BY JESSICA BLACKFORD-CLEETON
On Thursday, February 22, 2018, Vicki Ford’s life changed in an instant. It was at 6:36 p.m. when she received the news that previously resected biopsies came back as malignant pleural mesothelioma. It was “a moment in time that took my breath away, will forever be ingrained in my memory and was stamped on my soul,” Vicki remembered.
Several months earlier on a 29th honeymoon cruise, Vicki found herself in agony when a “knife-like pain” shot through her ribs. The pain continued, dropping her to her knees and taking her breath away. After a trip to the emergency room which turned into a pleural infusion, she followed up with a pulmonologist. What followed was months of lung draining, testing (all of which came back normal), traveling to doctors and lots of scans. Finally, Vicki received the answers to her symptoms after a biopsy was completed: pleural mesothelioma. She credits Dr. Fabien Maldonado at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center with saving her life after local doctors couldn’t connect the dots.
She started on to a three-month, grueling chemotherapy regimen, which was extremely hard on her body.
“I named my cancer Dr. Hyde because it took six months to diagnose me. I felt the cancer was hiding. I made signs to take with me to the infusion center; one side read, ‘Killing Dr. Hyde. The Fight is On.’ The other side read, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, Philippians 4:13.'”
In June 2018, Vicki continued her journey with a 14-hour surgery to remove her pleural cavity, conducted by Dr. Erin Gillaspie at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. During the surgery, mesothelioma was found on her lung, heart and diaphragm. While still in the hospital recovering from surgery, her surgeon and oncologist, Dr. Leora Horn, gave her amazing news: the surgery pathology report came back with clean margins.
The same team that told her 8 months earlier that she had 18 to 24 months to live informed her after surgery they found no new evidence of disease.
“I was right, God is in the miracle making business!”
Vicki is also extremely grateful to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation and its help during her journey. “From my first call I was at ease with the information of instant contact with others also battling this horrible disease. With Facebook and monthly support group calls, I was able to ask any questions that I had to patients who had already experienced what I was going through.”
For many mesothelioma patients, getting to one of the few mesothelioma specialists in the country can be difficult, especially financially.
“I would not have been able to go out of state to the doctors I was seeing without the Meso Foundation’s Patient Travel Grant program. Without the financial help, I would have been stuck.”
For those who are currently fighting mesothelioma, especially those new to the diagnosis, Vicki offers these words of advice, “Hardship often prepares ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. Call Mary Hesdorffer to talk about your medical options and all that the Meso Foundation has to offer. Connect with all the wonderful mesothelioma patients – they are there to help in any way they can. Be positive every day no matter what comes your way. And touch as many people as you can while on your journey. Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud!”
Vicki and her husband, Chris. 
Vicki with Dr. Erin Gillaspie. 
The fight is on!
