Candy Tretter has enjoyed good health for most of her life, except for what she calls “this stupid little cough.”
“I have had a chronic cough for 30 some years,” the former Blessing Hospital employee said. “As a kid, I would have bronchitis twice a year. A doctor gave me an inhaler. It didn’t work, so I stopped using it. My cough was never really bad.”
The cough probably contributed to several nodules Candy has had in her lungs for years. Respiratory illnesses and infections can cause these small, dense areas of tissue in the lung to form. While they can be, lung nodules are rarely cancerous.
Fast forward to today
In recent years, Candy’s cough worsened. That led to her cardiology provider, Blessing Health nurse practitioner Stacy Lowary, to urge her to see a lung specialist. Candy made an appointment with Blessing Health pulmonologist Umama Adil, MD.
Dr. Adil is board certified and fellowship trained. Candy found her to be an exceptional physician.
“Dr. Adil is very thorough, understanding, easy to talk to, kind, and patient,” Candy said. “I think we are very fortunate to have a doctor of her quality at Blessing Hospital.”
Among the series of tests Dr. Adil ordered for her new patient was a PET scan. Through the use of a radioactive tracer, a PET scan creates 3D images of the inside of the body and can help diagnose and monitor conditions including cancer.
“The PET scan showed I had something not only going on with the nodules in my lungs, but my thyroid, too,” Candy said. “So, we did more testing.”
The additional testing included a biopsy of Candy’s thyroid and a bronchoscopy of her lung nodules. Bronchoscopy is a procedure that lets doctors see the inside of the lungs and air passages.
Dr. Adil uses the latest bronchoscopy technology at Blessing Hospital, the Ion robotic-assisted system. Blessing is the only hospital in the region offering Ion, made by the same company that developed the renowned da Vinci robotic surgery system.
The procedure begins with creation of a 3D map of the patient’s lungs through a CT scan. Using the 3D map, the Ion software generates the safest and most efficient route through the lung to the nodule or mass. No matter where the nodule or mass is located within the lungs, the Ion makes reaching it easier than ever before by use of an ultra-thin catheter. The catheter can access all 18 segments of the lung and move 180 degrees in all directions.
Test results discover rare situation
The biopsy of Candy’s thyroid showed it was cancerous.
“I was shocked,” she said. “I had no thyroid symptoms, nothing that I could ever attribute to having thyroid issues.”
But the biggest shock was yet to come. The bronchoscopy showed the nodules in Candy’s lungs were also cancerous. Candy was a smoker for 10 years and quit 40 years ago. But smoking was not the reason for the cancer in her lungs.
“Dr. Adil told me I did not have lung cancer,” Candy said. “This was thyroid cancer that has metastasized to my lung nodules. Not the lungs, but the nodules in my lungs. She told me it’s a very rare condition. Leave it to me to do something like that,” Candy said with a laugh.
Candy required no chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Instead, she had her thyroid removed. And then, under the care of Blessing Cancer Center doctors Kellie Flippin, medical oncologist and Rob Johnson, radiation oncologist, Candy had a treatment called ablation to insure any cancerous tissue left after the thyroid removal was destroyed. She is also undergoing radioactive iodine treatment to destroy the lung nodules.
“I count my blessings,” Candy said. “I’ve been very fortunate all of my life. There are people struggling with much worse than what I am. I thank the good Lord for where I am right now and I’m so thankful for the medical resources we have in Quincy.”
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. For more information on lung cancer care at Blessing Health, go to blessinghealth.org/treatments/lung-cancer.