[ HAWAII AT WORK ]
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Clinician, heed thyself
Kuakini's Lori Kaneshige
survives a close brush
with breast cancerI have been a clinical nurse specialist at Kuakini Medical Center since 2000.
One of my responsibilities is oncology education. Included in this is educating patients, families and the community about cancer prevention, the various cancer disease processes, treatments, procedures, clinical trials and potential side effects of cancer treatment.
Support groups are also a venue to educate people. I became the facilitator for the Kuakini Breast Cancer Education and Support Group in April 2002. At that time there were about 10 women in various stages of breast cancer recovery.
As fate would have it, I became the group's newest member two months later.
I was scheduled to give my first official presentation to the group about the importance of continuing self-breast exams. The night before my talk, I did my own self-exam while in the shower and found a lump in my left breast.
I met with the group and gave my talk the next morning. Afterward, I told a couple of my nurse colleagues at Kuakini about the lump. They told me to get it checked right away, something I had heard myself tell other women many times. I saw my doctor that afternoon and had my first mammogram and breast ultrasound the following week.
During the ultrasound, I knew it was bad. Tears streamed down my face. I felt a black hole in the pit of my stomach. I tried to tell myself that maybe it wasn't cancer, maybe it was something else. But after a biopsy that June, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 34 years old.
After a year of treatments that included chemotherapy, surgery and radiation therapy, I have no detectable signs of cancer.
Before my own diagnosis, I felt that I was pretty good at what I did. I was a caring and compassionate person, empathetic in the way I talked with cancer patients and their loved ones. Today, I have a different perspective of nursing, life, death and cancer. I have experienced many of the same tests, decisions, side effects and anxieties as the patients I work with. When I talk about the disease, I begin with the basics, even if I'm dealing with a health care professional. I don't assume anything.
When I talk about treatment, I know the physical discomfort and emotional pain the patients can experience. During chemotherapy, minutes can feel like hours, days can feel like forever. I've been there and felt that. And I know that once you are diagnosed with cancer, there really is no end to the journey. Not a day goes by that I don't think about the disease. Nowadays, when I speak to patients, I don't just speak from things I have studied in school books or learned on the job. I speak from my own experience.
It might sound strange to say, but battling breast cancer has been a blessing in many ways. Today, I am a better clinical nurse specialist. It is a privilege to do work I love, with people I trust and respect, in a place that cares about people.
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