A hard decision , made easy .
A hard decision , made easy .
In early August 2020 , Jim Hellyer completed a half-marathon and was feeling better than he ’ d felt in years . Three weeks later everything changed , his stool turned gray and his skin turned yellow . He called his doctor , who sent him to the emergency room at AHN Saint Vincent Hospital . “ That ’ s when they found the masses on my liver , spleen , and kidney ,” Jim said .
A biopsy revealed high-grade , large B-cell , non-Hodgkin ’ s lymphoma . Jim considered seeking treatment in either Buffalo , Cleveland , or Pittsburgh . “ But my primary care provider ( PCP ) Dr . Brad Fox recommended The AHN Cancer Institute at Saint Vincent Hospital . It ’ s state-ofthe-art , they have good people , and it ’ s close to home ,” Jim said . “ After that , it wasn ’ t a hard decision . I trust Dr . Fox . And my gut said not having to travel for care was the right thing to do .”
Days later , Jim met with his new AHN cancer doctor to discuss which chemotherapy treatment plan would be best . Because his cancer was very aggressive , the recommendation was an equally aggressive chemotherapy regimen called EPOCH-R . It ’ s a four-drug infusion , plus a monoclonal antibody , that ’ s given in the hospital over the course of six rounds , in one-week-on and two-weeks-off intervals .
Jim felt weak at the beginning of his chemotherapy , but by the third round , he started to perk up . That ’ s when he started walking . “ I couldn ’ t leave the eighth floor , so I did laps around it . The pole with my infusion bag was my constant companion . I called it Long Tall Rita ,” he said .
Before long , Jim was walking four miles a day . “ When Rebecca , my nurse navigator , saw how much I was walking , she gave me a Captain America t-shirt .” By the time he had his last treatment on January 19 , 2021 , he ’ d logged 60 miles . “ I ’ d basically done two marathons on the floors of AHN Saint Vincent . My nurses said they didn ’ t think anyone else had ever done that .”
With his treatment behind him and his cancer in remission , Jim worked his way back to running as soon as he could . “ I completed Beast on the Bay in September , and a half-marathon at Presque Isle State Park in early November ,” he said . “ The same year I rang the bell .”
Jim recently had the honor of speaking at AHN Saint Vincent ’ s 2023 Gala to benefit the AHN Cancer Institute . “ It was good for me to tell my story ,” Jim said . “ Staying local was probably the best thing I ever did . It literally saved my life .”
“ Staying local was probably the best thing I ever did . It literally saved my life .”
Jim Hellyer