Jenny--In Her Own Words

Casey Baird is running for her friend, Jenny.  Here's Jenny's story, in her own words:

In November of 2004, I went to the doctor for ongoing hoarseness in my voice. The doctor put me on some medicine for allergies. The medicine did not seem to help. Later, I went back to the doctor and said the medicine was not helping. The doctor then ran a camera down my throat where he found nodules on my vocal cords.

The doctor reassured me, and told me that it was definitely not cancer and I had nothing to worry about.

He put me on acid reflux medicine because he thought that was what was causing the problem. I informed him that I had never had a problem with acid reflux. He told me that some people do not even know that they have acid reflux because it occurs during sleep and erodes the esophagus causing these nodules to appear. I took his word for it; after all, I knew nothing about the medical field. The doctor wanted me to complete three months of this acid reflux medicine before he did anything further.

I was a school teacher and basketball coach at the time; therefore, this ongoing hoarseness was very difficult with my career. I began to get very frustrated because I felt that I could not complete my job to my fullest potential with this hoarseness. My students and players had a lot of trouble hearing me. I was also getting married May 28, 2005 and then the first week of June going to Cancun for our honeymoon.

The doctor decided to remove the nodules but wanted to wait to do it until we returned from our honeymoon. After returning, I went in to the hospital have the procedure done as an outpatient. It only took about 40 minutes but I was still very nervous because I had never had surgery before.
After the surgery was complete, the doctor told me everything went fine and he wanted me to be on voice rest for a week and come back in for a check-up to see how things were healing. That was a pretty hard week of no talking.

When I went back for my check-up, I went by myself. With my husband and I both being new college graduates and not being with our jobs that long, I didn’t want him to take another day off of work to go back to the doctor with me. We already had to take time off for our wedding, honeymoon, and all the other doctor appointments. After all, I thought the appointment was no big deal. I thought the doctor was just going to tell me that I could begin to talk and everything was fine.

I walked into his office and he looked at me and said, “Well I wasn’t expecting to have to tell you this today.” Right then, I knew something was wrong. The doctor proceeded to tell me that the nodules were cancerous. After that, to be honest, everything that was said was a blur.

All I remember was leaving the office, going to my car, crying, and then calling my sister. My sister was the closest to where I was and I knew that I shouldn’t be driving far with the state of mind I was in. After discovering she was home, I drove to her house. I got to the door where she greeted me, I started crying, and she knew something was wrong. She started crying and said “what is wrong?” I told her, we hugged, and she took me to where my husband was working so I could break the news to him. When we arrived and told him, he left work, and came back to my sister’s house. He then called my doctor and got some answers that I was unable to give him. He also asked for me to be referred to another doctor.

I was referred to a doctor at the Arthur James Cancer Hospital in Columbus. I met with him, and we discussed my options. I then had my first laser surgery there in July and my second surgery in October. The doctor did not want to do both surgeries at the same time because of the way the vocal cords are shaped. Scar tissue would have formed, which would not leave room for the vocal cords to vibrate and I would never talk again. He decided that it would be best to do the right side first, since it was the worse side, then the left after the right had some time to heal.

My first surgery was very rough on me and on my whole family. It took about 4 hours to complete. Then the surgery in October was a little better; it took about 3 hours. I had to go back frequently for the first 3 months for checkups.

They did not have a lot of research in the type of cancer I had. The doctor said the type of cancer I had was dominantly found in males who were 60 years of age and older and had smoked and drank most of their lives. I was only 23, and didn’t smoke or drink. However, the research they did have in my age group showed that if the cancer came back, it came back early and aggressive.

I have been cancer free since then and I am so lucky. I am only going back to the doctor for check-ups every year now. Our family has been through a lot in the short time that we have been married. I was unable to talk for 7 months after all my surgeries, which meant I could not go back to my teaching and coaching. We did not even know if I would ever be able to talk again at that point. We all looked at it like it was a small price to pay, I was alive and doing pretty well.

During all that, I found out I was pregnant and had my son August 2, 2006. He is amazing and we are so blessed. I also began to go back to college when he was about 9 months old for nursing. I figured that I may as well go back while I was still young. I tried to go back to teaching as my voice began to come back, however, it was too hard on my voice. I used an amplification system but by the end of the day, my voice was pretty much gone. It was tough.

I never had any interest in the health field before all of this began. However, after all of this, it sparked me to want to become a nurse. It was difficult with having a baby and also difficult financially. I still had student loans for my first degree that I was unable to use but I went back and got some more student loans to go back to school again.

I finished with my associate’s RN and started working in the hospital in May 2010. I did some of my clinical experience on the Oncology Unit and loved it. I hope to be back to that floor again someday in my nursing career. Right now, I am on a medical/surgical floor and I love it. I love the place I work as well as the people. I am also about to have another baby*.

I feel like my life has been thrown in so many different directions. I never pictured this is where my life would be at this point, but couldn’t be happier. We have had so many struggles on the way but I could not have made it through everything without my family and friends, especially my husband. He has been so supportive throughout everything. I put so many burdens on him with everything. I hope that we can now begin to get out lives back on track.

I am also thankful for my doctors and medical staff at the Arthur James Cancer Hospital in Columbus. They were wonderful and I owe so much to them. I was so fortunate with the care I received there. I did not have to receive any chemo or radiation, which was wonderful. I am so blessed in so many ways. I am a much stronger person after all that has happened.

**Just a few days ago Jenny gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Naeveh Faith.