The Power of One Day at a Time: Susan’s Story

When Susan F. attend­ed Nation­al Can­cer Sur­vivor Day at the Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) Can­cer Insti­tute last year, it was her first time tak­ing part in the event. At first, she wasn’t sure she quite fit the word ​“sur­vivor.”

“I remem­ber think­ing, ​‘I’m not real­ly a sur­vivor,’” she said. ​“But I guess I am.”

Susan’s pho­to is fea­tured on the QMG Foun­da­tion Wall at the Can­cer Insti­tute. The pho­to hon­ors sur­vivors, but it also tells a sto­ry of strength. For Susan, that sto­ry began in 2005, when a rou­tine knee replace­ment led to an unex­pect­ed ovar­i­an can­cer diagnosis.

What fol­lowed was the begin­ning of a long jour­ney that would include mul­ti­ple rounds of chemother­a­py, ongo­ing fol­low-up care, and steady sup­port from her oncol­o­gy team. Over the years, her treat­ment plan evolved as her care team adjust­ed ther­a­pies to meet each stage of the dis­ease. Through it all, she remained grate­ful for the guid­ance and con­sis­ten­cy she received along the way.

“I’ve prob­a­bly gone through all the dif­fer­ent chemother­a­pies you can go through,” Susan said. ​“I had some side effects, but not very many. I lost my hair four times, but it always comes back.”

Her care ini­tial­ly began in Spring­field, where her can­cer was dis­cov­ered fol­low­ing surgery. But as life changed, espe­cial­ly as her hus­band was also fac­ing can­cer, she trans­ferred her care to Quin­cy to be clos­er to home and fam­i­ly sup­port. At that time, her hus­band was also under the care of Dr. Chris­t­ian Khoury, QMG oncol­o­gist, which made the tran­si­tion feel seam­less dur­ing an already dif­fi­cult season.

“I asked if he would take me as a patient too, and he said yes,” she said.

Togeth­er, she and her hus­band nav­i­gat­ed major life changes, includ­ing down­siz­ing and mov­ing into an apart­ment to bet­ter man­age their care needs.

“We had to move so every­thing would be more acces­si­ble,” she said. ​“We moved in Feb­ru­ary, and he only lived until Novem­ber after that.”

Through­out her own treat­ment, the Can­cer Insti­tute became a steady pres­ence in her life. Fre­quent infu­sion vis­its meant she came to know the staff well, and over time, those rela­tion­ships became an impor­tant part of her experience.

“The infu­sion peo­ple were all very nice. Judy, Dr. Khoury’s nurse, was won­der­ful. She always answered my ques­tions,” she shared. ​“I actu­al­ly enjoyed going to see them. Every­one was so kind to me.”

Over the years, Dr. Khoury became some­one she trust­ed deeply. ​“He’s a won­der­ful doc­tor,” she said. ​“He became a friend. I would rec­om­mend him to anybody.”

Even through ongo­ing treat­ment, she con­tin­ued to rely on faith and the sup­port sys­tem built through her care from the QMG Can­cer Insti­tute team as well as her friends and family.

“I got through because of my faith and the prayers of a lot of peo­ple,” she said. ​“You just take one day at a time.”

For oth­ers fac­ing a diag­no­sis, she shares these words: ​“This is not the end of the world. Take it one day at a time.”