Judy’s Persistence Helped Her Reach 10 Years of Mesothelioma Survival
Judy G. remembers the months before her mesothelioma diagnosis as a frustrating search for answers. She was coughing constantly, struggling to breathe and dealing with pain near her collarbone, but her symptoms were first treated as pneumonia.
When antibiotics didn’t help, Judy pushed her doctor to take another look. “I got really mad at him,” she tells us. “I said, okay, if I were your mother, your wife, your sister, your aunt, would you do this? Would you be doing this?”
Her persistence eventually led her to a pulmonologist, who ordered a biopsy that confirmed she has pleural mesothelioma. “I got the phone call like 2 days later and they said, ‘You have mesothelioma,’” Judy tells us. “I said, ‘Oh, okay.’”
Judy was 61 when doctors diagnosed her in March 2016. She’s still undergoing mesothelioma treatment today. Now 71, Judy has spent 10 years defying the odds and finding a way forward with mesothelioma.
Finding the Right Mesothelioma Surgeon
Judy says doctors quickly began talking with her about mesothelioma surgery after confirming her diagnosis. Around the same time, the man she’d recently started dating, who later became her husband, began helping her search for a specialist.
“We hadn’t even been dating 2 months,” Judy recalls. His cousin did some research and recommended Dr. Rafael Bueno at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Judy traveled to meet with him and eventually chose him to perform her surgery.
Before the procedure, fluid continued building around her lung and had to be drained repeatedly. “Before the surgery, I had to have my lung drained like every day,” she recalls. “My friend, who’s a nurse, went and drained it.”
Judy underwent a pleurectomy/decortication, also known as P/D. It’s a lung-sparing surgery that removes the pleural lining and visible tumors. She says Dr. Bueno also used heated chemotherapy during the procedure.
After leaving the hospital, Judy stayed with her husband’s brother in Boston while she recovered. Nurses came to the house to help with her care before she could return home.
Finding Strength in Her Husband and Friends
Judy’s husband entered her life only shortly before mesothelioma did. Over the next decade, he became one of the people she depended on most through surgery, treatment and recovery.
During some of her most difficult treatment periods, he helped her with basic daily tasks when she could barely move. Her friends, two of whom are nurses, also helped care for her during recovery.
When asked what helped most, Judy shares, “Sometimes just being there and holding my hand and that’s it. Just doing little things too.”
That support continues. She recently spent time in the hospital after developing shortness of breath and fluid around her other lung, but she says she’s recovering and still doing many of the things she enjoys.
While she says that she and her husband haven’t gotten to do all of their favorite activities like snowshoeing recently, they’ve continued to make time for things they enjoy. Judy adds, “I haven’t gone kayaking in a couple of years, which is kind of upsetting. But other than that. We’ve done everything else.”
