A Journey of Hope and Healing: Beloved Nurse Battles Blood Cancer

Patty McCrink has held many roles in her life — wife, mother, grandmother, friend, teacher, mentor and registered nurse. In fact, she was last year’s Nurse of the Year for all of Baptist Health, an honor representing more than 11,000 nurses in South Florida’s largest healthcare organization.

Now she can add another title: cancer patient. It is a role that has quite literally transformed her life, her approach to nursing, her perception of her “work family” and her view of the future.

“As an oncology nurse, I’ve spent my career caring for patients who are facing some of the toughest battles of their lives. I’ve been the one holding their hand, offering comfort and providing hope while they navigate the complexities of cancer treatments,” says Ms. McCrink, a nurse educator in the radiology oncology and breast imaging department of Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute. “Every day, I witnessed the strength it takes to fight cancer. But when the tables turned, and I became the patient, I was forced to face a reality I could never have fully understood until I lived it.”

(Watch now: Months after being named Baptist Health’s Nurse of the Year last year, oncology nurse Patty McCrink learned she had stage 4 blood cancer. With the tables now turned, she entrusted her care to her “work family” at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute. See how she’s doing now. Video by Alcyene de Almeida Rodrigues.)

A Diagnosis and a Decision

Ms. McCrink, 57, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma last fall after a precipitous weight loss. “I lost like 20, 25 pounds in two weeks,” she says. Up to that point, she had been a little resistant about seeing a doctor; she fully expected to bounce back on her own. She hadn’t been feeling great for a couple of years, with night sweats, abdominal discomfort and other symptoms she assumed were related to menopause. Her blood tests had not shown anything out of the ordinary.

This time, however, it was different — and she was scared.

Ms. McCrink remembers her first appointment with hematologist-oncologist George Nahas, D.O., although she doesn’t remember much about what he told her. Luckily, she had a dear friend on speakerphone taking notes.

Non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma is a cancer of the white blood cells that starts in the lymph node follicles, Dr. Nahas explained. Ms. McCrink’s disease was advanced, diagnosed as stage 4 because it had spread. “It was in my lymph nodes in my abdomen and up around my heart, and then in my spleen,” Ms. McCrink says.The treatment involved chemotherapy and immunotherapy for six months.

“There was no doubt in my mind where I would go for care — Miami Cancer Institute. I have been part of the Baptist Health family for 32 years and have spent nearly seven of those years at Miami Cancer Institute. This place is more than just where I work; it’s my second home,” she says. “I’ve witnessed firsthand the compassion, innovation and excellence that go into every aspect of patient care here. I trust the people, the mission and the environment.”

The Tough Transition from Nurse to Patient

With her strong medical background, Ms. McCrink immediately wanted to learn more about her disease. “I began researching everything I could about my condition but I quickly realized I was drowning in information and fear,” she says. “I had to make a choice and allow myself to be a patient — to trust in my doctor and nurses.”

This was a part of the journey she did not anticipate. “Letting go of the role I had always played was incredibly difficult. I felt vulnerable in ways I had never fully imagined. It was humbling to be on the other side of the stethoscope, to hear the medical jargon I had always used now being spoken to me, and to sit in the same chairs where I had comforted countless patients.”

Suddenly, the person who was accustomed to caring for everyone else needed care — and that was hard to accept, Ms. McCrink says. She is deeply grateful for everyone who smoothed her road by sending meals, small gifts and notes of encouragement — people who showed up and helped her remember how to laugh. The end of her chemotherapy was marked with a bell-ringing ceremony that was packed with her colleagues and police officers who work with her husband and sons.

Continuing to work during her treatment was deeply important to Ms. McCrink. Sometimes, she would answer emails on her laptop while she got chemotherapy. “This has never been just a job for me,” she explains. “Baptist Health is part of our family. I value this place. I needed to continue to work to keep my sanity — and because I love it.”

The Road to Oncology Nursing

Ms. McCrink was inspired to become an oncology nurse as she watched the construction of Miami Cancer Institute on Baptist Health’s main campus. Although she had almost 30 years of experience as a nurse, leader, patient rights advocate and respiratory therapist, she didn’t have a professional background in oncology. But she wasn’t going to let that stop her.

“When I saw the Institute under construction, I thought, ‘This is where I need to be,’” she explains. “My grandfather had cancer long before Miami Cancer Institute opened and I took care of him. We went through a lot. And then my grandmother had cancer and I went through everything with her. My life has been touched by cancer a lot and I really wanted to work here.”

She took a demotion so she could work in radiation oncology and learn more about the field. Her job now is to train new nurses and keep everyone updated on best practices, research and new protocols. She is a devoted mentor and advocate about the importance of building professional credentials.

Ms. McCrink knows there is a certain irony that she would be diagnosed with cancer a few months after being selected to represent Miami Cancer Institute as Baptist Health’s Nurse of the Year. “The only answer I could come up with was, ‘God put me in the right place,’ right? I am in the right place.”

Finding the Strength to Stay Positive

Ms. McCrink will continue to receive immunotherapy for two years to help her body find and destroy cancer cells. She tries to stay positive and fight the fear of a recurrence.

“It’s a blood cancer, and Dr. Nahas did tell me that it doesn’t go away. They treat it as a chronic illness,” she explains. “This medication put it into remission. Hopefully mine doesn’t come back for a long time.”

Her advice to others? “When you’re not feeling well, you need to advocate for yourself and go to the doctor,” she says. “I wasn’t feeling well for a long time and I kept saying, ‘Oh, it’s OK, I’ll start feeling better.’ It’s really important to seek out care to see what’s wrong. Because sometimes it is something — sometimes it’s not, but sometimes it is.”

For more information about blood cancer and the treatments available at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute, click here.