Mother of 4 says fear, denial led her to delay starting cervical cancer treatment for 15 months
ATLANTA - At 37, Danielle McCrae of Jonesboro is balancing her immunotherapy appointments at Piedmont Fayette Hospital every 3 weeks with raising 4 kids, and giving herself the time and space to heal.
"When I say healing, there’s a lot that goes into that, not just the body, but mind, spirit, all of that," McCrae says.
The story of how she got here began in early 2021 when McCrae sensed something was very wrong.
She began to experience vaginal discharge and was losing weight.
"There was, like, a lot of heavy bleeding, fatigue," McCrae remembers.
By early March, McCrae was in so much pain, her husband Victor brought her to the emergency room, which led to scans, doctor’s appointments, a surgical procedure, and, finally, a diagnosis.
She was told she had stage 3 cervical cancer.
"I was devastated," McCrae says. "I was so devastated because I wasn’t prepared for that. I was not prepared. So what I was told is that, you know, I’m going to do chemo and I’m going to do, like, a localized radiation. And, the way it was being explained to me, I was terrified. I was like, ‘You want to do what? How? No!’"
McCrae says she did not understand at the time she had a tumor.
So, she decided to forgo chemo and radiation, and use natural, alternative therapies, which she considered a more holistic approach.
"So, from that March of 2021 all the way to June 2022, that that’s how long I went," McCrae says.
She went 15 months without traditional cancer treatment.
But, instead of getting better, McCrae says, she was in agony.
She couldn’t sleep, was barely able to eat, and was in constant, often unbearable pain.
"Because with the tumor, in my case, the tumor was growing sideways," McCrae says. "So, it was pressing on my bladder, my rectum, and my sciatic nerve."
The situation, McCrae says, got out of hand.
"I ended up in the emergency room again," she says. "That’s when they told me that. "Hey, Mrs. McCrae, you have a tumor, and the tumor is not the same size. It’s big. It’s way bigger than before."
And Dr. Mitzie-Ann Davis, a gynecologic oncologist at Piedmont Fayette, who is treating McCrae, says her story is not unique.
"Oftentimes, when we hear the ‘C’ word, you know, some people will have fear," Dr. Davis says.
Danielle McCrae of Jonesboro, Georgia, says she was stunned and overwhelmed when she was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer in the spring of 2021. So, the 37-year-old mother of 4 decided she would treat her cancer holistically, delaying her treat (Danielle McCrae)
That fear, Davis says, can lead to denial, and delay.
"And that delay can sometimes, unfortunately, cost you your life," Dr. Davis says. "She was very lucky that we’re able that she has had good response, but some other patients are not so lucky."
McCrae says meeting Dr. Davis was a turning point for her.
"She gave me a good talking to, and I’m so glad that she did," she says. "I went home and my husband and I, we talked about it, and we decided that whatever, you know, plan Dr. Davis had, that’s what we were going to do. Because at this point, my life was on the line."
After undergoing chemotherapy, and then localized radiation to destroy the cancer that had spread to some of her lymph nodes, McCrae began immunotherapy, with a drug called Keytruda, to try to destroy a tiny amount of cancer left behind.
"Once I gave her to immunotherapy, within 3 to 4 months, she’s now cancer-free," Dr. Davis says.
She will continue to undergo scans every 3 or 4 months and will stay on immunotherapy for now.
But Danielle McCrae can get back to being a wife, and a mother, and everything else she loves.
"(I am) pain-free: no suffering, sleeping, eating," she smiles. "I’m really living, really living this time. So, it feels good."