Robert, her husband, was reluctant to say the "C" word. He couldn't understand how Dawn could be so calm after her lung cancer was diagnosed. Why was she not crying hysterically, why was she not angry? She had a simple answer for him: "Cancer is not something for us to be afraid of."
It all started the day the pain in her chest grew and grew until it became unbearable. They had no insurance, so she was reluctant to go to the emergency room. But she had no choice. "I thought my heart was going to explode!" She was immediately referred to H.Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, where she was told she had lung cancer.
From that point on,she read and then read some more, educating herself, absorbing all the information she could. She wanted to know what she faced. Fortunately, the tumor that caused all the pain led to an early diagnosis and a better chance for survival than if she had waited.
"Being sent to Moffitt was the best thing that could have happened to me," this 43-year-old mother of three says. "They tell it to you straight: 'You have lung cancer and this is what we are going to do to fix it'."
Dawn exudes calmness and serenity. "I was never afraid -- never." She knows that worrying is not going to help her. Her strength is quiet, peaceful. She is at peace, and sitting next to her, you can feel that peace.
Dawn was offered a clinical trial on her first visit to Moffitt,and she was thrilled to have the opportunity. The decision to participate was easy. "It gave me that much more leverage to beat it." Amber [clinical trials program coordinator] covered all the details -- the procedures, the medicines, everything. "After that," says Dawn," you don't have any questions."
Dawn feels very good about her treatment and is impressed with the attitude of the staff. Even knowing they could get their heads bit off, every staff person still asks, "How are you doing today?" At the cancer center, that's not an empty greeting; they really care and they really want to know. "It's not that they are nonchalant about cancer, but that they are confident about what they are doing."
She, too, is confident. But she is also a realist. "It could end a lot sooner than I had planned for it to end," she says. But for now, a year and many prayers later, all is well. "Normal is different now," Dawn, says. "I still get up and take the kids to school. But I don't snap at people, and I think about my reactions to things much more."
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