“You know you hear the word cancer, and the first word that pops into your head is death. When I was given the diagnosis, my mind was a complete blank. Then Dr. Tafra said something that made all the difference. When she first saw me, she said, “We’re going to get you down to a healthy weight.” Those were the words of life and hope. I thought, ‘that could take a long time,’ and, immediately, I knew I was going to live. And I held on to those words every single day.

I was given chemo to treat the breast tumor so I could have the surgery. My nurse navigator was so amazing. I had never heard of a nurse navigator before, but it was such a godsend. They walk you through everything so you’re focusing on healing yourself and not worrying about who you have to make appointments with. Just knowing that she was always there at a moment’s notice to return my call immediately was amazing. It just made everything so literally stress-free because the one worry I did not have in my life at the time was my medical attention and care.

I sensed and I knew that I was in the best of care possible and the rest was up to me. I really focused on keeping everything positive; not listening to news, and even being very selective of the music I was listening to. I changed my thought process, and I welcomed the medication. I saw it as the airstrike coming into my body to get rid of the bad army. I cut out all processed food, all sugar, all carbs. I ate very natural organic foods. I dropped 25 pounds. It sounds strange but I felt healthier.

And the tumor shrank beyond my doctor’s expectations. When I was first diagnosed, a lumpectomy was not on the table. It was going to be a mastectomy. But the tumor shrank enough for a lumpectomy.

Then, after the surgery, during my radiation treatment, my husband who is in the Marine Corps, was transferred to Texas. But with the care and compassion that I received there at the breast center, I could not just stop right in the middle. I realized I was surrounded by compassionate people that really wanted to see me go through it with the least worries and stress. So I told my husband, “Go ahead and go. I am in very good hands.” And I was.

Now that all my tests have come back negative, I’m getting ready to join him. And I am so, so thankful for the wonderful, wonderful care I got at Anne Arundel Medical Center. Being in a place where I could get the quality of care, the attention that they give to their patients made a big difference in my recovery.”

“When I ended up in the emergency room, and they told me I had Type I diabetes, my biggest fear was whether I would be able to carry my baby.”

Her doctor at the Shady Grove Fertility Center, Gilbert Mottla, MD, had already helped her to conceive and deliver her first child, born two years earlier. When diabetes struck, Dr. Mottla immediately referred her to the Center for Maternal and Fetal Medicine. They specialize in treating expectant mothers with high-risk health conditions and obstetrical complications. Working closely with Dr. Mottla and his nurse Anne Stegner, RN, they helped Julie complete the IVF.

When she became pregnant, Jeffrey Spencer, MD, William Sweeney, MD, and diabetic educator, Maureen Connick, RN, helped her manage her diabetes and coached her through her pregnancy. “They helped me get on an insulin pump, and worked with me through it all.” The following August, Julie delivered a healthy baby boy.

She now has two young sons, and says she is grateful for the specialized care she received through the programs at AAMC. Before her first IVF at Shady Grove, she had tried other methods at a medical center in another state, but was unsuccessful.

When she came to Annapolis, she and her husband chose to pursue having a family with the help of Shady Grove because of their reputation. “They really have a very good way walking patients through what the problem might be and determining what the options are and how to proceed,” she says. “It’s very individualized in terms of a patient’s own personal needs and medical histories. Both Shady Grove and the high-risk group worked very closely together and with us.”

When Deborah found something in her breast that did not feel right, she immediately scheduled an appointment with her primary care physician. Both her mother and sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer, so it was important that she had been doing regular self-exams and mammograms. Her physician immediately scheduled an appointment for her at the Breast Center, and within a week, she had been diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer.

Her medical oncologist, Carole Tweed, MD, began a plan for treatment immediately. After chemotherapy, Deborah’s surgeon removed her tumor, and followed up with radiation to ensure all of the cancerous cells were gone.

“It was concerning, but I wasn’t frightened.” She says.”Particularly after I talked to my oncologist and she talked me through it, it brought even greater peace.”

She says everything happened very quickly from that first moment when she noticed a change in her breast. Deborah relied on her belief in God, the support of her family and church, as well as the encouragement from the doctors and medical staff at AAMC. “All those pieces play a part in the journey in terms of not looking at it as the end,” she says. “I am looking toward life.”

“The experience at AAMC was excellent,” she says, “Any of the medical staff, whether they were doctors, nurses, technicians, whatever, they were all very encouraging.”

“The center is important because it provides a way for patients who have limited resources to go for primary care,” Dr. Kinzer says. “I wanted to keep a hand in medicine, and stay involved in the field,” Dr. Kinzer says. So, in addition to conferences and continuing education, he spent one day a month seeing patients at the center. It provided him with a way to maintain a link with the community—a community that has always been important to him.

He says he first chose to come to Annapolis in 1965 because, at the time, it was a country town with a couple of colleges and the seat of the State Government. When he joined AAMC, there were only 65 doctors on staff, and everyone knew each other.

Even though the town and the medical center have grown significantly since then, Dr. Kinzer believes it’s important to hold on to the personal aspect of medicine. “Put away your machines and listen to your patients,” he says, “They are telling you the diagnosis.”

Dr. Kinzer brought that personal touch, and deep concern for the person as a whole to the patients he saw at the free clinic. “They all had stories to tell,” he says. “That’s what made medicine fascinating.”

He recently retired from his volunteer position at the clinic after 48 years in of practicing medicine and caring for our community. Now he enjoys going to lunch with the RODEO gang (Retired Old Docs Eating Out). It’s a way of keeping up with partners and friends.

“You have to have a lot of trust in the people taking care of you when you’re going through something like this,” Amber says. “Everyone at the hospital has a great way of making you feel comfortable when you’re scared and everything is kind of frightening.”

Amber underwent surgery to remove the tumor, followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy. “I don’t know how I would have made it without Kimberly, my nurse navigator,” Amber says. “She scheduled all of my appointments, and I could always call her whenever I had a question.”

When her surgeon, Lorraine Tafra, MD, laid out her plan of action, Amber says she knew she was in good hands. “She is probably one of the best doctors I’ve ever met,” Amber says. “I knew with her, I was a person, not just another case.”

Her experience was just as comforting with oncologist Carole Tweed, MD, “It was like having my best friend as my doctor. We would just sit there and talk about how I was doing and what I was going through. I know she has other patients, but it never felt like I was just another person on the appointment schedule.”

Knowing that they wanted to have another baby, Amber’s doctors recommended that she and her husband see a fertility specialist. They froze some of Amber’s eggs before her treatment, and soon after recovery, they were planning to try again.

Amber says from the beginning of her journey she knew she was not going through it alone. “Kimberly said to me, ‘You know, we’re going to get you through this. It’s going to be a long road, but we’re going to be with you every step of the way,’ and they were, everybody was.”

Carol’s cancer was found just days after she completed a triathlon in North Carolina, and she was surprised at how fast she was able to return to her active lifestyle.

Her thoracic surgeon, Avedis Meneshian, MD, removed the middle and lower lobes of her right lung using a technique in which surgical tools are inserted through small incisions along with a tiny video camera. With the video to guide him, Dr. Meneshian can operate without opening a patient’s chest.  Although, it has been proven to improve patient outcomes, only about one third of surgeons in the country who treat lung cancer offer a this Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) approach.

“I am so glad that Dr. Meneshian was able to do that type of surgery for me rather than the old way,” Carol says. “I know it’s made a drastic difference in where I am in my life right now.”

“My friends that I run and bike with bought me a t-shirt that says “lungless,” Carol laughs. “They’re 20 years younger and they’re worried a lungless 50-year-old woman will beat them.”

The 54-year-old Annapolis resident said all of that changed when she began treatment at AAMC’s Breast Center. “When Dr. Tafra talked to me about my treatment she said she was also going to get me down to a healthy weight,” Elma says. “That changed everything because those were words of life and hope.”

Knowing that her doctors were helping her, not just to heal her cancer, but to prepare her for a long and healthy future gave her the comfort to move forward. “I held on to those words every single day,” she says.

With those words to spur her onward, Elma jumped into the work of healing her body with vigor. She removed all processed foods and sugars from her diet and lost 25 pounds. She focused on avoiding negative news and listening to calming, positive music.

Throughout her chemotherapy, surgery and radiation therapy, Elma says the medical staff at the Breast Center and the DeCesaris Cancer Institute made it possible for her to focus on healing, not worrying. “The one worry I did not have in my life was my medical care,” she says, “knowing that my nurse navigator was always there at a moment’s notice to return my calls, and that I was surrounded by all these people who wanted me to get well, it just took all that stress away. I knew I was in the best medical care possible, and the rest was up to me.”

During her treatment, her husband, a marine, was transferred to Texas, but Elma decided she was in the best medical hands possible, and chose to stay behind until her doctors were certain her cancer was gone. She is planning to join him in two months.

It had been nearly 20 years since Jim had kicked his smoking habit, and other than an occasional cough, he felt fine. “Then one morning, when I coughed, I coughed blood,” he said. “As soon as that happened I called my primary care physician.”

Jim’s doctor referred him to AAMC pulmonologist Ira Weinstein, MD who discovered that Jim had stage 3 lung cancer. “When I first heard I had cancer I was angry at myself, because I knew what had caused it. I said to myself, “Are you satisfied? You asked for it, you got it.”

That was in 2008. Jim was 78 years old. After his diagnosis, an interdisciplinary team of cancer specialists, led by oncologist Peter Graze, MD at the DeCesaris Cancer Institute, gathered to review Jim’s case and determine the best course of action to save his life. With a nurse navigator helping to coordinate Jim’s tests and appointments and facilitating communication between the team of doctors, Jim underwent both chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Today, Jim has been cancer free for almost five years, and he attributes his success to early detection and the care he received at the DeCesaris Cancer Institute. “The thing that probably saved my life was that I didn’t let this go. The very day that I coughed blood, I called my primary care physician,” he says.

“I was in the emergency room at Anne Arundel Medical Center when I went into a full-blown widow-maker,” recalls Gebelein. “I felt a sharp pain and thought, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’” The emergency department team immediately transported him to the cardiac catheterization (cath) lab, where Interventional Cardiologist Jonathan Altschuler, M.D., removed the clot blocking a major artery to his heart. “If Mr. Gebelein had procrastinated any longer, he may not have made it,” says Dr. Altschuler. “If he had, he would have been left with significant damage to his heart, and his quality of life would have been altered significantly.”

Dr. Altschuler says too many patients deny or minimize the symptoms of a heart attack and wait too long to receive care. He is the director of the cath lab which celebrated its 10^th year in November. During that time, more than 1,000 heart attack patients have been treated. “The key is to get care fast,” he says.

One thing that helps patients receive care fast is Anne Arundel Medical Center’s relationship with emergency medical services (EMS) in the surrounding counties. EMS can transmit a patient’s EKG to the emergency department while they are en route to the hospital. If the patient is having a heart attack, the cath lab team of cardiologists, nurses and technicians springs into action 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Thanks to the cath lab, Gebelein received the care he needed just in time. “I feel like I can run through a brick wall,” he says. Competitive as ever, he knows now that he’s not invincible and has learned to listen to his heart.

Then a specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital diagnosed Bobbie’s condition and sent her to AAMC for the surgery she needed. Orthopedic surgeon Ben Petre, MD, is a hip specialist and one of the few surgeons in the area experienced in treating conditions like Bobbie’s. “She had something called femoral acetabular impingement or FAI,” Dr. Petre says. “People with FAI have too much bone in either the bone or socket of the hip that causes them to rub together.” In addition to the pain directly caused by rubbing bones, FAI can lead to bursitis and torn cartilage in the hip, both of which Bobbie also had.

Dr. Petre performed a minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery to remove the extra bone and repair the torn cartilage. Bobbie’s relief was immediate. “Ten years ago, people were told they simply needed to live with this,” Dr. Petre said. “Now we can offer them a solution.” Bobbie is completely free from hip pain and the catching that plagued her for all those years. “I know this sounds silly,” she says, “but it was a huge moment for me to be able to put my leg up on the counter to shave. It’s the simple things. I am able to cross my leg to put my shoe on and not have pain.”