NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For many who have taken this particular journey, treatments for head and neck cancer are difficult and so is finding community afterward. For that reason, a group is showcasing how they're giving everybody a place of belonging.
A group sat around a table at Gilda's Club Middle Tennessee Monday night, and even more faces joined through a Zoom call.
"Something as simple as eating dinner with friends, you want to do it, but the intentional process to swallow your food, to utter words, or worse, being expected to do both at the same time, is tremendous pressure," one man told the group. "It causes you to avoid situations."
Everyone in the room and on Zoom could relate to the conversation. They had all either lived with head and neck cancer or were a caregiver.
"I have to watch how I drink water!" another man added to the nods of the group.
"Family, friends, co-workers, they have to recognize and realize you're still the same human being that you were before," said Debra Sheridan, speaking with the help of an electrolarynx.
Sheridan went through surgeries for throat cancer.
"I asked my oncology ENT surgeon at Vanderbilt, 'what are your concerns for me?'" Sheridan said. "He said, 'my biggest concern for you is suicide by the time you hit your ten-year mark.'"
Sheridan said living with head and neck cancer can make someone feel ostracized. She said they might hesitate from going in public because of struggles with speaking, eating, and breathing.
"There was nobody I could talk to," said Barbara Blades, speaking to the room through Zoom. "The [American] Cancer Society really didn't have anyone to reference me to."
It was Blades who originally contacted Gilda's Club Middle Tennessee. Gilda's Club locations are dedicated to supporting people impacted by cancer. The monthly meet-ups for people who have lived with head and neck cancer began. Someone from Vanderbilt University Medical Center comes in to help and answer questions.
"When I went through it, I didn't think I was the only one going through it, but I sure felt like it," one man told the group about his experience. "If I had known the real value of a support group instead of being afraid to join or feeling I'm unworthy to be inspirational to people, I would have joined much sooner."
"We all have a voice, and we should be given an opportunity to utilize that voice no matter what it sounds like!" Sheridan smiled.
It's okay to laugh in this place. After all, Gilda's Club is named after Gilda Radner, an original Saturday Night Live cast member who was the star of legendary sketches. Radner died in 1989 of ovarian cancer.
She once said; "Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to."
This club meeting every month is making people feel less alone.
"You may not be able to socialize the way you did," Sheridan said. "You may not have the energy to do the things you did, but you're fundamentally the same human being you were."
For more on Gilda's Club Middle Tennessee, visit here.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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