DESCRIPTION
Harriet Cabelly of West Hempstead, New York had had stomach issues through much of her life. So, in the fall of 2020, when those issues surfaced, she went in for an endoscopy. It revealed gastritis, a condition from which she had suffered for years, and because of that, she thought nothing unusual was going on; but in March of 2021, Harriet began to feel weak and dehydrated. She had difficulty walking.
That’s when she had better visit an emergency room, where staff wanted to perform a CT scan of her stomach. Hours later, an ER nurse returned with its results and said Harriet had a large mass growing on top of three organs.
Harriet Cabelly was admitted to a hospital, underwent a series of biopsies and after six days she received her diagnosis. The doctor attempted to comfort Harriet by saying non-Hodgkin’s B cell lymphoma is one of “the better ones” and is very treatable. He went on to say Harriet did not have a large mass on top of three organs, but that she had a blocked liver duct. This, he said, meant stents would have to be inserted.
Next for Harriet were six rounds of chemotherapy and with each cycle an unpleasant lumbar puncture. As if the case with many who go through chemotherapy, Harriet lost her hair, didn’t eat well and had mouth sores. But she remained positive, focusing on nothing other than the next step in the journey. She rested she felt she needed rest, watered her plants and got out into nature when she could. After the fourth of the sx chemotherapy cycles, a PET scan let her know the treatment was work. The fifth and sixth cycles were a bit more painful, but two weeks after the final cycle, another PET scan revealed Harriet Cabelly was “all clear.”
Harriet says she can physically do anything she could do before her diagnosis, and has gone on to take up ballroom dancing. She says still has stomach issues and realizes she probably always will, but is thrilled to go through life feeling good and having energy.
Additional Resources:
Harriet’s Website: https://www.rebuildlife.com
Harriet's Book, available on Amazon: Light Through Darkness: Miracles Along My Cancer Journey
TRANSCRIPTION
Bruce Morton: To varying degrees, all cancer journeys are daunting, but the journey can be eased with a positive attitude. Our guest on this episode is Harriet Cabelly of West Hempstead, New York, a survivor of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A positive attitude was part of her journey in terms of both treatment and post-treatment. This is the Cancer Interviews podcast, and I’m your host, Bruce Morton. Now it’s time to hear Harriet’s story, and Harriet, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Harriet Cabelly: Hi, Bruce. Thank you for having me. I am happy to be on and share.
BM: Harriet. It’s our custom to begin our interviews by getting to know our guest, so if you would, tell us a bit about your life outside of cancer, such as where you are from, what you do when you are working and what you do when you are having fun.
HC: Great. I live in Long Island, New York, a town called West Hempstead, not far out from New York City. I am a clinical social worker. I have a private practice dealing with grief, loss, divorce, grief of all types, in terms of coping and handling it, growing beyond and rebuilding their lives. Hence my website is www.rebuildlifenow.com. What I am doing for fun is something I have always wanted to do and only right before cancer did I start, and that is ballroom dancing. I started taking ballroom dancing classes. I had to have a hiatus during my treatment, then I went right back to it, and I am doing competitions, but I am basically a beginner. It is something I absolutely love, and I have always wanted to do. So, I have a nice balance between grandkids, work, travel, and I love reading books, non-fiction.
BM: The common thread for each of our guests is that they survived cancer and there was that time when they thought something with their health wasn’t quite right, which eventually led to a diagnosis of cancer. In your case, when did you notice something was abnormal?
HC: A few months before I was diagnosed, I noticed I had stomach issues, but you have to realize that stomach issues for me have always been in my life. It is my weak link. Some people get migraines. I get stomach stuff. I didn’t think anything of it. I went for my endoscopy in the fall of 2020, and everything was fine except for my typical gastritis, but I continued having stuff. I was losing a little weight. Then I went on vacation to Florida, and I started feeling great. I was an avid exerciser and walker, and in March 2021, I started feeling like not myself. I have a lot of energy and one day I felt like I couldn’t even walk. I thought maybe I was dehydrated, so I went to an emergency room. I thought all I needed was some fluid. That day at the emergency room at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, they wanted to take a CT scan of my stomach. I said I didn’t need one, but it took hours for them to come back with results. I didn’t think that was a good sign. The ER nurse came back and said I have a large mass growing on top of three organs. And here I thought I had just come to get fluids because I was dehydrated. At that point, I sat like a stone and my husband sobbed like a baby. That was the initial thing. I had stomach issues that I thought were nothing outside my normal stomach issues.
BM: So, you learned about the mass and that led to a cancer diagnosis. If you would, Harriet, fill in the chronological blanks between the two.
HC: They admitted me to the hospital, and they wanted to do biopsies. It was six days later when I got the diagnosis, and my doctor called me and said it’s better news than we thought because non-Hodgkin Large B cell lymphoma is one of the “better ones”, and it’s very treatable. He also said to ignore what was said in the emergency room, that I did not have a huge mass sitting on top of three organs. He did say I had a blocked liver duct, and I had to have stents put in. The previous Sunday a doctor had said to me, “Don’t you see you’re yellow?” Well, nobody told me I was yellow and I never saw that I was yellow. Anyway, it was six days later that I was told of my diagnosis, the real diagnosis.
BM: We’re confident you will be able to learn some tips and tools to help you through your cancer journey, but first we’d like to ask you to please give us a ‘like,’ leave a comment or review below and share this story with your friends. Kindly click on the Subscribe button below and click on the bell icon, so you’ll be notified when we release out next cancer interview. And if you or a loved one are facing a cancer diagnosis, please click on the link in the Description and Show Notes below to check out our free guide, “The Top Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I First Got Cancer.’
So, Harriet, at this stage, you had just gotten the news that you had cancer, and we are going to talk about this particular later on in the interview, but on the heels of this horrific news, were you able to stay positive?
HC: Let’s just say I was terrified. You’re stepping into unknown territory. I wouldn’t even say that there was anything positive going on in my head. I was wondering how I was going to get through this and what if my body gives way? I am a very small person, and I was very scared of my body not being able to withstand cancer. I was losing weight and just succumbing, so that was a big concern of mine. I quickly put in my head that I was only going to focus on one stage of the treatment at a time. That’s when my oncologist told me I was going to have six treatments, six cycles of chemo every three weeks and with every cycle I am going to have a lumbar puncture, and that’s not too pleasant. I made a decision to be very present and focus on one cycle at a time because if I started thinking and how am I going to get through the later stages of the chemo, I wouldn’t be able to cope like that. It was too scary. Like I said before, I had already lost weight, and with chemo, you don’t eat well, you get mouth sores, you lose weight. That’s how I coped. Being very focused on the next stage in the journey.
BM: You have mentioned some of the things that are part and parcel of chemotherapy. You didn’t mention losing hair. Was that or anything else especially tough?
HC: I did lose my hair, and instead of losing it all, I had someone cut my hair, and they chopped it off in stages, instead of being in the shower and it all comes out. Then I started wearing very colorful scarves. I love colors and just wanted to do things that would uplift me. On a positive note, I was very pleasantly surprised that I had virtually no nausea or throwing up. I am also someone who fears throwing up. My doctor was quite emphatic about my taking my anti-nausea pills. Don’t wait. Take them ahead of time, and you’ll stay on top of the game. That is what I did. I was very conscious and deliberate about it. Thank God I didn’t have much of that. I was grateful. When I had the terrible mouth sores I just drank a lot of smoothies, but that wasn’t fun.
BM: It sounds like you had a good gameplan, addressing each phase of the journey one by one. Again, I am going to bring up the positive attitude piece because it was and is such a big part of your life. When you were going through each of the steps with the chemo, then, were you able to stay positive?
HC: Yeah! When you really don’t feel well, you kinda want to go to sleep. My oncologist would tell me to listen to my body. If it feels tired, rest it, and you feel like you have energy, go ahead and take a walk. Do what you do, but listen to your body. So, I did, and you know it was interesting because I got my treatments spring into summer. As a result, I was able to be out a lot when I felt well. We went into nice nature areas, I have a nice deck, I sit outside and lay down on my lounge chair because that felt good to me. I would water my plants, I would talk to my flowers. Those are the things that brought joy to me. I would always try to infuse my day with little things that made me feel good.
BM: At some point you had to reach this very pleasant juncture in which it appeared things were changing for the better. What was that like?
HC: I don’t know when they were changing for the better. Maybe when I hit Round Five of the six chemo treatments, I thought I was getting to the end of the race. I had had a PET Scan after Round Four telling me that the treatment was working. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Interestingly enough because I think I had more pain during Round Five and Round Six, but I told myself I was almost done.
BM: Did you get test results that provided tangible proof that you were moving toward survivorship?
HC: Yes, two weeks after I finished chemo, I went to my next PET scan and I was told I was all clear, thank God.
BM: To some degree, we have already heard your answer to this question. You have already told us you are cutting up the floor with your ballroom dancing prowess, but if pre-diagnosis, your health was 100 percent, how is it now? What is it that you can and cannot do?
HC: I can do anything and everything. I have a lot of energy. I have always been an energetic person, and I have rebuilt myself and I feel good, and I am thrilled. I have my times when my stomach acts up and that will probably happen for the rest of my life, but in general, I feel very good and every six months I go for a PET scan and will have to do that for the next two years. I feel good and I have energy.
BM: Now I want to talk about something we addressed at the very top, something that is a big part of your life, and that’s your private practice. Could you share with us the virtues of positive thinking, what it has done for you, and how you can help others to experience it?
HC: I want to pay it forward. I feel like I have been given a gift of life and I want to pay it forward. I feel that sort of support was lacking in my treatment. I didn’t have emotional piece. I had great doctors. I think emotional support was missing and I want to do that for others. In terms of the specific positivity, I have studied positive psychology and that in a nutshell is the study of what’s going right. It is not only about pathology, but what is working well. So, throughout my cancer treatment, I was certainly very cognizant of a lot of the small miracles along the way, a lot of the silver linings, and I try very much to focus on that. For instance, when I had cancer, at least it was in the warm weather so I could go out. If it was in the winter, I wouldn’t let anyone in the house. So, I was very cognitive to be on the lookout for what was going well, because what else can we do? That’s a tip I would say for any adversity.
BM: Harriet, we are going to wrap up and we always wrap up the same way with this question: If you encountered someone who had just been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, that person may have a lot of questions. You may have a lot of answers, but out of those answers, if there one point you hope sticks with your listener, what would it be?
HC: One day at a time. One cycle of treatment at a time. Put a stop sign in your mind so you don’t think of six or eight rounds of chemo to address because the anticipatory feelings that accompany that looking ahead causes a great deal of anxiety. One at a time. That’s what I say.
BM: Excellent. Harriet Cabelly, thanks so much for being with us. We really appreciate all that you have to impart, not only regarding your cancer journey, but the positive wisdom you have now and going forward for others. Harriet, thanks again for being with us.
HC: Thanks for the opportunity to share.
BM: And that will do it for this episode of Cancer Interviews. As we always say, if you or a loved one are on a cancer journey, you are not alone. There are people out there like Harriet who have words and wisdom that can ease your cancer journey. So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.
Additional Resources:
Website: www.rebuildlifenow.com
Harriet’s Book, available on Amazon: Light Through Darkness: Miracles Along My Cancer Journey
SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Harriet Cabelly, non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivor – West Hempstead, New York, USA
Harriet Cabelly went to an emergency room because she felt dehydrated; but her visit led to a CT scan, which led to a biopsy, which led to a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Thanks to six rounds of chemotherapy and a positive attitude, Harriet achieved survivorship. She has returned to a healthy lifestyle, which includes taking up ballroom dancing.
Additional Resources:
Website: www.rebuildlifenow.com
Book (available on Amazon): Light Through Darkness: Miracles Along My Cancer Journey
Time Stamps:
03:45 Harriet’s journey began with her feeling dehydrated and going to an ER to get fluids.
04:21 At the ER, she was told a CT scan revealed a large mass on top of three organs.
05:09 Admitted to a hospital for a biopsy, which led to her diagnosis.
07:15 After her diagnosis, it was difficult to be positive, as she learned she would be undergoing six rounds of chemotherapy.
09:12 Harriet recalls the toughest aspects of chemo.
11:20 How she took a positive attitude toward her treatment regimen.
12:45 Remembers when her treatment began to take a turn for the better.
13:55 Test results after she finished chemo.
14:35 Harriet says her health is back to 100 percent.
19:07 Her advice for others diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
KEYWORDS (tags):
cancer
non-hodgkin lymphoma
cancer interviews
endoscopy
bruce morton
gastritis
blocked liver duct
harriet cabelly
chemo
lumbar puncture
jim foster

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