At city’s new cancer center you are never alone in your fight
WOONSOCKET — The treatment of cancer is many times a difficult road for those having to follow it, but it can help when an effort is made to put those patients at ease and feeling they are a friend in need of care.
Jodie Caruolo of North Cumberland found just that kind of attention when she arrived at the Southern New England Regional Cancer Center, at 115 Cass Ave., to undergo focused beam radiation treatment of breast cancer.
Caruolo underwent 30 radiation treatments at the 21st Century Oncology-operated center in January and February after she completed in initial round of chemotherapy and underwent surgery for her illness.
She says going for radiation seemed like another great challenge of her treatment regimen until she met the staff at Southern New England.
“First they made me feel comfortable with my body,” Caruolo said while explaining she was still adjusting to her surgery scars and some related complications when she started the final phase of her treatment.
“That is huge when a person is going through something like this,” she added.
The treatment itself was another possible challenge, due to the need to get a dose of radiation only where it was needed, but, again, the staff at Southern New England managed to put Caruolo at ease despite its requirements.
“They had to do special things for me to make me more comfortable,” Caruolo said.
All of that was happening at the worst time of the year to go anywhere, the deep cold of winter, and yet somehow Caruolo said she didn’t mind going to her radiation therapy appointments.
“When you have to go somewhere every day and it is not for a good reason and you don’t mind because the people are wonderful, it makes it a better experience,” Caruolo said.
Her radiation oncologist, Dr. Alexandra Sherman, led the way by exhibiting a calm, caring nature that seemed as if she were treating her own sister, and Caruolo also got the sense of personal concern from her nurse, Jeanne Jones, and the rest of Southern New England’s staff.
Feeling like you are a person being helped by someone who cares about you specifically is
“When you have to go somewhere every day and it is not for a good reason and you don’t mind because the people are wonderful, it makes it a better experience.” —Cancer survivor Jodie Caruolo
not guaranteed in cancer treatment, and Caruolo said there where many times during her path through doctors’ offices and during treatment of her cancer that she did feel like a number moving through the system.
The ups and downs and the need to keep herself thinking positive prompted the mother of two teenage sons to keep notes on the positive things she was experiencing on her smartphone.
“I wrote them down for me to rely on the list when I felt bad about something,” she said.
She later put her thoughts of self-encouragement up as a blog entitled: GoodThingsAboutCancer.com .
Her understanding of looking ahead with optimism and strength was part of the reason she responded to the encouragement she received at Southern New England.
“I can’t say enough about the people here in every way,” she said. “Even when they had someone filling in for someone, they were just as lovely and caring,” she said.
Caruolo, an attorney with a practice in Cumberland, also had praise for the ‘team’ that backed her up on the homefront.
Everyone, her sons, Robert “Rocky” Chesney, 16, and Joseph Chesney, almost 12, her ex-husband, Robert Chesney, his partner, Amanda, and her fiancé, Mike McManaman, all worked
together to keep her on track to recovery, she explained.
“We all acted together not only to get me to treatment but to keep the family together and well adjusted,” she said.
From what she has learned from her treatment for cancer, attitude can be as important as care and medicine.
“I think with anything life, including this health game, a positive attitude is 90 percent of the battle,” she said.
Marie Zajas, regional administrator for 21st Century Oncology’s five centers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, said keeping things comfortable and positive is an important aspect of the centers’ operations.
“When a patient comes in, we want them to take a breath and stop a minute and then we let them know it is going to be ok,” she said.
Zajas said she was happy to invite Caruolo to be a special guest at a Providence College and University of Maine Black Bears hockey game at the Dunkin Donuts Center as her radiation treatment wrapped up.
“She got to go out on the ice and we introduced her as our honorary warrior,” Zajas said.
Caruolo said she is now in the process of getting back to her routine duties in life, taking care of her family and going to work.
“I’m getting my groove back,” she said. Caruolo just turned 50 and got to go out and celebrate with a nice filet mignon dinner at the Coast Guard House in Narragansett.
“That was A-plus,” she said.