Back home again in Indiana

Janelle’s Journey update

Elizabeth Gist

For Janelle Bedel, a 31-year-old Rushville resident affected with mesothelioma, a recent trip to New York City for treatment of her cancer meant hope.

There, she would be seen by one of the best doctors specializing in her form of cancer at one of the top cancer hospitals in the world. There she would have surgery and begin aggressive treatment to get rid of the cancer that invaded her body just a few short months ago.

She was not prepared, however, for the bad news that Dr. Valerie Rusch was about to bluntly deliver.

“Dr. Rusch was hesitant on the success the surgery would be for me,” Janelle said.

After reading all of Janelle’s test results, coupled with the reality of her pain level, Dr. Rusch was almost positive that Janelle’s tumor had grown along her chest wall. If that were the case, he said, he would be unable to remove it and advancement would be too far ahead for surgery or any other treatment to catch up with.

“She was unable to give us any hope,” Janelle said. “However, she said surgery was the only option left, so at least she would get in there and see. She said that I should know by other doctors’ conversations with me that this is a very hard cancer to beat, and to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.”

After that initial meeting with Dr. Rusch, Janelle headed back to her hotel. She wasn’t prepared for the fact that there would be a chance the tumor couldn’t be removed at all.

“I thought that once I was in New York I was going to hear nothing but good news,” she said.

That night, like many others, Janelle prayed that she could stay here on earth with her family and that she wasn’t ready to go yet. She prayed that God would help guide the surgery team’s hands and remove the tumor.

The night before surgery, Janelle’s family came to New York. Her father, step mother and siblings came to spend time with her and to be there with her through the surgery.

The morning of surgery, Janelle warned her husband Andrew she needed blunt honesty.

“I told Andrew he had to tell me as soon as he walked in my room whether or not Dr. Rusch was able to remove the tumor,” she said. “He really didn’t want that job. He asked me if he could lie, because he wouldn’t be able to tell me she couldn’t and that this was it.”

Andrew was outfitted with an alarm that he carried with him so that when the doctor was ready to speak to him he knew where to go. The surgery was estimated to last approximately three hours.

“Andrew said it buzzed a lot earlier than he thought it would, so he was immediately nervous that the surgery was not successful,” Janelle said.

Dr. Rusch looked at Andrew and related the news.

“She looked at him and said that she was able to remove all of the tumor, and then she smiled,” Janelle said. “He was so happy he cried. The rest of my family thought it was bad news based on that reaction.”

Dr. Rusch also removed a rib bone, as part of the extrapleural pneumonectomy, because when they go in to remove the lung and lymph nodes part of the diaphragm must be removed as well.

“When Andrew walked in smiling, I did a thumbs up and he said ‘yes,’” she said. “I was extremely happy and knew I could get through anything at that point.”

The doctors immediately put Janelle to work.

“The day you awake from surgery, you are required to start walking, which was something I couldn’t do,” she said. “I would stand up and get dizzy and not be able to see very well.”

The doctors realized that when Janelle stood up blood came pouring out of her chest tube, which was there to drain fluid.

“I had lost more than enough blood, and was ordered to have blood transfusions,” she said. “They went from bags of blood to platelets, just trying to get my blood back to normal along with my blood pressure.”

They kept hanging bags until the following evening.

“Dr. Rusch saw me on Saturday evening,” she said. “Right away she told me that someone would be up to get me, and that I was going back on the operating table to correct the blood clots.”

Dr. Rusch’s team was watching over Janelle prior to this revelation, and had told her that this would be a possibility so that she wouldn’t bleed to death. With an operation of that scale and in her chest, there was a great chance of going back to surgery anyway.

“My dad decided that they would stay longer and watch over me and my husband, son and mother-in-law,” she said. “My siblings were already over halfway home, and were sad to have to leave so early, but everyone had to get back to work and had no idea I would go back under.”

Doctors were able to stop the bleeding, but when Janelle woke up she was having trouble breathing.

“I just kept breathing in and out the way they showed me, and then I fell asleep after they put a heating dome over my body that warmed me up quickly,” she said.

Once Janelle woke up, she felt like she hadn’t lost any time and that she was back where she left off.

“I was able to get up and walk that night,” she said. “All the doctors and nurses were really on top of things. You would think you were in boot camp the first four days the way they stay on you about walking 16 laps around the floor and breathing in the breathing tube they give you to help open up your lung and all of its branches,” she said.

The end result, however, would be worth it.

“They don’t want you to get pneumonia, which they say can be horrendous in my condition,” she said. “I was impressed with the hospital and the staff.”

Dr. Rusch returned to talk to Janelle before the Bedels headed back to Rush County.

“She had called around Indiana and was not convinced that there was a radiation doctor educated enough in treating mesothelioma,” she said. “It’s a rare cancer, and hospitals in Indiana just don’t see it enough to treat it.”

So, the Bedels are headed back to the Big Apple Saturday for a follow-up appointment with Dr. Rusch as well as a first appointment with a radiation specialist. That same week, she will also be required to have some slides done prior to the radiation treatment.

“I have been told it could be up to six weeks for treatment, including my first week of appointments, which means I will be living in New York for seven weeks,” she said. “I will know more after meeting with the doctor and getting the slides done, so for now I have my room booked until November 1 and will be staying at a patient hotel across from the hospital. I need to spend time with my son and get things ready, all in a week! How do you prepare to live in New York for almost two months in a little over a week? We did a lot of planning just to visit and do the surgery for less than three weeks!”

Despite the stress, however, Janelle remains optimistic.

“We will do what we can and, hopefully, I will rid myself of this cancer once and for all soon and get back to living my life,” she said.

Contributions may still be made to Janelle’s Journey in an account set up at either MainSource Bank branch in Rushville.

New York is expensive, and the Bedels need the community’s support.



Elizabeth Gist can be contacted at elizabeth.gist@rushvillerepublican.com or at (765) 932-3111 ext. 109. Add a comment to this story at www.rushvillerepublican.com.

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