Скачать или смотреть Eye on Health: Beacon helps patients navigate cancer diagnosis

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A cancer diagnosis is a scary time in a person’s life often leaving uncertainty that’s difficult to navigate.

Beacon Health System is making that process easier for patients through a collaborative effort between doctors, nurses and hospital staff making sure a patient’s treatment is an easy-to-understand process right from the start.

Suzie Gonzalez of LaGrange has been part of that process. She’s had her fair share of certain medical conditions throughout her life, but a breast cancer diagnosis at age 48 left Suzie, and her husband Frank, unsure of what their future would hold.

“We prayed. We were nervous. We cried. We asked why many, many times,” she said.

Suzie was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, a common type of cancer that begins in the milk ducts and invades surrounding breast tissue. She has no family history of breast cancer and admits that when she first found something hard in her breast, she ignored it. She eventually had it checked out when she noticed it was getting bigger.

“Suzie was very anxious in the beginning as anybody would with a new diagnosis,” said Dawn McCandless, a breast cancer patient navigator at Beacon who is assigned to patients throughout their recovery journey to help answer questions, educate and support them. Dawn was side by side Suzie every step of the way.

“She just was so willing to be vulnerable with us, willing to share how anxious she was feeling and that allowed me then to step in and support her,” said Dawn.

Dawn is part of a coordinated care team of people at Beacon, devising treatment tailored specifically to a patient’s diagnosis. Dr. Omer Toor, a medical oncologist and hematologist who helped treat Suzie’s cancer, says Beacon’s goal is to provide comprehensive care close to home. He and other doctors meet in person together weekly to discuss a patient’s treatment plan, saving the patient time from having to travel to different medical appointments.

“At Beacon, our team strives every day not only to treat the cancer but take care of the patient as a whole,” said Dr. Toor

Dr. Toor says early detection of cancer can lead to better outcomes adding that in Suzie’s case, because it was caught early enough, she didn’t have to have chemotherapy.

“This is a very important aspect of cancer care to understand. Not all cancers will need chemotherapy in this day and age. We have come a long way,” he said.

Suzie still has further testing to do in the future and says she’ll be on medication for quite a while. But she’s back to an active lifestyle and even participated in the University of Notre Dame Women’s Basketball’s Pink Zone initiative, a community effort to help fight breast cancer. She credits her faith in Jesus Christ, her husband Frank, and the team at Beacon for getting her through an unexpected chapter in her life.

“It truly was a family. Every doctor became a family member to me in some way shape or form,” said Suzie.

Suzie’s advice to other women is that even if they think they feel something, to go to the doctor and get it checked out. Dr. Toor recommends women start getting screened for breast cancer at the age of 40, but family history can affect that. He says to first take any concerns to their primary care physician.

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