Sharing care: Monica's story

Cancer survivor Monica Meshell explains how sticking to her regular routine, a positive outlook, and the support of others helped her during her treatments for lymphoma.

Transcript

00:00

Every morning, I got up, and I did my makeup. And everybody that came in swore I was getting checked out that day.

00:06

And no, I'm here for a couple of days, but I don't want to be in a hospital gown, so that's not what I'm wearing today. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:15

In November of 2013, I had this indescribable pain on my chest and a persistent cough that didn't want to go anywhere.

00:23

So I went to my primary care physician, and she sent me to the emergency room.

00:30

Two days later, I went to the oncologist, and it was determined that I had diffuse large B-cell

00:36

lymphoma, stage four. So I had six treatments of chemotherapy.

00:42

And they were aggressive treatments. Every three weeks, I was in the hospital for five to seven days, getting constant chemo.

00:50

Every morning, I got up, and I did my makeup. And everybody that came in swore I was getting checked out that day.

00:56

And no, I'm here for a couple of days, but I don't want to be in a hospital gown, so that's not what I'm wearing today. I had so much support during my treatments

01:07

that it actually got on my nerves, and I had to be told to just be patient. They have to be there for you, so let them.

01:15

On March 7, 2014, I get the call, and my nurse said, hey, Monica, how you doing?

01:22

I said, I'm good. How are you? She said, well, I have some news for you. You got your PET scan done a couple of days ago, and we have the results for you.

01:29

And I said, OK. And she says, you're cancer free. And I'm like, oh, my God! Oh, my God! I jumped up and down.

01:36

And I had to tell somebody, but nobody was there. So I ran downstairs to my neighbor and knocked on the door.

01:42

I'm banging on the door at 9:00 in the morning. She's like, what's going on? What's going on? Miss Jackie, Miss Jackie, I'm cancer free!

01:49

I'm cancer free! But it was so exciting.

01:55

I think that's the best news I have ever received in my life. My support system was absolutely amazing.

02:01

I got out of the hospital, and all of my first cousins from Mississippi were there by my side. I went in with a positive mindset saying, you know what?

02:10

God gave me this, but he also gave me doctors and holistic

02:16

treatments to take care of this, so science and medicine combined. I got it taken care of.