Life Raft Group member, Diana Smith was recently featured in an article in Clarksville Tennessee’s Leaf Chronicle about GIST. The article quotes Assistant Program Director, Mildred Menos and provides helpful information about GIST sure to raise awareness levels.
In 2006, Smith was at home one day and began feeling ill with pain in her right abdominal region. The pain quickly escalated. “On a scale of one to 10, my pain went to 10 very fast, and I knew something terrible was happening. My neighbor took me to the emergency room,” she explained.
The surgeon removed a tumor in her small intestine or bowel that was the size of a grapefruit. Without the emergency surgery, Smith would have died within a few hours. This is when she learned she had GIST.
“I was overwhelmed by the diagnosis,” she said. “I thought I was in good health. Everything changed, though.
“I decided immediately that I had to be proactive and learn everything I could about GIST. Working in healthcare was to my advantage because I knew how to research the cancer, where to look for information and what treatments options were available.”
