This Is Why We Do This
Kristina was first diagnosed with cancer in 2009, after her initial treatment regimen, she achieved remission. Unfortunately, her journey became significantly more difficult in 2019 when her cancer recurred. This time, however, the cancer had spread to her liver and bones. Kristina was now living with metastatic cancer—for which there is no cure.
Throughout this time, Kristina continued to work full-time as a nurse. Recently, she decided to take a step back.
“I want to own my time. We always feel like we’re beholden to other things, our jobs, and lots of other things that consume our time. With the fact that I know my time is more limited than the average person's, it’s really important for me to own my time. Part of that is doing things that I haven’t done enough of. My passion is travel. Over the past 15 years, I’ve tried really hard to travel to places I’ve never been to before and I will continue to as long as I feel well enough to do so,” Kristina said.
From the beginning, Kristina has been under the care of CARE Founder Dr. Frank Senecal. Through CARE’s Compassionate Use program and the medication she is taking now, she has good quality of life and is able to enjoy spending her time doing the things that matter most to her.
Compassionate Use has given Kristina access to a medication that she otherwise wouldn’t have, but most importantly, it’s given Kristina her life back.
As a nurse for over 27 years, Kristina understands the value of research. Participating in clinical trials has been extremely important to her since the beginning of her cancer journey.
“It was important to me to participate in a clinical trial. I thought of the thousands of people who had participated in research before me and I wanted to be part of the research going forward so that everyone can have better treatment options,” Kristina said.
As part of CARE’s Compassionate Use Program, Kristina works closely with Sam, a CARE Research Coordinator, and Dr. Senecal. Kristina immediately felt that both Sam and Dr. Senecal cared for her as a person and made an effort to get to know her on a personal level and understand what is important to her.
“Dr. Senecal is the most incredible physician and person. This has been about a quarter of my life, dealing with cancer and he has been with me through it. I know that he cares and that Sam cares. I know this is not a transactional relationship. It is so valuable to me and I’m alive because of the care here,” Kristina said.
Living with metastatic cancer is difficult. To help confront the difficulties of her disease, Kristina has adopted a motto: “Make every day a good day.”
“You don’t use the same yardstick every day…it’s looking at your day and seeing the good from it. Rather than focus on the loss, I focus on how I can fill my time with meaningful things. With metastatic disease, you’re much more aware of time,” Kristina said.
Make every day a good day is a motto we can all aspire to! Thank you for supporting South Sound CARE Foundation and making good days possible for cancer patients like Kristina.