Writing is therapeutic for Lynn Aspey. The retiree, who previously was the director of business relations at Jewish Family Services, first shared her story with Healthy New Albany magazine through a piece she wrote about turning 74 this year.
“2016 was quite the year – I retired and the same day I was diagnosed with small lymphocytic lymphoma. Can you imagine? Of course, my mind took me to the deep, and I assumed I was going to die. Not the case. I met with my amazing oncologist, Dr. Jennifer Woyach at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, who said, ‘You will die with it but not because of it.’ My brain was not sure that I could comprehend that. She was right, I am still here to celebrate my 74th birthday with family and friends.”
Two years after her original diagnosis, Aspey found out her cancer had progressed to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). She has been a patient at the James Comprehensive Cancer Center for six years and, thanks to an experimental treatment protocol, has been in remission for the better part of a year. Lynn and her husband, Wayne, have lived in New Albany for eight years.
Her interview with HNA Magazine has been edited for length and clarity.
Healthy New Albany: What symptoms caused you to go to the doctor in the first place?
Lynn Aspey: I came home one day from work and I had a breast lump. And, of course, my gynecologist was out of town, my doctor was out of town so they sent me to a midwife who said, “I think it’s just a cyst.” So I went back and they did five mammograms and they did five ultrasounds and I knew when they were doing the ultrasounds because they kept pointing; I knew something was wrong.
I was just getting ready to retire. The agency threw me this huge party. They had food fit for a queen, they did a video of all those people working with me and what they said and they named a conference room after me. I went home that day and I got my cancer diagnosis.
HNA: Could you tell us more about your reaction to the diagnosis?
LA: I really thought, “This is it. I’m dying.” They were that bad. And being told you have cancer is shocking to begin with and then I was told I had terrible chromosomes and I was like, “This is it. I’m done. I’m out of here.” My doctor came in and said, “I think you need counseling” and I’m like, “You don’t say?” So that was my beginning. So when I say I was a pill, I was a pill.
They know me well enough now, that I require a lot of knowledge, and when I get my chart they will send a lot of knowledge, and if not, I’ll write back, “share more,” so I understand. Knowledge is power for me. It makes me in control of what I can control. You can’t control a lot with cancer because it has a mind of its own. I do a lot to take care myself, but you don’t know what it’s doing. Right now, I’m in remission, but I know it’s coming back.
I was going to tell the doctor, “I’m out of the study” (due to severe bone and joint pain) when my doctor came in and said, “You have no cancer in your blood.” And I said, “I will stay in the study.” When I say it has a mind of its own, it does. So you have to control what you can.
HNA: For you, what are the things you feel you can control?
LA: I work out here at the Heit Center almost every day. I run in water with hand weights with my former boss. I eat fairly healthy. Physically, I think exercise is your best medicine. When I wake up, I’m usually in a good mood. You wake up and you have a choice of how your day is going to go, and I choose to have a good day.
HNA: Have you always had that attitude or has dealing with the everyday reality of cancer forced you to look at things differently?
LA: Cancer makes you redefine your life. It makes you kind of think about time. Time is very important to me. Because, first of all, no one knows the time they have. I redefined in my life what is very important to me, what are my priorities, and I decided that I was going to make the most of this journey. Do I have fear that creeps in a lot? I do. I’m terrified of pain. Only because I live with chronic pain.
I think once you live with chronic pain you have a responsibility to help doctors understand it. I’m 74, and when I was young, they thought it was psychological. It’s not. I educate my doctors and they work with me and it feels interesting. When I think about fear, I will never let it get a hold of me that I can’t function. I made the decision that I have a phenomenal family and I’m going to stay as long as I can and whatever that means, I’m going to be the best that I can be, even with everything I deal with.
HNA: What do you want other people to know about your experience and living with cancer?
LA: My goal in writing was to give other people hope. Cancer now is more of a chronic disease. I feel the advances with cancer have been phenomenal. Those of us that live in Columbus, Ohio, and are patients at The James or OhioHealth, we have a phenomenal, phenomenal medical system right at our finger tips. Being a patient there has given me the tools I need to have hope. And I want to pass that on to others. Is it easy? No. It is not easy.
Cancer’s like a roller coaster. You never know when you’re going to get hit with something. I’ve learned to go with it and not fight it. It makes it easier and I do try to look at each day as a gift. That’s the best that I have to give everybody.
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Claire Miller is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback is welcome at cmiller@cityscenemediagroup.com.
