My husband is an Army Veteran of 5.5 years and 2 years in the guard. We are honored to be able to have his medical treatments done at the St. Cloud VA. When my husband started his primary care at the VA Jennifer Mick was his nurse.
He had pneumonia in 2013 and the VA watched his lung until they decided he needed surgery. In 2014, He was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery at the Minneapolis VA. We elected to have his chemo treatments at the St. Cloud VA. We were so happy to find out that our nurse would be Jennifer. After my husband had three chemo treatments he was having a lot of leg pain so I contacted Jennifer. Her reply to me was, I saw him last week and knew he was having trouble. It was then suggested for him to skip the final treatment.
We had scans done every three months for a couple of years and then went down to six months. My husband always seemed to have hot spots either on his thyroid or lymph nodes in the chest. One time it was getting close to the time for another scan and they still had not done the biopsy on the thyroid. One call to Jennifer and the scan was done in days.
In January of 2019, my husband was cancer-free for five years. We were thrilled. One more scan to be done in May and we thought he would be good. Meanwhile, the provider retired and we were told that we could outsource as we are now living elsewhere. We checked around with friends and chose another provider. When the appointment was closer we were told the doctor no longer worked there so we took another doctor at the same clinic. We had the scan done and we both were so sure all was good until we realized it was three weeks and had not heard anything. We called Jennifer again and the scan was faxed to her within hours. The scan was not so perfect and he needed another biopsy. The cancer was back. During this time we were at the St. Cloud VA for another appointment and Jennifer walked by us. She always would say hi to us. I asked her what department she was in and she told us the name of her doctor she worked for. She could tell I was very excited and asked if we wanted to have my husband transferred back.
We then had to have another scan and a biopsy. The cancer was back on the incision line and he had 4 hot lymph nodes again. We then ended up going to the Mayo Clinic as the radiologist was saying he needed 33 treatments. A phone call to Jennifer and our records were at Mayo within a couple of hours. My husband ended up having 3 treatments as the lymph nodes were non-cancerous. Then we left for out of state as he is a traveling vet to the Phoenix VA. They did his scan but the radiologist compared it to a scan from 2017. After we had told him many times about the scans he had and cancer in 2019. We got a bit excited when they called to schedule the radiation on the lung. Once again Jennifer was there for us. She has to be a saint to work with some of the workers at the other VA. It took many phone calls, tears, and about a month but we finally got a copy of the scan and Mayo said it was all good.
My husband and I, along with our children, feel that Jennifer is a true DAISY Nurse. I can't imagine having to be on this journey without her by our side. She is an ANGEL on earth! We also want everyone to know how awesome the St. Cloud VA Health Care System has been to us.