“In late March of 2004, I felt full a lot and had some gas and some lower abdominal pain,” says 63-year-old Connie Lamonte. “My internist found ovarian cancer and recommended Dr. Mack Barnes at UAB. I got excellent care; if you have ovarian cancer, UAB is the place to be.”
“’It looks like ovarian cancer, and there’s one person I want you to see.’ That person was Dr. Mack Barnes”
“In late March of 2004, I had some digestive problems. I felt full a lot and had some gas and some lower abdominal pain, so I went to my internist, who recommended a sonogram and a blood test. She called me the next day and said, ‘There is a mass. It looks like it might be ovarian cancer, but there’s one person I want you to see, and he’s out of town. But you can wait a few days.’ That person was Dr. Mack Barnes, one of UAB’s gynecologic oncologists.
“My internist is a woman in her 50s, and I’m 63 now, and what she said, specifically, about Dr. Barnes, in addition to the fact that the practice is really, really superb, is that she likes the way he talks with women. When you have ovarian cancer, you want someone who knows how to relate to women.”
“Diligent and responsive”
“I met with Dr. Barnes, and he is absolutely superb. He is wonderful. He looked at the tests I had had through my internist and said, “Yes, it looks like ovarian cancer,” and we scheduled a hysterectomy. I had stage 3C ovarian cancer, which means that it had spread to some lymph nodes and the bottom outside covering of my stomach, so they took those out.
“One thing about Dr. Barnes is that he never makes you feel hurried. My daughter went with me with a clipboard full of questions, and my sisters called with questions, and he was extremely responsive and diligent in answering them all. I appreciate that very much.”
“Jewels”
“After the hysterectomy, I came home and was feeling really okay for a couple of weeks, and then I had to go back in again because I was bloating and things were not moving through. About three weeks after that, I had to have another surgery for an ileus, which is a crimp in the bowel that happens sometimes with a total hysterectomy. So I went back in and had to have a bowel resection.
I was very sick and had to go into the ICU, but I made it, and I started in on six months of chemotherapy. That’s not fun, but the chemo nurses at UAB are just jewels. They answered questions and were on call for medicines for nausea and mouth sores and all of that. And they were so caring. They’re wonderful.”
“A recurrence”
“I finished chemotherapy in October of 2004 and I had 16 months of remission. In February 2006, I had a recurrence, and I had another series of chemotherapy that dropped my CA125 back down to normal. I also had a bacterial overgrowth because of my bowel situation that required a visit to a GI specialist. Again, Dr. Barnes recommended people and was very sympathetic.”
At one point, I was so sick from the bacterial overgrowth that he just said, ‘You know, we just have to stop chemo for right now, because you’re too sick. We’ll pick it up if we need to.’ But since then, my CA125 has stayed down. I finished in June, and I’ve been clear for about two years now. I’ve been in remission since.”
“You couldn’t do any better than you’re doing now”
“Before I got cancer, I knew about UAB’s reputation. I always looked at the hospital rating scales and noticed where UAB stood, the way they’re highly rated in cardiac care, arthritis, AIDS research. I knew all that. I’d always thought of them as a superb facility with really superb care in certain areas.
“But it was after I got sick that my sister, who is a biophysicist at NIH, looked things up and saw that UAB was among the top three cancer centers in the nation. I remember her saying, ‘You know, we have excellent facilities here at NIH, but you really couldn’t do any better than you’re doing now.’ And I thought, ‘If I’m going to get cancer, this is the place to be.’”
“The place to be and the people to go to”
“I would say I got excellent care. Dr. Barnes doesn’t mince words. He would say, ‘Yes, this is serious, but we have things we can treat this with, and if it comes back again, we will treat it.’ It’s not like he said that everything’s going to be okay or that I’d better get my life in order. He just said, “Yes, this is serious, and yes, we can treat it.’
“If anybody has to go through ovarian cancer, Birmingham is the place to be and the team at UAB’s gynecologic oncology practice are the people to go to.”