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Swift: ‘We were looking for a miracle’
Given two months to live, woman has been cancer-free for five years
When Sherryl Swift and her husband, Mike, talk about the events in their lives they refer to them happening either BC or AC — before or after cancer.
Sherryl was in her 40s when she was diagnosed in 1997 with adenocarcinoma, a type of lung cancer.
The first clue she had that something wasn’t quite right was revealed when she and her family drove down to Barren River State Park to walk the trail adjacent to the main park road.
“I had to stop every few feet to get my breath,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.”
Her family physician thought Sherryl might have a heart condition and referred her to a cardiologist who ordered a cardiac catheterization.
In preparation for the procedure, Sherryl had a chest X-ray which revealed a mass in one lung.
Sherryl’s doctor referred her to Jewish Hospital in Louisville where a portion of her lung was removed and biopsies of her lymph nodes were conducted. The doctors at Jewish Hospital told her the type of lung cancer she had primarily affects non-smokers and women, and is known to reoccur with a vengeance. An MRI also revealed spots on her brain.
“(We were told) she probably had a couple of months to live,” Mike said.
Refusing to give up hope, the couple sought advice from another doctor who referred them to the University of Kentucky Medical Center.
“We’re looking for a miracle,” Sherryl told the doctor at UK the first time she met him.
The doctor thought a procedure called gamma knife surgery, which is actually a special form of radiation, would help.
Sherryl underwent gamma knife surgery twice in 1998 and then had open brain surgery. She’s been cancer-free for five years, but two years ago she suffered a debilitating stroke.
“My whole left side was gone,” she said.
Doctors weren’t sure she had sustained a stroke at first. They actually thought she had a new tumor, but after a spinal tap came back negative they realized she must have had a stroke.
“Of all the things, the stroke I guess has been the most devastating to her,” Mike said.
It has taken Sherryl quite a while to recuperate from the stroke. She has just recently relearned how to walk on her own.
The ordeal she has been through has changed her life in many ways, most of which has been positive.
“I’ve gotten closer to my children,” Sherryl said as she sat in her recliner and looked at the large framed photos of her children on the opposite wall.
She has also grown closer to her church family at Gethsemane Baptist Church, who have provided support in many ways.
“They call me a walking miracle,” she said. “I told Brother Paul it’s kind of hard to live up to the title of ‘walking miracle.’”
When Sherryl was first diagnosed with cancer, she was told she only had a couple of months to live. The news came at a time when the couple was awaiting the birth of their second grandchild.
“They told me I wouldn’t live to see him, but guess what? I helped deliver that baby,” Sherryl said.
Her recovery “is nothing short of miraculous,” Mike said.
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