Sandra Lee

Editor’s Note: This piece was submitted by a contributing writer and does not represent the views of CURE Media Group.

 It was March 2011 and I had been feeling terrible. The worst feeling would happen after I ate, when my stomach would hurt badly. Later, when Doctor W. was doing an ultrasound on my stomach, he said, “It looks like you have some mass.”

Not only was it in my stomach but pretty much everywhere else, so the doctor sent me in for CT scan. When he came back with results, he was shaking his head. “I'm so sorry to tell you this but it seems you have cancer not only your stomach, but also your pancreas, kidney and hip,” he said. “I've called a kidney doctor and a cancer doctor.”

The kidney doctor came in first. He sat next to my bed and held my hand and said, “I'm not going to tell you you’re ok—you’re not. You have a tumor covering your kidney and many other places. The kidney should come out, but you won't survive the surgery.” He went on to say that if it was him, he wouldn't take chemo because I have maybe three months to live and I should go be with family and get my affairs in order.

I thanked him for his honesty and then cancer doctor arrived. He said I needed a lot of tests to determine what I had, so I got a bone marrow test and kidney biopsy. It came back saying I had cancer in stomach, pancreas, kidney and hip, just as suspected. The oncologist said I had 10 percent chance of survival. If I passed the PET scan and MUGA scan, he would start chemo, which would be every three weeks until November. Then comes radiation to get it all.

I started chemotherapy, and it was horrible. I did chemo until August and had another PET scan saying the cancer was all gone. The doctor wanted me to continue chemo until November, but I refused because my immune system was already compromised.

He said it would come back within the next five years and if not, I would be 95 percent cured. Well here I am, five years later, feeling great! I had another PET scan and all is clear. The doctor calls me the miracle child.

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In 2011, I was told that I had a 10 percent chance of living. Five years later, my doctor refers to me as the miracle child.

Sandra Lee

The Cancer Miracle Child

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