Patient Stories

Lacey Block is known to many as a storyteller with her passions for acting, writing and photography. One day at church, Lacey began to experience intense back spasms causing her to abruptly leave so she could soak in a bathtub all night. For several months, Lacey experienced easy bruisability, generalized fatigue and fevers. After undergoing a series of tests, the results showed myeloblasts (blasts for short) in her blood which likely meant leukemia. Lacey recalls saying at this moment, “I immediately thought I was going to die.”

In the past few years, Dean Story experienced shoulder pain that was affecting his life. After getting it checked out, he learned that not only was the cartilage gone but there was also a mass. Pathology reports indicated that it was a chondrosarcoma, an aggressive cancer that needed to be removed. Dr. Daniel Lerman, Orthopedic Oncologist at the Institute for Limb Preservation, in partnership with the Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute, at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center was onboard to remove the tumor.

Debbie, a long time smoker, decided to enroll in the Smoking Cessation Program here at The Medical Center of Aurora, after finding out her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

As an old Army vet and retired school principal, James Phil Barra shoots straight. At 79, he tells people the stage 4 cancer that has challenged him for the past four years will probably have him “pushing up daisies” soon. But that doesn’t mean the witty Colorado Springs husband and grandfather won’t fight for more time if given a chance.