chemotherapy happened.
Then they introduced me to Dr. Margolis, who was my surgeon, and he had a robot as well,
and was able to do the VAC system.
That made the surgery a whole lot easier because it was just a couple small incisions and they
didn't have to remove my rib.
They were able to spread it and Dr. Margolis was able to remove the infected area.
We were able to remove the cancer and the cancer in the lymph nodes, but unfortunately,
it was high risk of this coming back, which unfortunately it did after about three or
four months, at which point she went on to receive chemotherapy with radiation together.
And then I was eligible to take immunotherapy treatments.
And after talking with Dr. Reuss, my family and I discussed together that that would be
a very good avenue.
One way the cancer grows is by evading the immune system.
And so immunotherapy works to overcome that.
It allows your immune cells called T cells to wake up and fight the cancer again.
And we started immunotherapy treatments and the course was to be one a month for 12 months.
And I successfully was able to complete them all.
And now I'm starting a new chapter in my life without cancer.
I beat it.
I am a former smoker, but I quit 18 years ago and I didn't think for one second that
lung cancer would be something that would come in my direction.
And I want to reach out to people and to help them understand the importance of getting
your checkups, asking for tests, and to lean on your faith because your faith will give
you hope.
And I want people not to lose hope.
The wonderful set of doctors walked with me through this journey.
I owe my entire life to them.
So, I have been blessed tremendously and I'm very, very grateful.