NEWS

A decade later: celebrating living — Sherrie’s story

June 3, 2019

On November 25, 2018, Sherrie Moore celebrated her 10-year anniversary of surviving mesothelioma. Five days later, she also turned 62 — something a decade ago she was told would never happen.

Background

It all began in November 2007 when Sherrie became very sick. She made an appointment with her general practitioner who told her the symptoms were due to an earlier gallbladder removal and the beginning of menopause. Assuming she was overreacting, Sherrie returned to being a wife to her husband, Ed, mother to her three adult children, Adam, Tiffanie and Angie, and a grandmother to her four grandsons. But her health did not improve.

So Sherrie called her friend and cardiologist Dr. Thomas Moore — no relation but he does jokingly call her “cousin” — to ask for his medical opinion. She explained that she was out of breath going from her bedroom to the bathroom and that her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest. And she expressed her frustration with her general practitioner writing off her symptoms as just menopause.

Early the next morning, Sherrie arrived at the hospital per Dr. Moore’s request to do blood work and get a monitor for her heart. Shortly after leaving the hospital, she received a phone call from Dr. Moore asking her to return as soon as possible so she could be admitted. Confused and worried, Sherrie returned and found Dr. Moore waiting for her at the hospital entrance. He informed Sherrie that she needed an emergency blood transfusion due to extremely low hemoglobin levels. Following the blood transfusion, the doctors called in a gastrointestinal doctor to do an upper and lower GI test to locate where she was losing blood. They couldn’t find anything wrong and couldn’t explain the blood loss.

In late August 2008, Sherrie began experiencing severe pain on her right side that stretched around her back and felt like gallbladder pain. Her doctor ordered a scan of her pancreas and her liver, which also caught the lower lobe of her right lung.

“My doctor referred me to a pulmonologist, Dr. Rick Scacewater, because he said there was something going on with my lung,” said Sherrie.

Looking at the scan, Dr. Scacewater suggested a round of antibiotics to see if her lung would clear up. Sherrie took the antibiotics but never followed up with him. About a month later, Dr. Scacewater mailed Sherrie a handwritten note expressing his concern for her wellbeing and lack of follow-up. He requested that she please call and reschedule her appointment.

“I was so impressed by his letter, and I could tell he was clearly cared,” said Sherrie. “So I called his office and made an appointment for October.”

Sherrie arrived for the appointment, and Dr. Scacewater said she needed to immediately have a CAT scan with contrast done and then a biopsy. The CAT scan showed that her right lung was full of fluid, which meant she needed to have it drained before the biopsy.

Two days after the draining, Sherrie returned for the biopsy when she learned that the fluid had returned and more of it. Much to her dismay, she needed to have a second draining. Once the second draining was complete, Dr. Scacewater ordered a bronchial biopsy. However, three weeks later, the results returned inconclusive.

“When I got the results, I asked the doctor pointblank, ‘do you think I have a cancer?’ And he said no because I didn’t have any signs or symptoms of cancer, other than the pain in my side and exhaustion,” said Sherrie.

Sherrie contributed the exhaustion to tending to her husband Ed who had been battling prostate cancer and had recently had a complete prostatectomy. Still, Dr. Scacewater suggested a painful, open-lung biopsy to get to the bottom of it and pulled a few strings for Sherrie to be seen by thoracic surgeon Dr. Stephen Myers a few days before Thanksgiving.

Diagnosis

Dr. Myers came out of the biopsy and confirmed that Sherrie had 15 tumors on her right lung. Fourteen of them were large enough to take biopsies to be tested, but he was positive it was stage IV mesothelioma. Her cardiac lymph nodes were also compromised, and he found, as he put it, “an amazing amount” of fluid.

“This was the last thing my family and I were expecting. We knew nothing about mesothelioma,” said Sherrie. “I don’t really remember that day or much of that Thanksgiving. My friends were wonderful and supported us during the holiday.”

All 14 of the biopsies came back malignant, confirming that Sherrie did in fact have mesothelioma in her right lung. She also had mesothelioma in the lining of her left lung but no tumors. Dr. Myers explained to Sherrie and Ed that mesothelioma comes from exposure to asbestos. Ed’s heart sank at this news. He knew of asbestos exposure in his line of work as an electrician working on the boilers at a local power plant. Sherrie also likely had been exposed to asbestos as a little girl by her father who worked in construction.

“I remember Dr. Myers telling us that mesothelioma is a terminal cancer but not to throw in the towel just yet,” said Sherrie. “So Ed asked him, ‘if Sherrie was your wife, where would you take her?”

Dr. Myers informed them that there was very little mesothelioma treatment available but that he recommended MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he had first seen mesothelioma during his fellowship.

The next morning MD Anderson called Sherrie and requested an appointment just a week before Christmas. Not wanting to spend what she had been told might be her last holiday away from her family, Sherrie scheduled an appointment the first week of January 2009 with Dr. Anne Tsao.

“Dr. Tsao is as amazing a doctor as she is a person. She is compassionate, brilliant and so positive,” said Sherrie.

Because the mesothelioma was advanced in both of her lungs, Sherrie’s options were limited. She couldn’t have one of the lungs removed and wasn’t a candidate for radiation, so she decided to enroll in Dr. Tsao’s clinical trial. However, she was quickly denied participation by her insurance. If she suffered any side effects from the clinical trial, insurance would not cover her. Believing there is a reason for everything, Sherrie forwent the clinical trial and chose the standard treatment of chemotherapy.

Before beginning chemotherapy, Sherrie told Dr. Tsao that someone always has to be the first and that she was going to be Dr. Tsao’s first survivor.

“Dr. Tsao made me promise her that I would stay off the internet and trust her as my doctor,” said Sherrie. “And I kept my promise.”

Treatment

Sherrie went through nearly 30 rounds of chemotherapy throughout 2009. In December, there was no tumor shrinkage and she had become extremely sick — experiencing horrible headaches and no appetite. Dr. Tsao told Sherrie that she would need to be on chemotherapy for the rest of her life and that there was a concern that the cancer might metastasize to her brain. Things were not looking good, but then a PET scan later that month reviewed some surprising news.

“I knew it was going to be bad news, but when she came into the room, she gave me a big hug,” said Sherrie. “She said, ‘I’m going to give you a vacation from chemo. You are stable, and we’ve even seen some shrinkage.’ My vacation has now been 7 years.”

Since then, a couple of PET scans have shown spots around Sherrie’s heart, but scheduled biopsies and repeat PET scans have reported back nothing.

“Dr. Tsao calls me her ‘miracle girl.’ Every day I sit and think, ‘wow, I can’t believe I’m here,” said Sherrie. “By all medical and scientific knowledge, I shouldn’t be here, but here I am.”

Sherrie does have side effects from her chemotherapy treatments — neuropathy, arthritis and osteoporosis — but she doesn’t let those slow her down. She also holds onto her faith.

“I know everyone is fighting one hell of a battle just like me, but I hold on. My hope comes from my faith in God. If it weren’t for faith, I couldn’t make it. And family and friends. The love they have showed me is so important.”

A Decade Later: Celebrating Living

As of September 2017, Sherrie has no evidence of disease (NED), despite being diagnosed with stage IV, inoperable mesothelioma in both lungs. She continues to be Dr. Tsao’s “miracle girl.”

“I never used to like my birthday, because I didn’t want to be old. But 10 years later, I have no problem saying I’m 62,” said Sherrie. “Even though we all know we’re going to die, I look forward to having another birthday after being given only four to six months to live. That gives you a different perspective about it.”

To commemorate her 10-year cancerversary in November 2018, Sherrie and family gathered the day before Thanksgiving over a “huge dinner of thanks with more food than you can imagine.” She also joined her group of girlfriends – of which there are three cancer survivors – for a special luncheon to “reflect on the many miracles God gives us.”