Sharing Mayo Clinic - March 2016 Archives

Raegan Cury didn’t worry at first when she developed a cough in early 2002 that wouldn’t go away. She was a healthy young woman, athletic, a former gymnast, and her initial chest X-ray showed what looked like pneumonia. Even her husband, a pulmonologist, wasn't too worried, until she received a surprising diagnosis. “I never thought it was going to be bronchoalveolar lung cancer,” says her husband, Dave Cury, M.D. Raegan, who lives in Atlantic Beach, Florida, had surgery to remove the cancer and woke up with just one lung, due to the extent of the disease. The surgery was followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, but in 2003, tests found cancer nodules throughout her remaining lung.  That was a dark period for Reagan and her family. She and her husband started their two young children, Chandler and Davis, in grief counseling. 

Stewart Rosen was beyond anxious when he learned he had a tumor the size of a walnut by his right ear. The tumor was benign. But Stewart, an accountant by day and violinist by night, worried that removing the tumor, an acoustic neuroma, might affect his ability to play music. "I'd never had any kind of surgery or hospitalization before," he says. And with the surgery he'd need to remove this tumor, Stewart knew that he'd lose hearing in his right ear. That wasn't all. "I was afraid a facial nerve might become paralyzed or my vision would be affected," he says. Stewart noticed a change in his hearing in his right ear, and a friend had recommended he see an ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist. That doctor detected a major difference in hearing between Stewart's ears and ordered an MRI to rule out a brain tumor. Unfortunately, the MRI pointed to an acoustic neuroma. 

This article first appeared July 12, 1958, in the publication Mayovox. Guides’ Theme: Visitors Like Guests in the Home Tours for patients ...

Written by Bethany Henthorn Our daughter, Mallory, was born with several congenital defects known cloacal exstrophy (OEIS – omphalocele, bladder exstrophy, imperforate anus and spinal defects) found in 1 and 400,000 live births. After Mallory’s 20-week gestational ultrasound, we were referred to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, from Mayo Clinic Health System – Red Cedar in Menomonie. We instantly became patients of the Maternal Fetal Medicine team and were both closely monitored until birth. This monitoring involved several tests, ultrasounds and appointments. Mallory was born at 38 weeks' gestation at Mayo Clinic Hospital, Methodist Campus, on Oct. 19, 2014. The defects identified at birth were more serious and complicated than originally predicted through prenatal monitoring. In the beginning, we wondered how these abnormalities were missed in the extensive prenatal monitoring. It was explained that Mallory’s condition of OEIS is so rare that the Maternal Fetal Medicine team did not know to even look for that type of defect. Mallory spent her first 83 days at Mayo Clinic. Most days were in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but the last few weeks were on the general pediatric floor. 

"A more compassionate mind is very, very helpful to good health." "Loving kindness, warm-heartedness are keys to health." "Each of us has some responsibility to make a contribution." "You can lead this moment because you practice these things." These words from His Holiness the Dalai Lama resonated with Mayo Clinic staff and guests gathered to hear a special talk on "Compassion in Health Care" on Monday, Feb. 29, at the chapel on the Saint Marys Campus of Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester. The Dalai Lama's message was especially pertinent in a setting with a strong connection to the Mayo Clinic Value Statements, which include the values of compassion, respect and healing, all of which came up repeatedly in the Dalai Lama's talk and question-and-answer session that followed. 

Megan LaChance used to dream of being a successful business woman. But a series of events, medical and otherwise, led her on a different path – an educational path that culminated with her sharing her surprising story at the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona on Jan. 1, 2016. Even though she's just 24 years old, Megan has had a lifetime's worth of trials and tribulations. When Megan was 19, she lost her mother to pancreatic cancer. At the age of 21, just two months after Megan married her high school sweetheart, she was presented with another challenge. Nagging pain that she believed to be caused by sciatica turned out to be advanced bone cancer.