Philosophy professor Corine Sutherland was originally misdiagnosed with a UTI but it wasn’t until she went in for a second opinion where she discovered she was already on stage four Endometrial cancer.
Sutherland’s first diagnosis was provided by two doctors that concluded her condition may have been cancer along but received no follow up. The philosophy professor went under four CT scans in a period of four months and was later informed that she was diagnosed with a UTI.
A CT scan, a Computed Tomography that takes X-ray measurements and a UTI being a urinary tract infection.
Sutherland suspected that she might have had cancer, but was told otherwise.
She switched her insurance to Kaiser Permanente and received a phone call to go in for a doctor’s visit.
From January through to July in 2018, Kaiser found that Sutherland was diagnosed with stage four endometrial cancer. She was placed in full surgery and went into chemotherapy.
“After being in chemotherapy for six months, that seemed to help but seven months later I seemed to have symptoms again, I knew they hadn’t gotten everything out but at least with the chemotherapy I thought it would have lasted a little longer,” Sutherland said.
During those seven months of remission, Sutherland started to feel familiar symptoms of her diagnosis and was re-diagnosed in June 2019. Soon after, she began immunotherapy and twenty rounds of radiation.
Sutherland still attends immunotherapy but has finished her radiation treatment.
When Sutherland returned for chemotherapy, the sessions would depend on what chemicals were utilized during treatment. The length of each chemotherapy session would also vary or the treatment would be too detrimental.
Unfortunately, the treatment was too much for Sutherland and burned one of her veins in her arm. Physicians were able to continue chemo by inserting the tube in an opening on the side of her chest.
“I call it my gas tank,” Sutherland said.
In Suntherland’s case, the process normally takes four hours.
It wasn’t until the other day the philosophy professor noticed that she was being transferred into a nicer room that accommodated patients for eight hour treatment sessions.
“It was a real shocker, I didn’t think they will treat me for eight hours, so you can imagine it’s an all day thing, but I used to laugh because we also had televisions which I think all of us in there like Westerns because at two o’clock I would hear Bonanza,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland’s main support system were family, friends, and the Kaiser Permanente team.
“I think everybody panicked at first until they just realized there’s nothing you can do and just go through the treatments,” Sutherland said.
As a professor, the experience following her cancer diagnosis affected her emotionally, physically, and mentally.
“It does change you, you realize you’re not the powerhouse you thought you were to control the world,” Sutherland explained.
Sutherland always made sure her students knew about her case and online teaching was also a great help to her. Students would email her about their own family members who were diagnosed with cancer as well. This made Sutherland feel less alone.
“I think it’s pretty cool that she is still teaching even though she still has a big battle ahead of her right now, but she still comes in and teaches and gives a lively vibe,” one of Sutherland’s philosophy student’s Alyssa Guerro said.
Robert Magania, another philosophy student from her class said, “She shows determination and her willingness to fight through it and at the same time still comes in to teach our class, I applaud her.”
Besides her teaching profession, Sutherland loves to escape from it all.
“I do plan to keep teaching and continue to write, which I would like to explore onto that and I also just go whale watching to see the whales and dolphins, so I find it relaxing.
Sutherland is still fighting this battle, but through it all she has remained strong and is surviving and will soon become a survivor.