‘I’M NOT DYING THIS WEEK’
Cancer patient battles illness with cheer, fierce energy and a little gallows humor
WAUWATOSA - Melanie Thwing is nervous. After a day of tests and consultations at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, she’s waiting for the verdict on whether her aggressive form of cancer has spread in her lungs. Through it all, the 28-year-old Kenosha native remains upbeat. Her battle with adrenal cortical carcinoma has lasted more than six years. But the disease hasn’t stopped her from going to law school and then working as an assistant public defender in Waterloo, Iowa.
She talks up the quality of the hospital pizza. She strides through the hallways and looks like an employee, not a patient who shows up once every three months.
In an examining room, she meets with nurse practitioner Pat Quinn-Casper and they discuss scans and medications, and, oh, by the way Thwing and her boyfriend are going with his parents on an Alaska cruise, but
I personally think it’s a lot easier to live with a little bit of cancer then to hear the words that you’re cancer free and then hear that it came back.”
MELANIE THWING
“he’s not going to propose, don’t worry about that.”
Finally, radiation oncologist Eiizabeth Gore confirms the good news. That shadowy spot on her lung that came up three months earlier was only an infection. They’ll still have to take out a sliver of lung, but all in all, it’s time to breathe easy.
Thwing gets up and calls a colleague at a prosecutor’s office, running down cases and decisions.
“You can spread the news,” she said. “I’m not dying this week.”
With gallows humor, unflinching optimism and steely determination, Thwing takes on each day. She throws herself into her life like she handles the public defender cases that come across her desk.
She’s always at full speed.
“The world can always use a story about Melanie,” said Douglas Evans, chair of surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Thwing’s battle with cancer began in the spring of 2011, in the final weeks of her senior year at Iowa State University.
She began to gain weight rapidly. Ten pounds. Twenty. And then 20 more. By the time graduation rolled around, she had gained at least 80 pounds. She also had trouble sleeping.
“It’s like Melanie ate Melanie,” Thwing said with a smile as she looked at her graduation photo.
She already had her life mapped out. After going home for the summer, she would start that fall at Drake University Law School in Des Moines.
But something wasn’t right.
“I never felt bad, that was the kicker in all of this,” she said, recounting how she met with local physicians and even went to an emergency room where she was given a pregnancy test.
Finally, an allergist in Kenosha said Thwing needed to see an endocrinologist.
The night before her appointment, she opened her computer, plugged into the Iowa State library and read through medical journals. She deduced that she might have adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC), a rare disease caused by a cancerous growth arising from the outer layer of the adrenal glands.
Froedtert physician Beth Lalande listened to Thwing, ordered up tests and when the results came in, got her in quickly to see Evans.
After her first appointment with Evans, the diagnosis sunk in. Thwing returned home, cried, called a Sigma Kappa sorority sister who came up from the Chicago area, and had a party with more than a dozen friends.
“It’s life and you can’t crawl underneath the bed,” Thwing said.
She dug in for the battle, counting on friends, her care team and faith.
Thwing’s mother, Janell, said prayers came from the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi convent, where her older aunt, Sister Irene Kundinger, lives.
Doctors sequenced Thwing’s treatment: six months of advanced chemotherapy followed by surgery.
Thwing’s tumor was the size of a football, and it was growing into her heart, said Evans, an adrenal cancer specialist.
On Dec. 7, 2011, Thwing underwent complicated surgery conducted over two days by Evans, Clark Gamblin, a liver surgeon, and one of their partners in cardiac surgery.
“You only get one shot at this,” Evans said.
Surgery was successful, but such advanced cancers can be difficult to cure. A few years later, cancer was found in her lungs, and that’s the situation they’re now dealing with.
“Melanie probably realizes we’re not going to be able to cure this,” Evans said. “The hope is that with one innovative treatment after another, we can kind of keep this at bay.”
Since 2012, she has undergone two surgeries on her lungs and two separate rounds of radiation.
“I personally think it’s a lot easier to live with a little bit of cancer then to hear the words that you’re cancer free and then hear that it came back,” she
said.
Thwing never wavered in what she wanted to do.
“She is strong-willed, strong-minded, believes very much in social justice, which is why she’s a public defender,” said her mother.
The law was Thwing’s passion from childhood. A week before she was diagnosed, she received her acceptance letter from Drake’s law school.
She deferred admission for a year and when she got on campus never told anyone how serious her illness was.
“For better or worse, I just downplayed it,” she said.
She excelled at law school. and in her third year was elected Drake Student Bar Association president.
Then she took aim at a job in the Iowa public defender’s office. She was one of two finalists for a job in the Ottumwa field office. She didn’t get it but was told to keep applying by Adam Gregg, who was then the state public defender and now serves as Iowa’s acting lieutenant governor.
A job came open in the Waterloo field office and during the interview, Gregg said that Thwing told him: “I’m sure you’ve Googled me and you know about my history.”
“I found some articles on the fact she had had the diagnosis and had been battling it,” Gregg said. “If anything it made me feel like this is even a stronger person than I realized. It was not something that deterred us in any way from bringing her on board.
“To me, it spoke to her character. it spoke to the fact that she’s a fighter
and the bottom line is she is an incredible, highly qualified advocate. The more I learned about her, the more I liked about her.”
Thwing currently handles cases for 170 clients. Around the office, her cancer is just a fact of life. When she needs time off for treatment, she gets it.
Aaron Hawbaker, chief public defender in the Waterloo adult office, said: “I do think that having gone through and going through such an ordeal and being told such horrible news and having to go through procedure after procedure at such a young age matures you at a faster rate.”
Thwing’s boyfriend said she is sustained by her determination to help her clients and become a better lawyer.
“She just has a drive and a great spirit and a great attitude,”Justin Eastman said.
Thwing spoke of the need for cancer patients to have a great support system and top-notch care team like hers. And her advice to others coping with illness?
“I think it’s OK to talk to people and ask for help,” she said. “It’s OK to have a breakdown every once in awhile, and have a good cry and understand not everything is always OK. At the end of the day you’re going to have to pick yourself up.
“It’s not bad being human. And everyone can go from being happy to being sad about something and that doesn’t make you any less of a human or any less of a fighter. It just means that you’re having a bad day and bad days happen to all of us.”