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By Melissa Marino /
Photography by Dr. Gladden Willis / Visuals Unlimited
Marcy Thomas thought it might be an infection.
Low-grade fevers, swollen lymph nodes, and malaise had been troubling her for months. But antibiotics weren't working. Her physician in her hometown of Dalton, Ga., suggested that it was time for a biopsy of her lymph nodes.
It was late 1991 – just three years after Burkitt's lymphoma had claimed her husband's life.
"When I started having these peculiar sorts of symptoms, the last thing I wanted to think about was cancer," says Thomas, now a chaplain at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
But it was a reality she would soon have to face. The surgeon who performed the biopsy in Chattanooga told her that the preliminary pathology report suggested a malignancy, but they weren't sure what type of cancer it was. She would need to see an oncologist.
During a tense two weeks of waiting for the appointment with the oncologist, Thomas did everything she could think of to make herself better.
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