Recently by Judy Overton

After a long and successful career in broadcast journalism in Houston, North Texas and Oklahoma, Judy Overton joined MD Anderson in 2008 as a senior communications specialist. Her husband, Tom, was treated at MD Anderson for renal cancer. He died in April 2007. Judy's occasional posts will cover aspects of the cancer experience from the caregiver's perspective. Read more posts in this series

I wish people who have never experienced the loss of a loved one would keep things to themselves.

An acquaintance said to me she felt people could recover from a debilitating illness if they had a strong faith. I immediately gave her my two cents. I have first-hand knowledge that is not the case.

Letting him go
Tom's last day on earth was a beautiful, sunny April day. The annuals were at their height of bloom. A palette of colors decorates our lawn every spring.

Almost two weeks had passed since Tom left MD Anderson and was under hospice care in our home. Family and close friends came to see him for the last time. Every day was a mini-party, of sorts, because he was still alert enough to "hold court."

So, this particular day didn't have any mark of the end, at least not the way it started. My sister, Joanie, and the hospice nurse raised Tom on the lift to give him a bath. Not long afterward, Tom, sitting up in bed and looking very boyish, received the Viaticum from our parish deacon.

But then, the hospice nurse pulled me aside, "You have got to let him go," she said. I thought to myself, "But I have!"

Continue reading Keep it to Yourself.

Marta Davila, M.D., continues to see the benefits of colorectal cancer screening.

A physician in MD Anderson's Endoscopy Center, Davila recently treated a presumably healthy 52-year-old man who responded to his wife's encouragement to get a colonoscopy.

"The patient kept postponing his colonoscopy appointment because he felt well. He was diagnosed with early stage colon cancer, underwent surgery and is now cured," says Davila, professor in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. "He was one of the lucky ones."  

According to Davila, preventive colorectal cancer screening is particularly important, especially since patients rarely experience symptoms until the cancer is at an advanced stage.

"The reality is we need to encourage our patients to get a screening test. It's the right thing to do," she says.

Research shows screening saves lives
A recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine underscored the effectiveness of colonoscopy and colon polyp removal in saving lives. Researchers learned the death rate from colorectal cancer was cut by 53% in patients whose doctors had removed precancerous polyps.

Continue reading Colorectal Cancer Screening Saves Lives.

Kimberly Tripp was 12 years old when her grandmother died of gastrointestinal cancer. The loss of the person she most admired led her to a career in health care and, eventually, to MD Anderson.

"My first position here was as a post-op surgical nurse on the GI floor," says Tripp, currently administrative director of Acute Care Services. "I ended up taking care of these very same patients."

She eventually became a research nurse in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, where she worked with colorectal and pancreatic cancer patients. About the same time (in 2002), Cathy Eng, M.D., associate professor, joined GI Medical Oncology, and Tripp began working on a number of her colorectal cancer trials.

A stroll through a "colon"
According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer in men and women and the second leading cause of cancer death. However, colorectal cancer, relative to other malignancies, is a preventable cancer.

Continue reading Colorectal Cancer 5K Drives Home Importance of Education and Screening.

Exercise Benefits Lung Cancer Patients, Study Shows

A typical patient of Vickie Shannon, M.D., is on oxygen and confined to a wheelchair. Often a family member is there, too, to offer information.

"'Mom can't walk from here to the bathroom. She struggles to get out of bed,'" is a common theme of these family members, according to Shannon.

"'She doesn't go to the store anymore. She's not cooking. She's not doing any kind of cleaning,' they say."

Shannon, a professor in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, listens carefully and takes notes. When she suggests putting the patient in rehab -- which includes some exercise -- she gets startled looks.

"You want her to do what? Have you listened to a word I've said?"

According to Shannon, much is now known about the pulmonary rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Still in question is whether patients with COPD and cancer, or cancer patients who may have lung disease due to other causes, benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation during their treatments.

Continue reading You Want Me to Do What?.

By Judy Overton, MD Anderson Staff Writer

Felipe Corrales has blown out the candles on 103 birthday cakes so far. He's also survived a prostate cancer diagnosis. However, the greatest challenge for the 17-year cancer survivor has been recurrent bouts of urinary tract infections.

The infections have been managed by Issam Raad, M.D., professor and chair of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health, through various antibiotics. Yet, Raad states, "The best care to prevent these infections is to place one of the antimicrobial urinary catheters being developed by our team."

The antibiotic coated central venous catheter (CVC), invented by Raad and his team of researchers in 1994, was first introduced through a randomized, double-blinded study in 1997 (published in Annals of Internal Medicine).

Now 14 years later, the Center for Disease Control is recommending it for all high-risk patients who continue to have infections after all the best practices fail.

According to Raad, "The CDC Guidelines that came out in May 2011 highlight our invention and placed it in the highest category, Category IA. The antimicrobial catheters are in practice now in Europe, as well as in the United States."

Continue reading Novel technology undermines infection.

After a long and successful career in broadcast journalism in Houston, North Texas and Oklahoma, Judy Overton joined MD Anderson in 2008 as a senior communications specialist. Her husband, Tom, was treated at MD Anderson for renal cancer. He died in April 2007. Judy's occasional posts will cover aspects of the cancer experience from the caregiver's perspective. Read more posts in this series

I haven't been myself lately.

I haven't felt like doing much beyond getting up and going to work.

Four-and-a-half years have passed since Tom died. His 58th birthday would have been Nov. 2.

Sometimes I can't believe he's gone. I don't think I'm depressed, but maybe I am. It's all catching up with me.

I've held the fort for so long, and now it feels like my psychological and emotional walls are caving in.

Continue reading Caregiver Chronicles: The Art of Gratefulness.

Jerry Wilson claimed a front row seat. Wilson, diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer in 2009, has beaten the disease so far. What he can't shake is the fatigue he's experienced during his cancer journey.

"If you ever had a severe case of flu that totally drains you both physically and mentally, this is what I felt like all the time after starting a multiple chemo treatment," Wilson says.

Wilson has regained some of his energy now that he's taking a lower dose of chemotherapy and has learned to pace himself. He attended the recent Anderson Network Cancer Survivorship Conference to hear about other options.

He is among more than 100 cancer survivors and caregivers who heard Ellen Manzullo, M.D., professor in the Department of General Internal Medicine at MD Anderson, offer management strategies for cancer-related fatigue.

Manzullo, deputy division head in Internal Medicine, is one of two specialists who regularly evaluate patients in the MD Anderson Cancer-Related Fatigue Clinic.

According to Manzullo, fatigue is a common symptom. In fact, 30% of cancer survivors experience fatigue years after receiving treatment.

Continue reading Fatigue: How to Tackle the Pesky Side Effect.

It was Father's Day weekend, and photographs of my brother were sprinkled among the tables at the reception. Raymond wasn't physically present at the wedding of his oldest daughter, Amy, but his memory lives on among those of us who loved him.

"Hard"-felt message
"Mrs. Barton, your son is dying." The harsh words of reality were delivered to my mother by Raymond's oncologist more than 21 years ago.

Could they have been revealed a little more gently like a slow, boiling pot of water rather than as a quick deep fry? When do you finally cave in to reality, especially when miracles do happen?

Raymond was only 36 years old when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Always the life of the party, he died a year after diagnosis, leaving his widow, Sandy, to raise their three children on her own: Jason was 12, Amy was 5 and Shelli, the youngest, was 3.

The message revealed
When should the end of life be discussed and who is responsible for initiating the discussion?

Knox Todd, M.D., chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at MD Anderson, says there's a lack of understanding about palliative care and hospice, both among the general public and the medical staff who treat them.

He says the end-of-life conversation should begin much earlier, right along with discussion about the diagnosis and treatment.

"It's important not only to assist our patients in living well," Todd says. "It's just as important to assist them in dying well."

Continue reading Difficult Communications: The End-of-Life Discussion.

After a long and successful career in broadcast journalism in Houston, North Texas and Oklahoma, Judy Overton joined MD Anderson in 2008 as a senior communications specialist. Her husband, Tom, was treated at MD Anderson for renal cancer. He died in April 2007. Judy's occasional posts will cover aspects of the cancer experience from the caregiver's perspective. Read more posts in this series

Today, Aug. 22, is Judy and Tom's 30th wedding anniversary.

August also marks the first anniversary of Caregivers Chronicles.

I'm grateful to several colleagues in the Communications Office for suggesting I share my journey with you, and to MD Anderson for allowing me to post the stories on Cancerwise.

I hope it's been reassuring to know that, although you don't forget your loved one, life goes on. You do get better.

What makes the experience more bearable is the establishment of special friendships with people who also have lost loved ones. One of my friends is Bev Warner, who was widowed 14 years ago.

Continue reading Caregivers Chronicles: Marking Time and Moving Forward.

Torris Hornsby is a walking miracle.

Diagnosed with urachal cancer, an extremely rare bladder cancer, the Newton, Texas, resident has lived longer than anyone expected, even his oncologist, Arlene Siefker-Radtke, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology at MD Anderson.

Hornsby's resolve to live outweighed his prognosis, but there would be other hills to climb in this journey.

A restful sleep
On one of his inpatient visits to the hospital last year, Hornsby forgot his sleep apnea machine at home about two hours from Houston. Feeling tired and what he called "washed out," he was referred to MD Anderson's Sleep Center. It had been six or more years since his last evaluation, so he participated in a sleep study and got a new machine.

From clinical care to clinical research
Started in 2006, the Sleep Center is a four-bed laboratory available to all cancer patients. Its director, Dave Balachandran, M.D., says the center was established because 80% of cancer patients experience fatigue.

Continue reading Sleep Center Offers Patient Good Night's Rest.

"You can't sit on the sidelines. You've got to be involved." -- MD Anderson caregiver

Caregivers' concerns are embedded in their stories.

As a nurse caring for patients undergoing stem cell transplantation, Lori Williams, Ph.D., has heard many stories from family caregivers. Bedside and clinic nurses tend to have more contact with caregivers than do other medical personnel, she says,. Her close contact led her to prepare her dissertation on coping and caring for caregivers.

"Caregivers are an absolute necessity," says Williams, now an assistant professor in the Department of Symptom Research at MD Anderson.

Informal or family caregivers, she explains, typically are unpaid family members, friends or neighbors. According to a 2007 study, if a monetary value were assigned to their contributions, the total would exceed $350 billion.

"Our health care system would come to a screeching halt if that value were added to the current health care deficit," Williams adds.

Continue reading Care for the Caregiver.

After a long and successful career in broadcast journalism in Houston, North Texas and Oklahoma, Judy Overton joined MD Anderson in 2008 as a senior communications specialist. Her husband, Tom, was treated at MD Anderson for renal cancer. He died in April 2007. Judy's occasional posts will cover aspects of the cancer experience from the caregiver's perspective. Read more posts in this series

"I believe in angels. Something good in everything I see.
I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me."
                Abba

The lyrics from the rock group Abba's song resonate deeply within me. I truly believe in angels, especially those beloved souls who leave us, too soon.

The days march on
Four days had passed since I'd buried Tom. The sun streamed in through the blinds of our bedroom. The radio, which had been silent since Tom had died, beckoned.

When I turned it on, I was blown away.

Continue reading The Caregiver Chronicles: Angels Surround Us.