Survivor to Survivor with Lois Reckitt

On New Year’s Eve, Lois Reckitt celebrated both her birthday, and the start of a new year. She was born in Massachusetts, and after spending summers in Maine as a child she has spent the last 52 years in South Portland. What Lois didn't expect from 2022 was a colon cancer diagnosis. Lois is an otherwise healthy, productive member of her community as a Representative in the state legislature for the Ocean end of South Portland. She had followed the guidelines for regular colonoscopies. She then started having some intestinal pain, which she attributed to constipation and/or diarrhea, depending on the day. She found at least a partial fix by a supplemental fiber treatment. Things were going along fine enough until midNovember when she experienced severe pain late on a Sunday night. She called her doctor, who told her to go to the emergency room first thing in the morning where she was admitted to Maine Medical Center. Unfortunately, a colonoscopy had revealed a large mass, which was biopsied. When they showed Lois a picture from the colonoscopy, she said it looked like “a ball of dark sticks”.

Initially, they treated her with antibiotics to see if the mass would shrink over the course of her first few days in the hospital. When it didn’t shrink, she underwent a 3 1/2 hour operation by Dr. Hallagan where she woke up to her sigmoid colon having been removed. Lois was not entirely surprised, but understandably disappointed to have woken up from surgery with an ostomy. The biopsy results from the large mass on colonoscopy then came back, and they were negative for cancer. However, when the surgical pathology results came back, they did, in fact, confirm the diagnosis of colon cancer. Thankfully, the 21 lymph nodes they also removed came back benign (e.g. negative for cancer) leading to a better overall prognosis and a less aggressive treatment plan.

Lois has been a dedicated journal writer for several decades, but unfortunately she didn't have her journal with her in the hospital. What she did have was a dedicated wife by her side, an encouraging surgeon in Dr. Hallagan, and an optimistic medical oncologist in Dr. Voisine. Her gastrointestinal (GI) nurse navigator, Nicole, was also very helpful in taking care of the details and the scheduling of the multiple appointments Lois would need next. At one point during her hospital stay, she woke up and said to herself, “I don't think I can do this.” But, she followed that thought shortly thereafter with the decision to recover. She told herself “I had already bought holiday presents for my wife. I worried about what she do without me. I was determined not to make things worse for others, so I decided to recover”.

After a 16-day stay in the hospital, Lois was discharged to home with support of home care nursing, physical therapy (PT), and occupational therapy (OT), all of which proved to be very helpful in getting her back up on her feet. Her home PT realized that with the configuration of her home, she could walk for 10 consecutive minutes indoors to build her endurance. Her ostomy nurse was an invaluable resource for teaching her how to manage her new stoma and getting her the right equipment. The OT helped her regain her independence with daily activities.

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One of the biggest revelations Lois had was just how many friends came to support her, in particular from the Maine Irish Heritage Center. She had both male and female friends who came to stay with her during the day while her wife was at work. She attributes her ability to ask for help, which she says she's good at, in allowing her friends to be there for her at her time of need. One of them wrapped Christmas presents for her. One of them made sure her computer was running well. Her longtime manicurist even came and did a home visit for not only her acrylic fingernails, but also a pedicure. One of her friends realized her towel rack was not an appropriate grab bar for her to get around her bathroom, so he went out to get the right equipment and installed it properly so she would be safe. Her son-in-law put in floor ramps for the thresholds in her doorways so she could get through more easily. She ultimately concluded she had better support than she even thought she had, and she recommends that other survivors not only ask for help, but also accept it when offered.

Having a stoma has turned out to be both interesting and frightening. According to Lois, “having taught human biology in the past, I was fascinated by seeing the inside of the colon through my stoma”. She has already learned a significant amount on how to manage her stoma, and she now has what she needs where she needs it. The next step for Lois includes getting back to the state legislature on January 4th. She's been an activist in the women's movement since 1971 (see cover photo taken on the Statehouse grounds), and looks forward to continuing her many legislative pursuits and contributions, which include three new bills being proposed this session. She also looks forward to accessing the Dempsey Center for their supportive services to continue her cancer recovery.

Lois shares that: “All survivors go through that moment of terror, the shock, the fear of the unknown. But, they ultimately move on to a period of joy, and a realization that they just have to move. They just have to do it.” And, she's doing it!