Transcription:

Caitlin Whyte: Ten years of cancer treatments. That's been Kelly Rode's story since 2013 when she was first diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. Today, we'll hear about her journey, recovery and how she's been through it all here at Deaconess.

This is the podcast series from Deaconess, the Women's Hospital, a Place for All Your Life. I'm Caitlin Whyte. In 2013, Kelly Rode went to her doctor to have a few issues checked out, which led to some ultrasounds and additional testing, which then led to a diagnosis.

Kelly Rode: It was april the first of 2013 that she thought I had ovarian cancer. But on further review, I had a very rare form of ovarian cancer.

Caitlin Whyte: So, her doctor sent her to Dr. Samer Schuman, a then new physician over here at Deaconess.

Kelly Rode: If it wasn't for him, I would've had gone elsewhere to either Vanderbilt or to Chicago or somewhere, because no one around here at the time did the procedures that he was doing that I needed.

Caitlin Whyte: The surgery was long, about eight hours in total. And while she recovered in the hospital, Dr. Schuman sent her pathology reports out for more feedback. The Mayo Clinic said it was ovarian cancer and that she had six to nine months to live. But Dr. Schuman wasn't convinced.

Kelly Rode: And MD Anderson said that it was not small cell ovarian cancer, but a one in million type of ovarian cancer, which I would totally butcher up all the words to it, right? And so, I decided to go with the MD Anderson approach. I got my diagnosis on a Thursday, and I was at MD Anderson on Tuesday. And Dr. Schuman made all that possible

Caitlin Whyte: With the MD Anderson approach, Kelly went five years cancer-free until it came back. At this point, Kelly underwent a liver resection among other treatments, and

Kelly Rode: Dr. Schuman wanted me to get genetic testing, and I can tell you that genetic testing is the hardest thing to do. You wouldn't think it is, but I cried all the way through it. I didn't want to do it, and I did it. And I was like, "Let's genetic test for everything. I'm doing this one time, let's do it." And the only thing that came back is I'm BRCA1 positive, which means I have the breast cancer gene.

Caitlin Whyte: Along with Dr. Schuman's guidance, Kelly underwent a double mastectomy to rule out a possible breast cancer diagnosis down the line. But a year after this procedure, Kelly's original cancer came back once again, so it was time for yet another liver resection.

Kelly Rode: And I did treatment again, and that was just last year, and I'm on 10 years of this now. I was just positive, "I'm going to do this, I've got to do this." And I have done it all at Deaconess. I've done every single bit of it there. All of my surgeries have been at Deaconess as well. My treatment's been at Deaconess, and I am so very, very thankful Dr. Schuman is in this area because I did not have time to go other places. I didn't think I would see my children graduate, but I've seen them graduate high school, college. My daughter's a doctor. I've seen her graduate with her doctorate. I've seen both of them get married. I have grandchildren now. It's like I always planned to say, "Okay, I'm going to make it through graduation." Well, I did that and then I made it through two, three college graduations, because you know, we got IU graduation and then we had doctorate graduation. And I've seen all of that. I've seen more than I thought I would.

Caitlin Whyte: It's hard to believe, but Kelly's cancer came back another time in September of 2022. and when we spoke just a few days before Christmas, she had just heard back that her most recent CT scan was clean.

Kelly Rode: I was like, "Ah, everything happens at the holidays," you know. And so, it came back clean after three treatments of what Dr. Schuman has set up for me now. You know, and I always say, he tells me to, you know, go bathe in the river. I'll be there every day.

Caitlin Whyte: It's safe to say that Kelly has spent a lot of time at Deaconess throughout her decade of surgeries and treatments, which has led to some deep relationships with the staff. She says it's impressive that a lot of the same nurses she met when she was first diagnosed in 2013 have been here with her the entire time.

Kelly Rode: I'm going to have to say that, you know, I should be on the hiring committee because I have gotten about three or four nurses hired there because I'm like, "Hey, you should go to Deaconess, to Infusion" or actually, my best one is a nurse, I guess, you would say now, was the flower girl in my wedding now works for Dr. Schuman's office now. So yeah, I'm like, "You should really go look for Dr. Schuman's office. I think you'd be a great fit there," because she was a nurse elsewhere and she's there now.

Caitlin Whyte: And remember that first surgery, the eight-hour operation in April of 2013, that was during her kids' prom and the Deaconess staff helped her experience it herself.

Kelly Rode: We made it possible to have prom at the hospital. I had my daughter and all of her friends came and they paraded through the hallways. And my son and his dates came and we did the same thing. We sat down there. They made every effort to get my prom experience.

Caitlin Whyte: Kelly now makes it her mission to give back, volunteering at Cancer Pathways Midwest in Evansville. She teaches art therapy here and also wants to raise awareness of ovarian cancers.

Kelly Rode: You know, my mother had breast cancer, but I didn't even think ovarian cancer. And whenever I'm like, "I know absolutely no one that has ovarian cancer," and everybody thought whenever I had cancer, they thought I had the pink cancer, which is breast cancer. And, you know, a lot of people are like, "Ovarian?" I'm like, "Oh, yeah, ovarian cancer is a real thing too. You know, not every cancer's pink women's cancer." So, I am a big advocate for there's more than pink cancer out there for women and ovarian cancer is very, very ugly. I've just been very blessed with just great care team, great doctor, a great facility that I am still here 10 years later.

Caitlin Whyte: It's a lot to take in, hearing Kelly's journey. It's overwhelming at times. But you can really hear her optimism, strength, and passion as she describes such a difficult road.

Kelly Rode: I take it lightheartedly and it's not, but that's my approach to it to get me through a lot of my days is, you know, you've got to just keep going. There's way worse out there. I always tell myself, there's someone out there way worse than I am. And it works. If you truly believe that it's going to work, it's going to work.

I always tell new patients that getting chemo is like they made these drugs because it's worked on someone, so you might as well be that someone. You might as well be. I have done a lot of chemo and I am still here, and you can too. I think it also does 100% your mindset when you go into this. If you think you're going to be sick and it's all gloom and doom, guess what? You're going to be sick and it's all gloom and doom. But if you can start this whole process with the mindset that, "Hey, I can do this. This is doable. It's not going to be pretty. It really isn't, but I can do it," you will amaze yourself in what you can do.

Caitlin Whyte: Thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast series from Deaconess, the Women's Hospital, a place for all your life. For more information about the Women's Hospital Cancer Center, visit deaconess.com. And please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all of the other Deaconess Women's Hospital podcasts.

For more health tips and updates, follow us on your social channels. This is the Women's Hospital, a place for all your life. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Be well.