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"My sweet boy," Deborah Morey said as she practically skipped across the room to join him in a group photograph. The boy is her son, 15-year-old Curtis Morey, who was diagnosed with medulloblastoma (a type of brain tumor) on Jan. 27, 2012. ...
Jim Brooks was vacationing with his family in Spain when suddenly he couldn't speak for 10 minutes and wound up in the hospital. Jim and his wife Louanne decided together they wanted to return to their Minnesota home and Mayo ...
Sue Willingham remembers the May 2010 day well. She was getting ready to take her two children to school. But before leaving the house, she did what any mom might – use the restroom. But then she noticed she'd lightly ...
David Prochello is no stranger to getting tattoos. He builds custom choppers, he has tats on his arms and a large one on his upper back inscribed: "I am my own role model." So when Prochello, of Dakota Dunes, South ...
I am Dr. J. Kemper Campbell, an ophthalmologist from Lincoln, Nebraska. I noted a small asymptomatic mass on the right side of my neck in December 2006. When needle biopsy established it to be a poorly differentiated metastatic cancer of ...
Thousands are preparing to lace up their sneakers for the sixth annual 26.2 with Donna: The National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer on Sunday, February 17, 2013, and in doing so, supporting ongoing research (PDF) at Mayo Clinic related to breast ...
John Henderson of British Columbia is a details man: a Chartered Accountant for whom accuracy and thoroughness are paramount. So while health care is excellent in Canada, about 15 years ago Mr. Henderson, now 62, decided his routine check-ups were ...
Twelve years ago, Ron Wilson woke up with a swollen neck and knew something was very wrong. After visiting his doctor, he learned that his blood counts were off the charts. Consultation with an oncologist revealed shocking news – Ron was diagnosed ...
Radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery put Miami scuba diver back in the water.
Radiation therapy and surgery put a stop to aggressive anaplastic thyroid cancer.
Artist and teacher Cynthia Amendt sees her teaching — and her health — reach new levels through participation in a clinical trial.
Surgery and an investigational drug give brain tumor patient much more than anyone expected.
At the age of eight, Max Harris overcame aplastic anemia, a condition that occurs when your body stops producing enough new blood cells. Successful treatment led to his recovery and several years of good health. Years later, a visit to ...
Innovative technology and surgical expertise helped Mayo Clinic physicians save kidney cancer patient Jasper Johnikin's kidney — and his life.
When a brain tumor unexpectedly appeared in 20-month-old Jayden Gonzalez, Mayo Clinic doctors responded quickly to remove the tumor and restore his health.
"I think it's cancer," are not words that anyone, especially a 29 year old nurse recently relocated to Arizona, expects to hear. Jennifer McGoldrick faced these words and the eventual diagnosis of breast cancer shortly after moving to Scottsdale to continue ...
Diagnosed with prostate cancer at a relatively young age, Dr. Randall Minion chose robotic surgery as the best way to maintain his full, active lifestyle. Read Randall's story.
Ruth Smith lives more than 200 miles north of Rochester, Minn., but she knew where she wanted to go when she was diagnosed with kidney cancer — Mayo Clinic.
A rare brain tumor couldn't stop Laurie Beach from enjoying the life she dreamed of.
My name is Ardyth Carpenter, and in 1982, I went to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, after experiencing a TIA. While there, Mayo's work up discovered a malignancy in my right breast. I had no ill effects from the "mini-stroke" ...
Talk about a strong mother-daughter bond — Margie Hartmann and her daughter, Jessica McNeil, had Gamma Knife surgery on the same day.
A tongue tumor threatened to cut short this volunteer firefighter's life, but surgery and radiation treatment at Mayo Clinic saved his life.
Coordinated approach to care brings results for business school professor.
After a successful stem cell transplant for a rare disorder, Cynthia Farmer has her life back.
Sharon Francis was working on a new design collection when the pain started. "I thought it was just a bad headache," she says. "Then I fainted in the elevator."
Years of raising awareness for breast cancer could not have prepared Barbra Riley for the devastating words she heard just over a year ago – "You have breast cancer." Barbra had dedicated her time and energy to promoting breast cancer awareness through ...
Suzy Underhill's life took an unexpected turn less than a year ago when she discovered a large lump under her breast. She immediately went to see her gynecologist who recommended that she consult with a specialist. Suzy's good friend had ...
Henry Corral had always enjoyed a full life in Arizona – staying fit, spending time with his family and working in the high tech industry. In March of 2011, his life turned upside down. He received a diagnosis that few ...
A mother and her three daughters – all diagnosed with breast cancer. Kathleen O'Brien shares her family's history battling a disease which eventually took her mother's life and now has struck three more times. Kathleen and her sisters, Angel and Brenda, ...
I'm walking a fine line between jubilation and anxiety. As a two-time ovarian cancer survivor, I'm nearing the anniversary of my recurrence. Although I feel fine, this type of cancer isn't the most accommodating. My nerves always manage to creep up ...
Following radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatment at Mayo Clinic for a brain stem glioma, the tumor which had threatened Jordan Mills' life, had shrunk. Jordan's life continued full of happy events. He married his fiancée, Kelly, in June 2009, and bought his ...
Jordan Mills is a man's man. Enlisted in the U.S. military in 2004, Jordan was deployed around the world, serving in countries as diverse as Japan, Korea and Afghanistan. But "after my first combat deployment," Jordan says, "I started noticing ...
My battle with cancer started a few years ago when I developed prostate cancer. My local doctor recommended a Radical Prostatectomy. He painstakingly spared all my nerves. I had no residual incontinence or impotence. PSA was NIL and has never ...
His Holiness the Dalai Lama recently visited Mayo Clinic and gave a special presentation on resilience through mindfulness. The below story takes place during his visit to Mayo Clinic last year... When Troy Keach, Mayo Clinic Education Administration, brought his ...
Previously: "Joey's Hope – Part 1 of 4", "Joey's Hope – Part 2 of 4", and "Joey's Hope – Part 3 of 4" ...Because this was an exciting brand new medication the local news station interviewed Joel several times throughout ...
Previously: "Joey's Hope – Part 1 of 4" and "Joey's Hope – Part 2 of 4" ...Within the next twelve short months Joel, Kimberly, and their daughter made FIVE additional trips to the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester. Joel had a ...
Previously: "Joey's Hope – Part 1 of 4" ...Joel was gone to surgery and then to recovery on Friday from about 6:30 a.m. until 4 or 5 p.m. He was moved to the ninth floor of the Mary Brigh building ...
To be told he had melanoma cancer totally shocked Joel Saunders and his family who live in Fort Wayne, Indiana. An auto technician (window installer), Joel was always extremely healthy and rarely called in sick to work. He has been ...
During the summer of 2011, my husband, David, underwent a series of tests which revealed extremely high levels of a certain protein in his blood. As a result, we were referred to the Hematology Department at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, ...
By Susan Pepperdine "My doctor came in, and in his best Marcus Welby voice told me I was going to die," Marlys Fox vividly remembers. She was just 32 years old, so "I wasn't going to take that sitting down. ...
To celebrate his "first birthday" after treatment for esophageal cancer, Ricky Rinehart, 54, rode his bike to Mayo Clinic — 213 miles across the desert from his home in Yuma to Phoenix, Ariz. Thirteen friends, family and co-workers joined him ...
"Couldn't breathe, gasping for air," is how Bobbie Sofia describes the first sign that something was wrong. In 2007, Bobbie Sofia and her husband, Sam, traveled to San Antonio, Texas from their home of almost forty years in Lake Havasu ...
Esophageal cancer took Jorge Rivera, 47, by surprise. An auto loan manager and a father of three, he had a full life and a passion for performing sacred music with his family. Rivera, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, had "the ...
Having never been touched by any kind of cancer in any generation of my family, it came as a shock to learn of my breast cancer diagnosis confirmed at Mayo Clinic January 2012. I felt I was going through seven ...
Deborah Maina is on a mission to educate women about breast cancer. Growing up in the village of Embu in Kenya, where healthcare information was not common, Maina, 43, a breast cancer survivor, is committed to bring education to her ...
A diagnosis of cancer can be devastating. For Robert Hoopes, a facilities manager from Glendale, Ariz., the diagnosis hit home – twice. In 2006, Kara, his wife of more than three decades, discovered that she had advanced colon cancer. After ...
I am a hard charging, creative, passionate person who listens to her "inner voice" as much as possible. Earlier this year, I was having multiple ear and throat infections which were not responsive to antibiotics. After three rounds, my doctor ...
Personal Background My name is Alfred "Bart" Howe and I am a very lucky guy. I was born 1938 in a small oilfield town in Oklahoma. Mary and I married in 1965 and have two married sons, a grandson and ...
Below is an except from a blogpost written by Karon Hanson on the Healing As A Sacred Path blog. "[He] received more rounds of chemo earlier this Fall, and when it was found the cancer was still progressing, he enrolled ...
Meet Mr. Hussein Hatata, lung cancer survivor, who praises the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependency Center for helping him to quit smoking. Related Diseases Lung Cancer Related Departments Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependency Center
By Annemieke van der Werff At the end of March 2010, my husband and I returned from a wonderful trip through India. During the trip I had noticed a swollen lymph node in my left armpit. At first I didn't ...
As he biked 213 miles of desert between Yuma, Ariz., and Phoenix in temperatures above 90 degrees, Ricky Reinhart thought a lot about moving forward. Much the same as he did a year ago as he laid in a bed ...
By Lindsay Engelstad I was not a patient at the Mayo Clinic Hospital, but my mother was. Prior to her going into the hospital, I always hear people say "Go to the Mayo Clinic it is the best place to be ...
I will never forget the afternoon of January 31, 2011, when I was at my local health provider and received the devastating news that I had stage 4 throat cancer at the base of my tongue that had spread to ...
Tamieko, a 38 year old woman, was completely caught off guard when she was diagnosed with Stage I/II breast cancer in December 2010. After two years of observing suspicious changes in her breast that appeared normal on mammograms, she requested ...
Written by Karen Brown, Ph.D., Professor of Operations and Project Management, Thunderbird School of Global Management Anyone facing or experiencing cancer treatment can relate to the idea that it's a project: a set of coordinated activities aimed at a goal. ...
In the fall of 1990, Morgan Tyner experienced a moment that would change his life forever. While at work, Morgan, a newly practicing dentist, suffered a seizure. After undergoing many tests over the course of several days, he received a ...
Jim Zloch is a trial lawyer from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He was diagnosed in Florida for cancer on his vocal cords. He sought a second opinion and ultimately, treatment at Mayo Clinic in 2006. Jim talks about going through six ...
By Patricia Wagner In this final entry, I'll be sharing as one patient to another the complementary practices which have enhanced my total health. I am most grateful to the M.D.s who treat me, as I'm sure most of you ...
by Patricia Wagner Thanks for sticking with me! In this entry, I'll be talking about what is involved in being your own advocate. I believe that for myself, I would not be alive to write to you now had I ...
by Patricia Wagner In this entry, I'll talk about how the disease started and a look into how I was affected. Bear in mind that every case is different and you shouldn't conclude that you'll go through the same things ...
This is an update to Andrew Mork's story, "It really should be called The Mayo Family", from over a year and a half ago. We have caught back up with both Andrew and his mom for an updated video interview ...
I'm Patricia Wagner. I'm 58 years old and live in a retirement community with my husband and two cats. I'm now followed by Dr. Ruben Mesa, a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. I'm writing this blog series to ...
We are proud to say that the Pediatric Oncology Nurses/Nurse Practitioners implemented the Beads of Courage Program at Mayo Clinic using money received from the Kids Cup in 2008. The program is a resilience-based intervention designed to support and strengthen ...
When Corinne was 6 years old, she was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a childhood cancer of the bone marrow. Corinne's parents, Mike and Deb Watters, learned the cancer was in her hip and leg. Treatment would include chemotherapy to shrink ...
A radio and television broadcaster whose career has spanned more than four decades, Mort Crim has spent a lifetime telling other people's stories. But in retirement, Crim, who was Paul Harvey's permanent vacation fill-in and the voice of ABC Radio ...
When Rob Clary, 44, of Cave Creek, Ariz., needed surgery for cancer in his throat, the surgeon was able to remove the cancer through Clary's mouth. Last February, Clary had surgery at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, one of a few ...
A momentous occasion occurred recently at Mayo Clinic in Florida when a bone marrow transplant patient, Kongphaly Aphayasane, was awarded United States citizenship in her hospital room. Aphayasane, a native from Laos, has been working diligently to achieve this significant ...
By Caitlyn Potter When I was 17, I was diagnosed with stage one skin cancer. My primary care doctor, Dr. Sonia Lenzmeier has been checking my skin since I was 15 years old. On one of my office visits, she ...
California-native Faith Glass began showing signs of illness at age 2. When local doctors were unable to diagnose her, Faith's parents, Julie and Bart, turned to Mayo Clinic for answers. In this video, Julie and Faith share their experience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCfR6iDogbs ...
Benny Andújar has traveled a long way from his native Utuado, Puerto Rico, to tell an important story. "Cancer doesn't always send a warning," Andújar says about his experience with a precancerous condition called Barrett's esophagus. A routine endoscopy gave ...
Donna Termont shares her experience at the Mayo Clinic Erickson Hair and Skin Care Center. Donna tells her story about hair loss due to the side effects of chemotherapy and how the Mayo Clinic Erickson Hair and Skin Care Center ...
Jorge Rivera raised his cell phone and took a self-portrait that showed an almost imperceptible scar on his neck. Rivera, an administrative manager at FirstBank in San Juan, Puerto Rico, underwent a new type of surgery at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, ...
Roger Lipelt shares his story about colon cancer and how the team work between Mayo Clinic and his local hospital has given him the opportunity to keep coaching as an accomplished Minnesota Football Association Hall of Famer. Today, he is ...
Karen Teaser has always led a very active lifestyle outdoors. A former lifeguard, Teaser, who resides in Iowa and winters in Arizona with her husband Jim, spent years out on the water and relaxing in the sun. After being diagnosed ...
By: Andrea Miller Birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, graduation gifts...we're set in a society that longs after gifts. I have learned, however, that the most important gift one can receive is a clean bill of health. I have not had the ...
When 64-year-old Dennis Nigon struggled for two weeks with a sore throat, he never imagined he would be diagnosed with cancer a few weeks later. Nigon didn't think anything serious of his sore throat. But as it continued to persist, ...
Diane recently wrote about her friend's experience at Mayo Clinic. Read a few parts of her blog post below. "My good friend recently received the call that a lot of us baby boomers are dreading. Her mother, who had been ill ...
Toni Kay Mangskau makes a living helping patients from around the world learn about the latest cancer research. Mangskau, 45, a clinical trials referral coordinator at Mayo Clinic's Cancer Education Center in Rochester, Minn., never imagined she would one day ...
The below article comes from our Sharing Mayo Clinic print publication: "It isn't a big article," Kristie Naines says when asked about her appearance in the October issue of Good Housekeeping. "It's just a few paragraphs." She's being modest. It's ...
Scott Hennen, a radio talk show host from Fargo, ND, had surgery at Mayo Clinic yesterday to remove his colon, which had developed several sites with precancerous cells related to his ulcerative colitis, which was first diagnosed in 1997. Scott ...
Scott Hennen is on the air three hours every weekday on his syndicated radio program based in Fargo, North Dakota. He has had ulcerative colitis since 1997, and on Monday morning is scheduled to have his colon removed at Mayo ...
Three years ago, when Janis Ollson, now 32, was pregnant with her second child, she experienced agonizing back pain. But, unlike the back pain she had during her first pregnancy with daughter Braxtyn, this time the pain would not subside. ...
Surgeons at Mayo Clinic have developed a new robotic procedure performed through the mouth (transorally) to treat cancers of the tongue base and tonsils. Mayo Clinic is one of the few medical centers in the United States offering this surgery, ...
The moment finally came. But it was an uneasy one at first. MaryEllen Sheppard was about to receive her last round of chemotherapy at Mayo Clinic, with friends and family by her side. But as her loved ones and her ...
Mayo Clinic had already been a source of invaluable consultations for my long-time autoimmune Sjogren's Syndrome and for genetic counseling to ascertain potential genetic predisposition for the autoimmune conditions, cardiomyopathy and cancer that populated my family tree. But late in ...
Eight-year-old Jacob Harpel from Glencoe, Minn., was diagnosed with a plum-sized brain tumor the day before Thanksgiving last year. He had aggressive brain surgery at Mayo Clinic in August to remove the tumor; with the surgery he had a 50% ...
From the moment MaryEllen Sheppard was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, she wondered how she developed cancer. Her ancestors, she said, tended to live long, healthy lives. And other than a cousin, she wasn't aware of anyone else in ...
When offered a choice between a trip to the doctor or a shopping day at the American Girl Store, eight-year-old Emma chose the doctor — hands down. An extraordinary choice, but then, Emma is an extraordinary girl. This wasn't to ...
When you last saw MaryEllen Sheppard in Episode 2, she spoke about how she was beginning to lose her hair. After two rounds of chemotherapy, MaryEllen said she was beginning to lose clumps at a time. She knew the day was coming. ...
Pansy Parker of Goodyear, Ariz., has been celebrating her cancer-free "five-year-mark" with a little partying and a lot of faith. "I just thank God so much for the five-year benchmark," said the ebullient 73-year-old, who threw a party and invited ...
Like many women facing breast cancer, MaryEllen Sheppard had concerns over how she would feel after her chemotherapy treatments. Would she be able to go to work? Would the chemotherapy leave her feeling ill and exhausted? How long would it ...
Jacksonville and Robin Wahby were both much different 20 years ago, when Mrs. Wahby arrived in Florida. The city had no professional football team and all the prominence and economic development that come with that. And Mrs. Wahby — then ...
MaryEllen Sheppard knew something was wrong as soon as she felt a thickened patch of skin on her right breast. She didn't feel a lump, but knew the change was different enough to get it checked out. A mammogram and ...
Inspiration comes in many forms – for Irma Poznecki, a 45-year-old mother of three from Anthem, Ariz., it was brownies and cupcakes. In late 2009, Irma was diagnosed with breast cancer. The news came as an obvious shock to Irma ...
In early 2009, Josh Johnson's parents thought their 14-year-old's back was likely sore from a few falls he'd taken while snowboarding competitively. They live in Afton, Minn. and Josh spends his winters snowboarding and his summers wakeboarding. However, after a couple ...
I was diagnosed with bone cancer in ninth grade. It was December 2006, just before the holidays. For several months, I'd had a bump just below my right knee that the local orthopedic surgeon thought was just an extra piece ...
As a semi-retired financier living with his wife on the Isle of Man, Andrew Ashworth is used to frequent travels around the world. Rochester, Minnesota was not on his map until Spring 2009, when he visited a local hospital on ...
Where do I start in my cancer journey?? I guess at the beginning!! It all started with a "bump" on the inside of my ankle that I ignored because it was the same color as my skin and didn't hurt. ...
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, with a 20 percent relative survival rate after one-year and a four percent survival rate after five-years for all stages combined, according to the American Cancer ...
Each year, Marnie Hensel, of Wayzata, Minn., comes to Mayo Clinic for her annual checkup through the Executive Health Program. During her visit in early 2004, physicians noticed a spot on her lung x-ray. A biopsy found that it was ...
In 1974, 14-month old Michelle Ernsdorff was diagnosed with a Wilm's tumor, a rare kidney cancer that primarily affects children. Michelle's hometown pediatricians in Dubuque, Iowa, had little experience treating a child with Wilm's, so her parents, Mike and Sandy ...
While I'm not a musician – or for that fact, musically inclined in any capacity – I now share something in common with Gregg Allman, the rock and roll legend: A second chance at life thanks to an organ donation.
John Gillis went to "the best place possible" when he got esophageal cancer and got a result that he never imagined. The persistent stomach pain caught John Gillis by surprise. The active 53-year-old had rarely been sick a day in ...
Jill Camirand likes to keep moving. When she finished college in New Hampshire the first thing she did was get on a train and go. She didn't have a particular destination in mind, she just wanted to see where it ...
Andrew Mork is being treated at Mayo Clinic for juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma, a rare cancer of the brain and spinal cord. Andrew's mother, Corrie, shared their Mayo Clinic last summer via e-mail, and they also decided to tell about their experience ...
Raley Mae Radomske was all set to begin a new chapter in her life the summer of 2009 when the unthinkable happened. A national rodeo champion, Radomske, 18, experienced a seizure as she was readying for her move from her ...
Many people can relate to making some type of sacrifice for the one they love. For some, it's a move far away from family and friends. For others, it's changing jobs or schools to be closer to their beloved. For ...
This story was submitted by David Kelly from Saint Joseph, Mich. We've been a part of the Mayo Experience since 1998. Originally we began our treatment in a Chicago hospital. It was there that our two-year-old daughter, Hannah, had her ...
Joan Dymand-Hintz was in her early 40′s when she became pregnant with her daughter. The happiness she and her husband Marc Hintz felt was short-lived. A week after learning she was pregnant, Joan, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based singer and mother of ...
This story was submitted by Nimaat Al Azzah, Breast Cancer Survivor and Mayo Clinic Patient Life is full of surprises — some are happy and some can flip one's world all around. In October, on my 37th wedding anniversary, I ...
Editor's Note: Madeline Stockbridge submitted this story by email after receiving the print edition of the Sharing Mayo Clinic newsletter. She wrote "After reading the latest issue of Sharing Mayo Clinic, I had to submit my story. Ning Chieng's words ...
When Ali Nowotny was just 15, she began to"blank out." It was summer of 2006, and she was working as a waitress in her hometown of Rapid City, S.D. The episodes occurred about once a month, and left her "spaced ...
Editor's note: This story was submitted by Sheila Robb, a Mayo Clinic patient from Minneapolis. I was at Mayo a couple of months ago to start planning for a new treatment. The breast cancer that had metastasized 2 ½ years ...
On Mother's Day, Jeanine Peterson told the story on her blog of the special gift she gave her mom, a Mayo Clinic patient. With her mom's permission, we share a portion of the story here: History: 3 years ago Mom ...
December 7, 1941 was labeled by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a "Day of Infamy" after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For my wife, Anne, and me the date was April 13, 2009 when we heard from our family doctor that ...
Pam N from Michigan submitted her story via email this week, saying: "I am sharing my Mayo Clinic story with you in hopes that it will help other women who may be diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Inflammatory Breast Cancer ...
Running a 26.2 mile marathon is a fulfilling experience for anyone. Doing so on the first anniversary of your breast cancer diagnosis makes it even more special. When 40-year old Kim Loving of St. Augustine, Florida learned she had estrogen ...
In last week's Social Media Saturday post we introduced Mayo Clinic's YouTube channel and how you can view videos and pass them along to your family or friends who might find them interesting. But what if you want to share your ...
When Craig McMillan found a lump in his left breast while showering in September 2004, he didn't think much of it. The 59-year-old insurance agent from Quincy, Fla., assumed it was a harmless, fatty cyst like others he had had. ...
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