By: Michelle Miller, Journal Staff Writer
10:04 AM PDT
When Ann Davies-Nesbitt received her first chemotherapy treatment, she
was miles away from home in a large room among dozens of people with
chemicals coursing through her veins.
She was scared to death.
"I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what the side effects
would be like," said Davies-Nesbitt, 50. "They gave me a list, but I
was in never-never land. I started chemo nine days after I was
diagnosed, so I didn't have time to really think about it."
Diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2004 that later spread to
tumors in her brain, Davies-Nesbitt traveled from Auburn to Carmichael
for her first chemotherapy treatment.
She took a picture of that first session, before she lost her hair,
fingernails and toenails. Before she felt sick from the chemicals and
lost the energy to keep up with her son, then 9.
But having gone through it, and knowing she will continue treatments
for the rest of her life, Davies-Nesbitt knows the power of having a
comfortable infusion center that's close to home.
That's why she's one of many proponents of a new Sutter Auburn Faith
United Auburn Indian Community Infusion Center at Sutter Auburn Faith
Hospital.
The $400,000 project to put a four to six-chair center in the hospital
is being funded with donations to the Sutter Auburn Faith Foundation.
Proceeds from Saturday's Thunder in the Sky Air Fair will benefit the
center.
"All the things they're coming up with are great ideas," Davies-Nesbitt
said. "I wish I'd have had this."
Auburn currently has no infusion therapy center - the next closest is
at Sutter Roseville. There are doctors who give infusion treatments in
their private practices, but not in a way that can serve multiple
patients for infusions that can last over an hour. Infusion therapy
provides intravenous treatments for Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, chronic
infection, multiple sclerosis and chemotherapy for cancer.
"We've been trying to develop a cancer program in Auburn and be able to
give adequate chemotherapy and other infusions," said Dr. William
Kirby, a urologist and member of the infusion center committee. "And if
we were going to come of age with cancer treatment we'd have to be on
board with this. It's important in how it benefits our patients."
Benefits to patients include not having to drive or have someone drive
them to centers as far away as Grass Valley or Roseville, he said, as
well as providing several seats in a comfortable setting.
Davies-Nesbitt consistently spent around 90 minutes in an infusion
center chair, or up to a few hours if problems arose.
While she sat in chairs among others receiving treatments for various
illnesses, she noticed how they passed their time. The women liked to
visit during appointments, she said, but the men mostly liked to nap.
Others watched DVDs with earphones, their laughing heard throughout the
room. Some read or eat, if the thought of food doesn't make them
nauseous.
She also logged around 4,500 miles on her new car during her various
medical treatments, driving to Carmichael and later to Folsom for
infusions.
Her husband, Keith Nesbitt, who is also an Auburn City councilman,
couldn't drop her off for treatment. By the time he would have gotten
home, she said, he would have had to turn around and pick her up.
"My husband is a saint. He took time off from working and took me to
every single appointment," she said. "He'd sit with me and cry outside
the door when I was throwing up. He's the best caretaker in the
world."
During the course of her treatments, at times dense doses every other
week, she became friends with other women undergoing similar therapy.
The empathy she got from fellow patients and support groups kept her
going.
After 18 months of medical trials that tested her will, Davies-Nesbitt
is now in remission. She will, however, receive an antibody infusion
treatment every three weeks for the rest of her life to keep cancer
from spreading. She'll continue to go to the Folsom center - until
Sutter Auburn's is complete.
"People say I was so brave and handled everything so well. I think,
'Was I really that brave?'" she said. "What's the other option? The
other option is to die. You do what you have to do."
The Journal's Michelle Miller can be reached at
michellem@goldcountrymedia.com.
