Every day’s an adventure when you’re a Pre-K teacher. Just ask Sheila Reckner. As a wrangler of preschoolers and a married mom of teenage boys, she knows a thing or two about joyful chaos. Unfortunately, the chaos she’s experienced lately has been of a completely different kind.
Sheila was recently diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer. It was a diagnosis that turned her life into an even bigger whirlwind and demanded immediate action from understanding experts. She found both at Mount Carmel.
“I didn’t really have any symptoms,” she recalled, “just an abnormal skin growth that wasn’t going away. I went to see Dr. (Ellen) Bailey at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s. She did a biopsy, which came back high grade, and removed all the abnormal tissue. I was told I’d need both radiation and chemotherapy, so she gave me referrals at both St. Ann’s and a large local cancer research hospital.”
The time it took to get her treatment scheduled made the choice abundantly clear.
“The St. Ann's radiation oncology team were so on it – they had my first two appointments and PETCT scan scheduled before the medical oncologist’s office at the other hospital even reached out from the referral. Going two full weeks without a response from them made me feel unimportant. If that was the type of service I could expect, I wanted to get my whole treatment done at Mount Carmel where everyone had been so on the ball, polite, and professional. I’m so thankful I did.”
Sheila’s treatment team was led by medical oncologist Dr. Kothai Sundaram and radiation oncologist Dr. Abhay Gokhale. They followed a six-week treatment plan that’s fast but hard. It started with a chemo infusion followed by five more days on the chemo pump at home. She also had radiation every day that week and the five weeks that followed. After another round of chemo the final week, she was finished – literally and physically.
“The chemo was rough,” she lamented. “The side effects just rolled in. I felt sick, tired, and nauseous. I had to get fluids to avoid dehydration. I didn’t want to eat even though I tried. I lost 20 pounds. I had radiation fatigue and some blisters at the radiation site as well. It was incredibly hard, but it also proved how strong I could be.”
A week after her last treatment, she had nothing but gratitude. For her husband, who joined her on a three-month sabbatical from work to be by her side. For her school community, who offered so much support. And to her care teams, for whom she said she was “over the moon.”
“They were all so accommodating and responsive. They had such a wonderful balance of humor and intent. I cannot thank them enough for the time, energy, patience, love, and passion they put into me. As I navigated through an unexpected storm I could not have asked for a better crew. The doctors, the nurses, Nancy, the scheduling and registration ladies, and the radiation girls are angels. I truly miss the staff – not the treatment, the staff! You can tell they all love what they do. It shows in the care that they give. They made the patient experience so much better and I can’t thank them enough.”
Sheila’s also appreciative of the lessons she’s learned, the habits she’s broken, and the fear she’s overcome.
“I was scared at first and wondering why this was happening to me,” she recalled. “But I prayed it would work out and remembered that God will give us things we can’t handle, but with Him we can."
That’s one lesson she’ll need to keep in mind when she returns to her joyfully chaotic classroom!
To learn more about compassionate cancer care at Mount Carmel, visit the Cancer Care page at mountcarmelhealth.com.