Judi Andress

"I'm not crazy," says Judi Andress — probably because her story sounds like it might be. And yet what happened is not only true, but it also saved Judi's life. Twice.

"I had a dream," she begins, "where I came out of a building onto a busy street, and everyone who walked by me said, 'You have cancer.'" She pauses, remembering. "I didn't take it literally. I was trying to ignore it. And then my mother's face just came out of the darkness, so close to me that it was uncomfortable, and she said, 'Judi. You have cancer.'"

Judi's mom had died in January 1991. "I woke right up," Judi says, "and I thought, wow, that's a weird dream. I mean, I had no cancer symptoms. I wasn't sick." She chalked it up to her subconscious suggesting there was some sort of unresolved problem in her life.

But as time went on, Judi found she couldn't shake the eerie feeling the dream left her with. After discussing the dream with a friend, Judi decided to visit her doctor. Upon sharing her story with him, he decided it was a good idea to administer a complete physical as well as a chest x-ray.

The next day Judi was at work when her doctor called, echoing the words from her dream. "Judi," he said, "you have lung cancer."

Judi felt sure that her doctor was wrong, thinking he may have misdiagnosed some scarred lung tissue remaining from a childhood bout of valley fever. But the doctor was adamant, so Judi went to a pulmonologist for a second opinion, who delivered the same diagnosis: lung cancer.

And unfortunately, an attempted surgical resection revealed the worst: the tumor was wrapped around Judi's pulmonary artery and was impossible to remove. Doctors gave Judi just six months to live.

A medical anomaly
Judi's best friend insisted that she seek another opinion, and put her in touch with a nationally recognized oncologist practicing in Colorado. That physician was willing to see Judi, but the complications of her recent surgery and the travel required likely meant a several month delay in a consultation—time that Judi had been told she didn't have. So instead, that physician recommended Judi schedule a consultation with Mayo Clinic in Arizona. "The situation went from not being able to see anybody for months, to 'how about tomorrow?'" Judi recalls. "And I thought, 'Wow.'"

The Mayo Clinic physician who headed Judi's treatment team agreed that surgery was not an option, but proposed an intensive regimen of chemotherapy in conjunction with radiation treatment administered by Michele Y. Halyard, M.D., Mayo Clinic radiation oncologist.

That was in October 1994. And happily, despite the grim initial diagnosis, Judi just keeps going and going, prompting medical staff to draw comparisons to the Energizer Bunny, "which I hate," she laughs. She continues regular follow-up care at Mayo Clinic, where her treatment team is now headed by Donald W. Northfelt, M.D., Division of Hematology/Oncology.

"Judi is really something of a medical anomaly already," says Dr. Northfelt. "Given the type of lung cancer she had, physicians simply never would have expected that she'd still be alive today."

A matter of trust
But her story doesn't end there. In February 2008, Judi again dreamed of her mother, who again carried a dire message: "Judi, you're dying." And this time, Judi took the message seriously from the start — conveying the content of her dream to Dr. Northfelt.

"I think that Dr. Northfelt views keeping me alive as a challenge!" Judi laughs. "So we started doing tests. He ran me through everything." And in so doing, the treatment team discovered that Judi had colon cancer.

This time, however, the cancer was diagnosed early on, and surgery could provide an effective cure. Tonia M. Young-Fadok, M.D., Mayo Clinic surgeon, performed Judi's colon resection in April 2008, and the Mayo treatment team confirmed that there was no lymph node involvement. "She's had a curative therapy," confirms Dr. Northfelt.

"I am just so grateful," Judi says. "I appreciate that Dr. Northfelt listened to my concerns — silly as they may have seemed." She smiles. "But you know, I'm convinced there's a reason why this happened the way it did. I mean, I'm not going to trust just anybody who comes to me in a dream. But I trust my mom. She wouldn't tell me something that's not true.

"I think that facing your mortality makes you more spiritual," Judi continues, "and I believe there's a reason that I'm still here. I mean, when things like this happen, you can't just shrug them off. I was preparing to die. But I'm still here." She smiles. "I haven't entirely figured out yet why I'm still here and what I'm supposed to be doing, but I will. I definitely will."