Helping patients return to everyday life after cancer
Roy Gendreau lives alone, and he likes it that way. The 74- yearold widower is entirely independent, with his children living many states away. If he needs groceries, he drives to the store and goes shopping. When he wants to watch television, he controls the remote. He revels in the quiet. “I do everything myself,” Gendreau said. “During the summer, I keep active. I have a big garden. I wash my car, I do my own groceries. The only time I bother my kids is if I need something off Amazon.” When he woke up one morning to discover a large amount of blood in his urine, he didn’t panic. He just called his doctor, who sent him immediately to Dr. Jeffrey Ranta, Regional Medical Director of the Tallwood Urology and Kidney Institute for the Fairfield Region and chief of urology at St. Vincent’s Medical Center. “I was bleeding really bad,” Gendreau said. “It started early one morning. I couldn’t control it. It was totally unexpected. Turns out, I have bladder cancer that I didn’t know about.” Dr. Ranta drained Gendreau’s bladder and found a tumor on its wall that needed to be removed. “I went to the doctor’s office, and he did a scope up my bladder,” Gendreau said. “It looked like the inside of a cantaloupe, and that was the cancer.” Because the tumor was non- invasive, meaning it didn’t spread to other systems within the body, the procedure to resect it at St. Vincent’s Medical Center could be scheduled in an outpatient clinic the very next week. Gendreau didn’t even have to stay the night. “We try to get people into the hospital for as short a period of time as possible, which is a big change in how we’ve done things over the past several years,” Dr. Ranta said. “It’s for the patient’s safety and comfort. We want to keep a patient at home, where they are more comfortable and can return quicker to everyday life.” “I’ve never spent the night in a hospital,” Gendreau said. “All the procedures I’ve had I were in- and- out same day. I want to keep my record going. I wasn’t even born in a hospital.” After the procedure, they sent Gendreau home with a regimen of immunotherapy to try to use his own body’s defense system to fight the remaining tumor cells. “I had to go to six sessions at his office where they injected a white clear liquid, and I had to go home and for a half an hour roll around on each side, and then I could go to the bathroom. Afterward, I had to close the toilet, put some Clorox in there and flush it,” he said. “So whatever [ that medicine] was, it was pretty potent.” Dr. Ranta will then follow up with a biopsy to gauge the results of the immunotherapy. If it works, they’ll keep Gendreau on a watch- and- see schedule to make sure the tumors don’t recur. If it does not work, Gendreau has some choices to make. “It will depend on what he wants to do, if he wants to continue immunotherapy as an outpatient we will,” Dr. Ranta said. “Hartford HealthCare is patient- directed. Whatever the patient needs, whether it’s on an individual or global basis. The system continues to change to make life better and safer for patients.” Gendreau says he felt safe and cared for under Dr. Ranta’s guidance. “He’s a real professional. He just wouldn’t let me go until he explained everything. He covered everything,” Gendreau said. “I actually brought my brother with me for the consultation so he could remember the stuff I forgot, and then we relayed it back to my daughter, who is a nurse. [ Dr. Ranta] has a real bedside manner. I asked him questions, and he would give me the answers in layman’s terms. I liked the fact that he was in no hurry.” “What you have to do is understand that the sick person is scared and may not hear everything that is said the first time around,” Dr. Ranta explained. “Sometimes what seem like simple concepts need to be repeated, and you have to listen as well as speak.” Even while the pandemic continues to rage on, because of Hartford HealthCare’s integrated system, Gendreau was able to get his COVID- 19 tests quickly so that they did not disrupt his treatment. “I can’t emphasize enough how nice these people are,” Gendreau said. “It worked very well.” Gendreau says he is ready, no matter what comes his way. As for the future, Dr. Ranta says they’ll do everything they can to keep Gendreau’s life unchanged. All patients want to be independent, he said, but family support systems can be very important. Regardless of treatment plan, St. Vincent’s Medical Center and Hartford HealthCare have a plethora of options to keep the patient as comfortable and independent as possible. “The living status is critical because it can limit what we can do or if we need to do something with at- home help we coordinate. You can’t treat someone as if they have a family nearby if they don’t,” Dr. Ranta said. “Everyone wants to spend as much time as possible in our homes, as outpatients. Our homes are where we want be.” This is just one example of Hartford HealthCare St. Vincent’s Medical Center bringing more specialists and providers to the community. Tune into Hartford HealthCare St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s Facebook Live discussion, where you can ask your questions, February 25 at 12 p. m. And for more information, log onto hartfordhealthcare.org/advancedurology or call 203.338.8760.