FEATURE
Staff photos by Christopher Fryer
Kicking cancer’s butt
Gohmann survives medical scare, colon cancer // CHRIS MORRIS chris.morris@newsandtribune.com
F
or 28 years as a sales representative for Cardinal Health, Julie Gohmann has spent a lot of time in hospitals, meeting with doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. She never thought that one day, the same people she sells supplies to, would save her life not once, but twice. “It came full circle, from provider to patient,” Gohmann said. She also never could have imagined the road that was ahead of her when she woke up one morning and her left leg was swollen. She had no other symptoms, and being an active 52-year-old, she brushed it off at first as a pulled muscle. But the swelling she said “was 20 / Southern Indiana Fitness Source / March 2014
a bit concerning” so her husband Stan Farrell took her to the emergency room at Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services. After several tests doctors found two problems — she had numerous blood clots, some lodged near her heart and lungs which was calling her leg to swell, and she also had stage three colon cancer. “It was kind of like an out-of-body experience. I was never sick,” she said. “It’s like having the rug pulled out from you. The doctors said it was near fatal blood clotting.” After going through a seven hour procedure at Norton’s Hospital where she said surgeons “sand blasted” her clots, Gohmann had to mentally prepare for a second medical issue.
But she was determined to face colon cancer with the same tenacity as she had other challenges in her life. Before she could undergo colon surgery to remove the cancerous tumors and infected lymph nodes, however, Gohmann went through 12 weeks of chemotherapy at Floyd Memorial’s Cancer Center. “They made me feel so comfortable. We asked tons of questions,” she said. “I had never supported anyone who had been through chemo before so this was all new to me.” While the chemo drugs she was given didn’t cause hair loss, they did make her nauseous and fatigued. However, the drugs worked and shrunk