[Music over MUSC Hollings Cancer Center logo fades to woman in sporty collared shirt sitting in front of window revealing grass and pond in backyard.]
My name is Carol Sullivan, and I'm an ovarian cancer survivor.
[Snapshot of Carol in hospital bed.]
Well, the symptoms that I first discovered - I was doing a hand release pushup.
[Carol demonstrates with her hands as she is seated.]
So it's a pushup that you then you release your hands and your feet. And I just felt something off in my stomach. It didn't like terribly hurt, but something just didn't seem right at all. So I called my OB-GYN right away and tried to get an appointment as soon as possible. So I went there and, she did a quick peek of what might be the case, and her eyes bulged out and, I’m, ‘Oh, that’s not a very good sign.’
[Carol uses her hands over her eyes to demonstrate how big her doctor’s eyes got and then puts her hands over the sides of her face in an expression of anxiety.]
And she had an immediate concern that it could be ovarian cancer. It was a complete shock. I was not expecting that in the least that day. And no, I didn't have anyone in my family that I was aware of, nor have I found that there's been any in my history. So it was quite unusual. So the next steps were to get me seen by an oncologist as soon as possible. Something about Dr. Orr just caught my heart and I'm like, I think he's..I want to see him. So and then when I ended up asking my doctor, ‘If you were to have a doctor, an oncologist need, in South Carolina, who would you go with?’ And she said, ‘Dr. Orr.’ And it was a no-brainer for me at that point. And then once I met him, I mean, that pretty much sealed the deal. But he really just explained things so thoroughly. He was caring, kind, compassionate. And like I said, he just was straight up and didn't sugarcoat things.
[Snapshot of Carol in a hospital bed.]
And then I had my surgery, and then it took about six weeks that he wanted me to recover from the surgery. One of the things that I wanted to do when I first found out after, you know, the initial shock and so forth, so on, is it was important for me to make sure I told those that were close here.
[Snapshot of Carol on the pickleball court talking to another woman over the net.]
I didn't want them to find out by, you know, a rumor and whatever. So it was important for me to meet individually with those that were close to me. So I - and it helped me accept it. Every time I would sit down with another person, they were just so, so caring, so ...just ...their reactions were just priceless to me and really helped me feel like they've got my back. And they sure did. They delivered. I mean, my pickleball team is just amazing.
[Snapshot of a smiling women in brightly colored tennis outfits with their pickleball paddles.]
They had - one of the gals on the team would - she put some Sully’s village bracelets together and everyone wore them.
[Snapshot of ten fists in a circle, each wearing a blue silicone rubber bracelet that says Sully’s Village. Drone snapshot of the women gathered on a pickleball court around Carol.]
And just embraced me and supported me throughout
[Speaking: Joan Walden, wife. Joan is perched on the arm of the armchair that Carol is sitting in. The photo of the ten fists wearing Sully’s Village bracelets is displayed on a side table.]
Joan: I felt like my job was just to react to her, really.
[Video of Carol on a ladder with a power tool trimming a palm tree and of interacting with a friend on the pickleball court.]
For the most part, Carol's very strong, very positive. So that kind of made my job easy. But there were days when she just wasn't, and so my job, I felt, was to kind of push her on those days and then after that, just ride the momentum until the next time, and I was there.
[Video of Carol and Joan on the pickleball court and walking through the common areas in their neighborhood.]
Joan: So I was just kind of out there, kind of like ...
Carol: Always.
Joan: And what's incredible is, I was doing that and then there was all this people around us that were coming up to me and saying, ‘How’s Carol?’ And I’d go, ‘Oh, she's fine. She's fine.’ And they would say, ‘Well, how are you?’ And I'd be like, ‘Oh, ummm. Hmm. How am I? Uh, I guess I'm doing good.’ And that was the coolest thing, was, people didn't realize it. But by coming up to me and asking, how was Carol, they knew I was on that same journey on the sideline and it was just so supportive for, for me. And that helped me through it. But as long as I kept focused on her, I felt like I was doing my job, whatever she needed, as long as-
Carol: You’re the best
Joan: As long as she wasn't [both women laugh] too difficult. No, it was good. It was a good journey.
Carol: So I recovered about six weeks time. And then then we went into the chemotherapy plan. I had six rounds, six sessions, so I had to go to inpatient. [Snapshots of Carol in the hospital]. It was great. Honestly, I looked forward to going. I love the nurses at Seven West. I met them when I had my surgery, so I was familiar with quite a few of them originally. [Snapshot of a nurse in a blue gown making a goofy pose while Carol gives a double thumbs-up from her bed; snapshot of three nurses smiling and posing with Carol.] And then when I got there and started the chemotherapy, they were just amazing. I mean, I can't speak enough of how awesome they made my experience. We had fun. We would bring our music. We would have our little candies for everybody. They, they really made a significant difference, in my opinion. [Carol standing in a hall surrounded by five nurses, all with big smiles on their faces.] They're like family to me now. And after, I dunno, 20-some odd trips back and forth through the summertime, we were really sad. It was like, ‘This is our last trip,’ you know? And everyone was there. And it was, it was just, I got them a cake and everyone came in the room near the end and - they even actually – it was so cute. My last treatment was outpatient the following week, so they weren't going to see me.
And right before their last shift that evening, they were like, ‘Hold on a second!’ You know, I was wondering what they were doing. They came in and they had taken their phone and got an app for a bell and they rang the bell and we all jumped in the air. It was awesome. So they're just the best. I mean that was, you know, of course, ringing that last bell in the Kimmel Center was, was, it was pretty awesome. {Snapshot of Carol ringing a bill on the wall at Hollings Cancer Center] You know, Dr. Orr came that last day and I asked him, I said, ‘So,’ I said, ‘Am I cancer free?’ He's like, ‘Absolutely.’ And so we high fived and hugged and even the staff there was very, very nice. So I rang the bell and all the staff that were right there in their little area, all were very, came and clapped and it just was, it was really, MUSC is just the best.
[MUSC Hollings Cancer Center logo]
