Patient Stories
Sutter Health Cancer Services
Pat – Two Types of Cancer, One Great Partnership
Pat with her sons Ian and Alex contemplating the wonders of the Tambopata Research Center in Peru
Growing up, Pat spent much of her free time outside enjoying the life of a cowgirl in Colorado. Her days were filled with horses, the outdoors and rodeos…but what she didn’t pay much attention to (nor did many people growing up in the 70s) is sun protection.
These days Pat is a doctor of veterinary medicine and professor at the University of California, Davis. She frequently travels to exotic places around the world to further her research and knowledge. But one thing she hadn’t looked much into was the moles on her body. However, she eventually gave in to the nagging of her 18-year-old son to go the doctor to have one particular mole checked out and removed.
Pat made an appointment with her Sutter West Medical Group physician. The mole was reviewed using standard ABC protocol: asymmetry, border and color. Although her mole didn’t have two of the three characteristics, Pat chose to have it removed. A few days later she received a call from her long time physician Dr. Steve Smith with the news that her mole was cancerous and she had T3 melanoma.
“Everything moved so fast once I received my diagnosis,” said Patricia.
Dr. Smith immediately referred Pat to a dermatologist, who expedited her care to Jay Owens, M.D., a surgical oncologist with Sutter Medical Group in Roseville.
“I was so nervous because I had always been healthy and hadn’t had a scare like this before,” Pat said. “But at my first appointment with Dr. Owens he made me feel so calm. He sat next to me and started answering all my questions. He had clear communication and was sensitive and reassuring. My pulse slowed and I immediately began to relax.”
Although he had a busy calendar, Dr. Owens and his staff worked together immediately to schedule Pat’s surgery and two days after her first appointment she went in to surgery at Sutter General Hospital to have a wider area around the mole removed as well as the sentinel lymph node where the cancer might spread to first. Because of the advanced techniques used by Dr. Owens, he was able to pinpoint the lymph nodes that needed to be removed, reducing the complications and side effects that can occur after cancer surgery.
The surgery was successful and Dr. Owens believed they were able to remove all the cancerous cells. But to be sure, he scheduled her for a full body PET scan. Totally unrelated to her initial diagnosis, the radiologists found that she had a tumor on her thyroid which was found on biopsy to be a papillary carcinoma. A little more than a month after her first surgery to remove the melanoma, Patricia found herself working with Dr. Owens again – this time to have her thyroid removed at Sutter Roseville Medial Center.
“Dr. Owens was again so good to me,” said Pat. “He was very clear, drew diagrams and had a wonderful bedside manner. He checked in with me after surgery to make sure I was comfortable, remove my stitches and even helped me get started on my medications so I could stay energized and not gain weight. Everything was top notch.”
Thankfully because Dr. Owens ordered the PET scan, the thyroid cancer was found and removed before it became serious. Now Pat will work with an endocrinologist to ensure she is on the appropriate thyroid replacement and selective radiation therapies to ensure the cancer doesn’t return. And through the whirlwind over just a few months, Pat was able to stay strong and continue to work and travel.
“Thanks to the efficiencies of Dr. Owens and his wonderful office staff, I was able to continue to teach, write important grants and take business and family trips,” said Patricia. “And now I am looking forward to a sabbatical in East Africa.”
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