Cancer and Clinical Services Patient Stories

Transferring care to the experts

“It was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I had a cancer I’d never heard of, and I couldn’t understand how it had been missed for so long,” Teri Swart says. She had endured months of back pain and taken multiple courses of steroids, but her primary care doctor still couldn’t pinpoint a cause. “Nothing was showing up,” she explains, “and then I woke up unable to move.”

It was a blood test at a local hospital emergency department that revealed multiple myeloma, also known as Kahler’s disease, which is a blood cancer that affects the bone marrow. “I was told I was in the end-stages,” she says. “I also had two broken vertebrae and three broken ribs. A fourth rib then broke when I was taken for an X-ray. “My oncologist at the time recommended the standard treatment for my disease, but it didn’t work,” she explains. “In fact, it actually accelerated it.”

Teri discovered that while her doctor was searching for other solutions, she had been in contact with Srinivas Devarakonda, MD, at the OSUCCC – James. “I decided it was time to go to the people my original oncologist was calling — to check out the source,” she says. “It was an easy process to move to The James, and what a world of difference it made. Up to that point, everyone had just thrown medical terms at us. Sometimes I just felt like I was part of a process and that I didn’t matter as a person.”

Teri felt a shift in approach during her very first appointment at The James. “My husband, mom and I finally started understanding my disease,” she says. “Dr. Devarakonda even used construction analogies when he was talking with us, because we both manage construction.”

For treatment, Teri completed a successful bone marrow transplant, which required a 17-day stay in the hospital that included some tough days of recovery and a rough patch of strep. “Even on my worst days, they’d just do whatever was required for my physical care, but kept talking about normal things, not everything medical,” she says. “That was awesome.”

To maintain her remission, Teri now has an infusion every four weeks and oral medication based on a two-weeks-on, one-week-off schedule.

“This entire time, Dr. Devarakonda has always focused on the positive and emphasized the importance of enjoying today,” she says. “When I was in the hospital, he’d stop by even when he wasn’t on call. He’d bring me books, and there wasn’t this continual talk of sickness.

“Honestly, it’s been that way with everyone at The James. They’re just so kind. They greet you with a smile, and they remember things about you. Now, it’s like seeing friends when I go for an infusion.”

Teri even mentions the hospital building itself. “When you combine those personalities and positivity within a building that is so light and bright, it really matters,” she explains.

“It makes something scary not so overwhelming, because the focus is on you as an individual.”