St. Louis, Missouri native Pamela “Pam” Barton had only moved to Hobart a couple months before her diagnosis. In the fall of 2022, she decided she would go in to see the doctor for a routine check up. Despite having little signs or symptoms, her exam came up abnormal, and she would later have a biopsy that revealed she had cancer. In October 2022, Barton was diagnosed with stage IB cervical cancer.
“I had a really aggressive type of cervical cancer, and getting me into remission would be hard,” said Barton. “I was told at the beginning that my life expectancy has majorly decreased.”
The diagnosis made Barton anxious, and concerns about how it would all work began to surface. Was she going to be sick all of the time and unable to work? Would she lose her new job or insurance?
“You hear such scary things about cancer and chemotherapy, so I had this image built up in my head,” said Barton. “I was scared. Every day in the back of my mind was ‘How long am I going to live?’”
With an aggressive cancer like stage IB cervical cancer, her doctor at Beacon Health System gave her an honest answer.
“The first thing I asked my doctor was ‘Am I dying?’” said Barton. “She said, ‘Well, not this month, and maybe not in a couple months, either.’”
Despite the uncertainty, Barton went to battle with a will to survive. She was able to have chemotherapy and radiation treatments done at the University of Chicago’s Hobart office.
“I did chemo and radiation from December through February,” said Barton. “After a scan in the summer of 2023, I realized I had a recurrence. That's when I had to do chemo again.”
A concern arose with the recurrence because Barton would not qualify for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as she had only been working at NorthShore Health Centers for a short period of time.
“NorthShore has been phenomenal,” said Barton. “At the time of that recurrence, I was almost eligible for FMLA. I remember the head of HR reached out to me personally, and they came from Portage to my office at Merrillville. My first thought was, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm in trouble. They're going to let me go.’ It was totally the opposite.”
NorthShore told her they wanted her to start the paper then in order to be able to push through the paperwork. They also let her know they were going to work with her on days off while she got her FMLA approved.
“I started to tear up because I didn't want to lose my job,” said Barton. “If I lose my job, I lose my insurance. How do you get treatment without health insurance?”
Barton finished her last chemotherapy session just before Thanksgiving. On December 11, Barton would receive news that her computed tomography exam (CT) showed that she was in remission. With the help of family and keeping a positive mindset, Barton was able to receive the good news.
“What has helped me has definitely been my family,” said Barton. “They've been there to just remind me that it's something I have to take day by day. Another thing is to have a positive outlook. Having a positive outlook really makes a difference. it helps me not to think about the bad.”
Barton had moved away from a lot of her family in St. Louis, but some remained close by. Those who lived close would accompany her to things such as scans and treatments.
“Luckily I felt well enough through all of this to take myself to my own treatment appointments,” said Barton. “I was going alone now, but I know at the end of the day that I'm not alone. Everybody's waiting for me to tell them how it went.”
Through all of the challenges and rigors of fighting cancer, Barton persevered through her battle. Along the way she learned there is no one image of what a cancer patient is, and sometimes you may not know that they are even fighting the sickness at all.
“Everybody can be kind and compassionate,” said Barton. “You never know what somebody's going through. Just because you look okay doesn't mean that everything is okay.”