Sharing Mayo Clinic - October 2011 Archives

This spring, Brooke Hayes traveled to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, taking in the music of Jimmy Buffett, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Lauryn Hill and Better Than Ezra. The trip was remarkable for this previously well-traveled young woman from Ormond Beach, Fla. Hayes’ suitcases had been empty and idle because of her severe hip pain. Hayes had her hips replaced in two surgeries at Mayo Clinic in March and August 2010. Now, new hips in place, she’s making up for lost time.

By Annemieke van der Werff At the end of March 2010, my husband and I returned from a wonderful trip through India. During the trip I had noticed a swollen lymph node in my left armpit. At first I didn't make much of it, but as it persisted I went to see my doctor in my hometown of Chicago immediately upon my return. The antibiotics prescribed didn't do the trick so I had a mammogram. The expression on the face of the radiologist said more than words can say but, at that point in time, she couldn't confirm a diagnosis. Three weeks later, on April 13, 2010, a biopsy confirmed my fear. I had an uncommon and very aggressive form of breast cancer, Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC).

As he biked 213 miles of desert between Yuma, Ariz., and Phoenix in temperatures above 90 degrees, Ricky Reinhart thought a lot about moving forward. Much the same as he did a year ago as he laid in a bed at Mayo Clinic Hospital recovering from surgery for esophageal cancer. To celebrate his “first birthday” (post surgery), Ricky, of Yuma, made a marathon bike trip the weekend of Oct. 22-23 to raise funds for cancer research. Ricky, 54, was all smiles after the grueling ride arriving at Mayo Clinic, accompanied by 13 of his friends, family and co-workers, and carrying an envelope with more than $10,000 in donations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GszNst4xBc Carla Huelsmann was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 2 years old. Throughout her childhood and early adult years, she experienced mainly petit mal seizures. She continued through life, adjusting to her disease as needed. Once Huelsmann welcomed her daughter, the hormone levels in her body changed, making controlling her seizures much more difficult.

By Lindsay Engelstad I was not a patient at the Mayo Clinic Hospital, but my mother was. Prior to her going into the hospital, I always hear people say “Go to the Mayo Clinic it is the best place to be if you are sick”. Yeah right, it is a hospital and all hospitals are the same right? WRONG. The Mayo Clinic Hospital is not just a hospital, it is a place where the employees love to work, and they always have a smile on their face, and care about their patients. Let me give you a background on my mom, in 1973 she was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin’s and at that time chemotherapy was just at the beginning stages of clinical trials. So she underwent radiation therapy. That radiation therapy gave her 35+ more years in life. Since she had Hodgkin’s, my mom paid extremely close attention to her health, she worked out 5 days a week, ate healthy, etc. She was completely in-sync with her body. 10 years ago she and my dad moved to California due to a job relocation for my dad, so she had to find a new set of doctors. In the past 3 years, my mom was having some issues; being winded going up a flight of stairs, taking long naps in the afternoon, stumbling over her words, and repeating herself. None of the doctors in California could figure out what was wrong with her, so I suggested that she come back to Arizona and go to her Doctors that she has gone to for 30+ years. Fortunately, her doctors were able to find out was wrong with her, she had fluid built up around her lungs, and the pericardium around her heart had calcified. This was all due to the radiation damage from the Hodgkin’s back in the 70s. So a surgery was set up to strip the pericardium.

I will never forget the afternoon of January 31, 2011, when I was at my local health provider and received the devastating news that I had stage 4 throat cancer at the base of my tongue that had spread to my lymph nodes. My local health care provider gave me all the bad news, with odds of no better than 50 percent of the cancer never coming back after three years. The only treatment would be chemotherapy and radiation with a feeding tube being mandatory. After this diagnosis, I called my sister to explain what the doctors found.  She insisted that I make an appointment at Mayo Clinic. I took her advice and made an appointment. This was the best decision of my whole life, and I would like to thank my sister and God for guiding me in this direction.  Also, I would like to thank Mayo for their professionalism, expertise, direction, dedication and care like no other I have ever had by a health care provider. I am truly thankful for the whole staff – nurses, doctors, financial personnel and all the other Mayo personnel that I dealt with. Mayo is definitely world class like no other.

In Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), areas of your brain (the frontal lobe and temporal lobe) shrink, causing progressive speech, language, personality and behavior problems, as well as a decline in your thinking and reasoning skills (cognitive skills). It is often misdiagnosed as a psychiatric problem or as Alzheimer's disease, but FTD tends to occur at a younger age than does Alzheimer's disease, typically between the ages of 40 and 70.

Tamieko, a 38 year old woman, was completely caught off guard when she was diagnosed with Stage I/II breast cancer in December 2010. After two years of observing suspicious changes in her breast that appeared normal on mammograms, she requested that her attending physician do a breast biopsy. The results shocked her and took her on an unexpected path of becoming her own patient advocate. Tamieko consulted with many physicians in the Phoenix area regarding her pre and post-operative care. She decided to complete her surgical treatment and chemotherapy at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

In mid-February, 2011, flu-like symptoms caused Suzanne Vela to leave work early to try to recover quickly from fatigue and a persistent cough. Several days of rest at home did not seem to improve her symptoms and Javier Vela, Suzanne's husband, decided to take her to the Mayo Clinic Hospital Emergency department on February 14th. Their decision to seek urgent care could not have been any more wise and timely since shortly after being admitted to the hospital, Suzanne went into respiratory arrest and was placed on life support for two weeks. After undergoing several tests and procedures, the team of Mayo Clinic physicians caring for Suzanne, including Dr. Kenneth Mishark and Dr. Andrea Loiselle, diagnosed her condition as acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS.

Written by Karen Brown, Ph.D., Professor of Operations and Project Management, Thunderbird School of Global Management Anyone facing or experiencing cancer treatment can relate to the idea that it’s a project: a set of coordinated activities aimed at a goal. There are actually two goals involved: 1) make it through treatment in the best physical and mental shape possible, and 2) go on to live a long, healthy, and satisfying life after treatment. A good deal is known about what makes a project successful, and we can translate some of these notions to cancer treatment projects. The following video captures the basic principles:

In the fall of 1990, Morgan Tyner experienced a moment that would change his life forever. While at work, Morgan, a newly practicing dentist, suffered a seizure. After undergoing many tests over the course of several days, he received a very serious and life threatening diagnosis – anaplastic astrocytoma – an aggressive and fast growing brain tumor. A grim prognosis added to Morgan’s bewildered and devastated outlook. Prior to his diagnosis, Morgan had been an active, young man participating in triathlons, running, playing tennis and pursuing a career as a dentist. After receiving his diagnosis, Morgan launched into perhaps his most challenging endeavor - fighting and eventually beating brain cancer.

October 1986 marked a very important time in Mayo Clinic's history. This was the year that Mayo Clinic opened its first campus outside of Rochester, ...