Finding Strength: Dee’s Story

Some­times we find strength in the odd­est places. For some­one going through can­cer treat­ment, it may be inner strength or sup­port from fam­i­ly and friends, but often, strength is found through all the behind-the-scenes work of the care team.

In the spring of 2021, Dee Hib­bert was diag­nosed with can­cer. Her jour­ney start­ed when she went in for a rou­tine mam­mo­gram. Fur­ther imag­ing and a biop­sy revealed she had breast cancer.

“I have always been good about going in for my reg­u­lar mam­mo­grams and per­form­ing self-checks at home. I nev­er found any­thing, but the mam­mo­gram did,” she said.

From there, she had surgery with Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) Gen­er­al Sur­geon Dr. Chris­t­ian Zwick and began her treat­ment plan in August with chemother­a­py. As she pre­pared for treat­ment, she vowed to keep up with life as nor­mal, but that proved to be more dif­fi­cult than she thought.

“I am a healthy, active per­son. I told myself I would keep up with exer­cis­ing and not let my every­day life be affect­ed by this,” Hib­bert shared. ​“I soon real­ized I was not as strong as I thought I was. I had days I felt so bad­ly that I couldn’t keep up. I had to find a new rhythm for my every­day life and be ok with it.”

Giv­ing her­self grace through­out treat­ments was an impor­tant les­son gained for Hib­bert, espe­cial­ly with unex­pect­ed obsta­cles she faced along the way. The same week she start­ed chemo treat­ments, her father-in-law sud­den­ly passed. Weeks lat­er, she test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID, which delayed her treat­ments by three weeks.

Her final chemother­a­py treat­ment was the day before Thanks­giv­ing, and she began her first of 23 radi­a­tion treat­ments the week between Christ­mas and New Year’s Day. Now, with chemo and radi­a­tion behind her, she said her fam­i­ly and the team at the QMG Can­cer Insti­tute helped give her the strength she need­ed to get through all the treat­ments, even on the hard­est days.

“I was at my chiropractor’s office shar­ing my treat­ment expe­ri­ence with the recep­tion­ist, and she said ​‘There’s some­thing spe­cial about the team at QMG. They make it feel like a spa day,’” Hib­bert said with a laugh. ​“She is right, you almost for­get you are there to treat cancer.”

Hib­bert makes the dri­ve to Quin­cy from Camp Point for her treat­ments. Though some would find the dri­ve incon­ve­nient, she said the friend­ly faces she has come to know and enjoy at QMG have tak­en the edge off hav­ing to com­mute to so many appointments.

“My dad came with me for one of my final treat­ments. He was so amazed at how won­der­ful the atmos­phere was,” Hib­bert said, ​“and I could not agree more. I have got­ten to know just about every­one and they me. It has meant so much to me through­out the process to be sur­round­ed by such a com­pas­sion­ate and car­ing care team.”