Life-Changing: The Ashley Rhoades Story
When Ashley Rhoades went in for her annual checkup, she wasn’t thinking her life would change that day. She was thinking about the usual stuff – her 14-year-old son, her cat and dog, and her upcoming nursing school graduation. But when her yearly pap test came back abnormal, those everyday thoughts changed in a heartbeat.
In short order she was scheduled for an MRI and a PET scan, which confirmed the worst. She had stage 4 cervical cancer and a mass that was blocking her kidney.
“It was so scary,” Ashley recalled. “All the practical stuff I knew from my nursing training went right out the window. I just sat in my car and cried. All I could think about was my son, how I was going to support him, and what would happen to him if something happened to me.”
Her mindset quickly changed again, though. This time overnight.
“I woke up the next day with a feeling that everything would be OK,” she said. “I knew the doctor I wanted, and knowing a lot of nurses helped, too. They were a great resource.”
One of those physicians was Dr. Malolan Rajagopalan, a radiation oncologist at Mount Carmel. He specializes in an internal form of radiation therapy called “brachytherapy.”
“Ashley came to us with a challenging presentation,” said Dr. Rajagopalan. “Her cancer had already spread to one of her ovaries. Our whole team, including Dr. Emily Whitman-Purves and Dr. Luis Vaccarello had to think outside the box to find what we thought was the best approach for her. We knew it would be a challenging course of treatment.”
They were right.
After surgery to remove the involved ovary, Ashley endured six cycles of chemotherapy to start, receiving nine-hour-a-day treatments every three weeks. She worked in between cycles. “Being busy helped,” she said. After five more cycles of chemo, she had five weeks of daily radiation therapy followed by brachytherapy, which kept her off work for three months and sapped her energy and appetite.
Thankfully she had a support system to help her through the toughest days. She also got what she called “absolutely fantastic” care at Mount Carmel East, Mount Carmel Grove City, and the Zangmeister Center.
“Everyone on my care teams was so kind and sympathetic,” said Ashley, “and that was before they knew I was a nurse. They knew how important it was to listen. They made my comfort a high priority, and I never felt rushed. It was the kind of care every patient deserves.”
Despite some lingering pain and fatigue, she’s back at work now, caring for her orthopedic patients the same way she was treated. And she never misses an opportunity to share her story with them, whether they’re facing a cancer battle or something less daunting.
“I remind everyone to see their doctor regularly so they can catch things sooner. I tell them it’s OK to depend on others while they recover, and I try to share any motivation I can. I think it helps them to see that I’m OK and hopefully know that they will be, too.”
Ashley’s biggest advice might be this, though: don’t wait on anything. While there’s no evidence of cancer in her body right now, she lives with the fear that it might reoccur. But she’s not waiting around to find out and has no interest in knowing her limits. She’s working on her bucket list, has three vacations planned over the course of this year, and is going skydiving with her cousin in the spring.
“If cancer couldn’t kill me, skydiving can’t either,” she mused. Sounds like someone who’s revised the definition of life-changing.
Early detection is key. Schedule your annual exam and screening with a provider today at mountcarmelprimarycare.com
To learn more about Cancer Care services at Mount Carmel visit Cancer Care, Mount Carmel Health, Columbus, OH. For more information on our survivorship services visit Survivorship, Mount Carmel Health, Columbus, OH.