& so much more
A bi-monthly podcast where we share the stories of our Caregivers, patients and community.
& so much more
Finding Strength in Clinical Trials: Carol Harvey's Breast Cancer Story
Carol Harvey's powerful journey from experienced nurse to breast cancer survivor offers a unique dual perspective that changes everything.
Carol shares her unexpected triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis in September 2020 during the height of COVID restrictions when family couldn't accompany her to treatments. With 35 years of nursing experience and a role teaching future nurses at Liberty University, Carol brought professional knowledge to her patient experience that provided both advantages and surprising challenges.
Her decision to join a clinical trial stands as perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this conversation. Despite her medical background, Carol experienced the vulnerability all patients feel when considering experimental treatments. The outcome? Extraordinary monitoring that included multiple echocardiograms, rapid tumor response, and a comprehensive team approach that left her feeling exceptionally well-cared for. "If I were to go through the whole thing again, I would jump into a clinical trial again, 100%," she reflects.
Through chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and even cognitive therapy for "chemo brain," Carol's journey spans numerous departments within Centra Health. Now three years post-treatment with regular follow-ups, she finds herself transformed. "I am such a better person on this side of cancer than I was beforehand," she reveals, describing a deeper faith, greater empathy, and profound perspective shift that turns even "bad hair days" into moments of gratitude. Her powerful closing message resonates for anyone facing difficult circumstances: "I can do hard things." Listen now to experience this remarkable story of professional insight meeting personal transformation.
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Hi and welcome to, and so Much More. I am your host, cammie Smith, and I am here with Carol Harvey and she is a professor, she is a nurse. You are once a patient, are still a patient, or once a patient.
Carol Harvey:I am in remission but still being followed up in the clinical trial.
Cami Smith:Okay, so you still have that role as well, and so today we want to really hear your story and give you an opportunity to share what your journey looked like through your diagnosis of breast cancer. Sure and so well.
Carol Harvey:first I want to tell us a little bit about who you are and have the pleasure of teaching nursing at Liberty, and that's been a joy. I've been doing that part-time since 2010, and then I went full-time in 2017. Beyond that, though, I've been a nurse at the bedside, off and on, for 35 years.
Cami Smith:Kind of dating myself there.
Carol Harvey:But I've been at Centra. I worked at Centra for a good 12 years and was actually working when I received my diagnosis of breast cancer and you continue to work. Yes, my treatment started pretty quick and so I had to stop working and then, because of the kind of cancer I had, they had to hit me really hard with chemo and so then they had to let me go. So I have not worked at the bedside since 2020. But I have been able to keep teaching. I laid that down for a little while, but still was able to keep teaching, so I'm very thankful because that's such a joy If I can't be at the bedside.
Carol Harvey:I can empower the next generation, and so I'm so thankful for that?
Cami Smith:Yes, and I bet it's an ebb and flow, just listening to what you can and can't handle in each moment throughout the whole process.
Carol Harvey:Yes, that was hard because, you know, I think probably we as women tend to feel like, oh, we can do it all.
Cami Smith:We can do it all. We can do it all.
Carol Harvey:And so that was a little sobering and just kind of okay, what can I do? And just be thankful.
Cami Smith:And now, on this side of it, I have the pleasure of just thinking like I'm having a bad hair day and then I'll say but you know what? I have hair today, I have hair today, so that has really framed my thought process a lot yes, so tell us from the beginning so you received your diagnosis? Yes, yeah. And then what was that journey?
Carol Harvey:like. So I received. I found that I actually found it. I was actually behind in my mammograms. Even I, as a nurse I feel embarrassed to tell that story, but we often don't take care of ourselves like we should and so I was behind in getting my mammogram.
Carol Harvey:So I found the tumor myself and I knew immediately it was. It was quite large, and so I thought, oh and so by the time I got the official diagnosis, that was September of 2020. And then my chemotherapy started in October of 2020. So, right in the middle of COVID it was quite the experience. Family was not able to go with me into the Pearson Cancer Center for my treatments, and so it was a type of cancer called triple negative which is a little more hard to treat. They have to treat it with chemotherapy, and then I had surgery and then radiation. So when I started the journey, they asked me there was a clinical trial going on involving a immunotherapy agent, and so they asked if I would consider participating in that, and so that, as a nurse, I was like I'm aware of clinical trials.
Cami Smith:And so I wasn't afraid of that term, but I was going to say what is that like to step into something that feels experimental when? It is your life and your health that's at stake. Yeah, so so interesting Cause as a nurse.
Carol Harvey:I've talked to patients about that before from the nursing perspective but as the patient I thought so different. So different and and as a side note, my husband is also a nurse. Oh, wow, yeah.
Carol Harvey:And so you know, he and I both really were like we knew the benefits and also perhaps the risks of that, and so, anyway, we did some consulting with some really good friends of ours, one of which is a pharmacist and has worked in clinical trials, oncology trials, and he was very supportive of this and he and yeah, and so it was such a gift to have that he said If it was his wife he wouldn't even think twice, he would, we would have her participate in the trial and that is some strong feedback.
Carol Harvey:Strong. Yeah, he really had the gravitas to think that through, like thinking through his, his own experiences in the pharmacy side of running that, and his rationale, which we just have experienced ourselves, was that when you participate in a clinical trial, you are just observed so much more closely Not that regular patients are not, but it's like like the monitoring is taken to a whole new level.
Cami Smith:That is, I have never thought about it that way?
Carol Harvey:Yeah, and he was absolutely right. For example, had I not participated in this, I would not have had echocardiograms, and thankfully I had no problems with anything but even even, um, if I had the echocardiograms I think I had three done, two, I can't remember now but several echocardiograms that were monitoring to make sure my heart function didn't fail or have any issues, and so that was such a neat experience to just know like, oh, I am really being watched even more closely because of this experimental drug that I was perhaps on. It was a what they call a double blind study, and so I don't know whether I received the actual medication or not?
Cami Smith:OK, yeah, but my outcomes were so great that they kind of think I probably did so you don't even find out at the end of the medical trial Like I will never know. I did not know that and my doctor that. They kind of think I probably did so.
Carol Harvey:You don't even find out at the end of the clinical trial. I will never know.
Cami Smith:I did not know that.
Carol Harvey:And my doctor didn't know either. However, she said I have responded so well to like, my tumor immediately began to shrink, and because it was very palpable, they could tell the size was diminishing by week four of the treatment. It was being treated every week for 12 weeks and then every other week for another couple months, and so, anyway, the tumor just shrunk by, I think week 10 or 12. It wasn't even palpable anymore.
Cami Smith:And it was, it was a really good size tumor prior.
Carol Harvey:So I just thought that was such a blessing to be in this trial. I was very thankful to have had that experience, to have the extra monitoring Additionally. The team, the research team, was amazing to work with, just so helpful and in a season when even when it wasn't COVID, but anytime you go through cancer it is just such an unsettling time. It is just such an unsettling time, yes, and to have their extra help, their extra eyes, their extra voice in just helping me navigate everything was such a blessing too. So if I were to go through the whole thing again, I would jump into a clinical trial again. I mean, obviously I would pray about it, make sure that that was the right decision, yeah, but I would do it again, 100%.
Cami Smith:Wow, yeah, so thankful for that. What did your care team look like? So I hear you say your research team yes, and I imagine that is outside of your core care team. Correct, yeah, what was your team made up of? So?
Carol Harvey:the team was made up of a surgeon and Dr Block was amazing, just wonderful to work with and then my oncologist and then, later on, a radiation oncologist was involved as well.
Carol Harvey:Okay, I can't remember if I met her before we get started on all of that. I think perhaps I was through the chemotherapy when I then met with her, and then we had the navigator from the Pearson Cancer Center who is a nurse navigator. There were several of them. Their team is phenomenal, phenomenal and so helpful, and and they just helped to get those appointments set up, answer my questions, and so those were the, the core team, but then the research team was an additional, extra level of involvement, so I really did feel extra cared for, yes, there's just a lot of eyes to have on the data and correct.
Cami Smith:That's incredible.
Carol Harvey:And so I am still a part of this trial. It's a five year follow up trial and so, honestly, I don't know if my follow up now I am three years now post-op or post treatment, and I don't know if I would still be doing every six-month follow-up or not. But that is part of the trial. So, really almost every three months I'm seeing somebody. So I just saw my oncologist last month with the research trial team there with me still following up seeing what kind of symptoms I'm having, or if I'm having any symptoms.
Carol Harvey:Thankfully I've not had any symptoms and then. So I see them, like every fall and spring, and then in the winter I see Dr Plotkin, in the summer I see the radiation, so almost every three months I'm seeing someone, yeah, so I just feel very eyes on Carol and so yeah, that's as it should be.
Cami Smith:Yeah, I mean, yeah, that should be the experience of every cancer patient. Yeah, I patient, really, that comes through Cintra. Yeah, um, and, and I love how broad of a team that you have, yes, so how do you feel now?
Carol Harvey:I'm feeling great. It has been really. The first year after chemo was a little rough. Just trying to get my feet up underneath me, my endurance I actually felt a little slow. They call it chemo brain, okay, yep, and so the team helped me get set up with cognitive therapy and it was phenomenal. So I would go every week for cognitive therapy training at the Baptist and that was so helpful, wow, and I did that for not quite three months, but it really helped kind of clear the fog of the chemo brain.
Carol Harvey:And so yeah, so I feel my endurance is better. So, yeah, I feel the three years out, I feel almost the same as I did going into chemo yeah. Yeah, very, very thankful.
Cami Smith:So how many other areas within Centra, over the continuum of your care, did you interact with?
Carol Harvey:Oh, a lot because of because of the extra tests that we had done, so I worked with like I had to go to cardiology a couple of times for the echocardiograms which I mentioned, which is in case you're not familiar with that, that's just a kind of a test of the heart. And so then I had several ultrasounds, bone scans, different things. So some of those were at the radiation I can't remember what the imaging place on Nationwide, yes, yep. And then some were actually at Lynchburg General. My surgery was done at the Baptist, okay.
Cami Smith:Yeah, the Baptist.
Carol Harvey:And so, yeah, I've kind of been across the continuum, but a lot of it was done. The radiation chemo was all done at the Pearson Cancer Center, which was wonderful, yeah, and it's just such an incredible picture, yes, of the care.
Cami Smith:There's so many different areas within century you don't come in and isolate yourself is like I'm a cancer patient. This is what I do. This is where I go. Yes, it is a one center approach to your care. Like all of those eyes again so many eyes take all eyes on Carol.
Carol Harvey:That's so wonderful.
Cami Smith:So what message would you have for someone who's maybe at the beginning of this journey? Or just currently going through, maybe even the thick of it.
Carol Harvey:Yes, well, I would say first of all, I'm so sorry for what you're having to go through, but I found my cancer experience to be so enriching. I feel like I am such a better person on this side of cancer than I was beforehand. I feel that I'm just much more sensitive to people and what they're going through, and it really made me a more holistic person. My faith was very challenged in a good way during this whole thing, and I really felt closer to the Lord through all of this. And so I would say that, as you're starting out, there is a lot of resources here at Centra and that the team here is truly for your good and that they are looking to help you. And so I would just say, if you have questions, reach out, and if they offer a trial, don't just take it because I say so, but really, really delve into it and ask okay, well, what is the extra monitoring and what will that entail?
Carol Harvey:And how much? What kind of benefits are there? There are risks to being involved in those things too, so you want to take those seriously as well, and so I don't want to minimize the risks that could be with really not just a research trial but any of the treatment therapies that you might have. But at the same time, the treatment plans that Centra has are truly so well-grounded and will really be for your benefit. And so lean into the expertise of your care providers and just to have hope in this, because, because there's so much gravitas to what their knowledge is and their knowledge base.
Cami Smith:I like the word hope?
Carol Harvey:Yeah for sure.
Cami Smith:A lot of hope, yeah, and it sounds like this was an opportunity for you to take what you already had and push them down deeper, to really ground yourself in lot of hope. Yeah, and it sounds like this was an opportunity for you to take what you already had and push them down deeper. Yes, to really ground yourself in this whole experience.
Carol Harvey:Yes, very much so.
Cami Smith:I mean things like this that knock us off our feet. You never know how it's going to impact you, and so just hearing the positivity from your experience is really encouraging.
Carol Harvey:Yeah, truly, it was such a life-changing moment and it has really reframed my perspective. Like I said, when I have a bad hair day, I think now I have hair.
Carol Harvey:praise the Lord. I'm so thankful for that. So I really have found this to be such just a broadening experience for me and while it is a hard thing to go through and especially during the time of COVID and it was so isolating friends couldn't come over and you know those kind of things it was really isolating at the same time this side of it. I just look back and think, wow, I could do hard things. I can do hard things.
Cami Smith:yes, that is a good message, thank you, carol, for coming in and for just sharing your wonderful story, and, while I am, I'm sorry that this is something you had to go through. Like just hearing you say that you are almost at a point where you're grateful.
Carol Harvey:Yes.
Cami Smith:So much hope on the other side.
Carol Harvey:Yes, very much so, thank you for sharing that message.
Cami Smith:My pleasure and thank you all for joining us on and so Much More.
