& so much more
A bi-monthly podcast where we share the stories of our Caregivers, patients and community.
& so much more
Nicole's Cancer Journey: Healing, Hope and a Little Help from April Sweetie
A frightening diagnosis can steal the air from a room. Nicole’s story gives it back. From the shock of hearing “breast cancer” to the rhythm of surgery, sixteen chemo infusions and now the daily focus of radiation, she lets us into the real work of getting through it: making plans, asking for help and finding bright spots inside the hard days. As a mother of two and a community leader, she talks candidly about fear, the weight of uncertainty and the simple rituals that brought her peace.
Those bright spots include a calm, golden-furred constant: April Sweetie, a therapy dog who turns infusion rooms into gentler spaces. With handler Larry, April visits cancer centers, ICUs and children’s hospitals, offering a few minutes of ease to patients and the clinicians who care for them. We explore how therapy animals reduce anxiety and boost morale for healthcare teams who often need support as much as the people they treat. April’s own journey from a breeding farm to hospital hallways mirrors the transformation that happens when care becomes truly human.
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Hi, welcome to and so much more. I'm here with some friends. This is Nicole, and this is Larry, and this is April Sweetie, who is going to take a little nap while we how we film. But we are focusing on breast cancer awareness month and the power of just sharing stories. And so, Nicole, I want to kind of give you a bit of a platform first. Just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself. And then I'd love to hear your story.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so I'm well Nicole Johnson. I'm the director of tourism for Bedford County. I've been doing that position for almost nine years. So I stay very active and busy in the community, attending events, visiting with businesses, promoting everything that's going on. And I have two kids, ages seven and 15, that also keep me very busy. So when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January of this year, it really kind of caught me off guard. I knew something was wrong. But I was hoping it wasn't breast cancer, but it was. And so you know, your first thought is my kids, you know, what's about to happen to me? Is this a destinant? I had no idea what to expect. So I immediately met with doctors and had multiple procedures done, had a surgery um in January also, and then once I healed from that, um, I actually was going to physical therapy at Virginia Baptist. Okay. And then I had chemotherapy start in April. Okay. And I was terrified of chemotherapy, honestly.
SPEAKER_02:Understandably, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I had heard you know, not great things about it, so I was really scared, but I I said a lot of prayers and I had a lot of people lifting me up in the community, and it makes all the difference. It really does.
SPEAKER_02:Did you do that treatment here in the Pearson?
SPEAKER_01:I did. Okay. All of my treatments were here. I did 16 of them total. And um it was you know during those infusions that I was able to connect with Larry and April Sweetie.
SPEAKER_02:I love it. So tell me about that. So April Sweetie comes in completely unexpected, and that was so nice.
SPEAKER_01:So actually I knew what day she was coming.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I see, I see.
SPEAKER_01:I mean on Thursdays. So um, luckily my infusion dates were Thursdays. I did not every single Thursday, I did have to change it up a couple of times, but um, yeah, so I I looked forward to that so much, knowing that I was gonna get to see April Sweetie when I came. Yeah, um, just I don't know, just adds another level of excitement to you know what would normally be not something that you're excited to go do. Yeah. Um so yeah, you're here for four hours and everyone's great, the nurses are wonderful, a lot of the staff are wonderful, but uh there's just something extra special about having the visit, yeah. April and Mary.
SPEAKER_02:So you're you're still on this journey, your cancer journey. So your diagnosis was in January, you've been through chemo, um, and you've been probably to so many center facilities at this point for different types of visits. Yes, what's next for you?
SPEAKER_01:So next is radiation. Okay. I actually later today I'll have my drive run for radiation, and then I will start radiation on Monday. Okay, and I will have uh 20 rounds of that.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, hopefully on Thursdays.
SPEAKER_01:Every day. Oh, Monday. Oh wow. And I don't even know what times yet. I'm gonna have all that scheduled, but uh hopefully I will get to see Larry in April occasionally when I'm here.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, good luck. That's a big next step of the journey.
SPEAKER_01:How are you feeling? Um I will be happy to get it over with. I believe that. I I have learned, you know, it's it's a process. Yeah. There's not a quick way to get through this. You just have to kind of go through it and to get to the other side. And um with that, so much changes your perspective. Um, you live with much more intentionality and purpose than you did before. And for me, the changes have been very positive. Just despite the diagnosis, it's been a positive journey. And I'm gonna continue on as much as I can.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, you are. So tell me about your care team. Um, have you had kind of like a consistent from what I hear with what I get to hear these stories is that you know it's really like a family you step into here. Has that been your experience?
SPEAKER_01:It has been my experience with the care team from uh meeting with Dr. Clock for surgery and all of his nurses, and then the team at Virginia Baptist doing that rehab were fantastic. And I'm actually taking a break from that while I go through radiation, but then I'll probably go back and do it again. Um, I have four sessions to do um of trying to prevent lymphedema more. Oh, okay. So they they did take out 23 lymph nodes when they did surgery, so um I that's gonna be an everyday thing that I work on is preventing that from happening. But then coming here to Pearson, you know, I never thought I would be a patient at Pearson. I've ridden by it plenty of times, but yeah, never wanted to be a patient. Yeah, but here I am, and actually it's kind of like it's kind of silly to say that like coming here today is almost like coming home or coming back to somewhere that feels good, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because this place, there's something about it, there's like a lightness and a joy as we walk in. Because you know, heavy things happen here, um, but you when you walk in, it's just so welcoming and warm.
SPEAKER_01:Everyone is from the woman that you talk to when you come in the door to the people that check you in, to the staff upstairs, yeah, and then I'm about to have that journey with the radiation team. Yeah, so enough for nothing but good things. So I know that I'm gonna be taken care of.
SPEAKER_02:So that is reassuring. Yes, and you guys are such a big part of that. Like, I don't know if you all can see this, but April has uh a centra badge, a centra volunteer badge here. So, I mean, I think we can safely say that April is a part of the care team. She's a part of the care team. Um, and so she comes on Thursdays. Tell me a little bit about April's story. How was when did April first become a therapy dog?
SPEAKER_00:She's been uh she started six, she's eight years old, and I I got her when she was two from a uh a breeder in North Carolina. They were just using her for puppet resale, you know. And I managed it, I heard about her disposition being like she is, yeah, and I wanted a therapy dog, and she was all automatic, but she had never been off of that farm. Now she goes anywhere and everywhere. She we got her certified. Uh, it wasn't much training involved because she's just a natural. There's a few dogs that just are natural for this kind of work.
SPEAKER_01:She's so gentle.
SPEAKER_00:That's the way she is when she gets up in the morning the way she is at night. She doesn't know how to bark or growl or bite.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, this is all she wants is somebody to pet on her and everything. And she's got especially close to Nicole.
SPEAKER_02:She she loves to see the gravitation that is happening and that familiarity.
SPEAKER_00:They uh, but she's uh she's been doing this now. This is her fifth year of uh of working with hospitals, and sometimes we'll work with uh student-bodied mental health uh at uh at UBA or at uh Liberty University.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And she works with a little bit with the nurses, the Central Nurses College here in Lynchburg.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And what a difference to go from essentially being a breeding farm to just getting left on all the time. I that's I I didn't know that as a part of the April story.
SPEAKER_00:The lady that had that had her uh with that on that farm and a breeding service, she I still she catches up on Facebook again, and she's just shocked that you know that the turnaround that she had never she had never been off the farm, and now she I walk into a doctor's office or something, and yeah, they'll look at me for a minute and then April just takes her place.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it just goes to show that that's kind of like a mutual healing that's going on here between these patients that she gets to come alongside.
SPEAKER_00:She works with uh she works.
SPEAKER_02:She works with don't go anywhere in the cold.
SPEAKER_00:She works with Sinter on all levels and everything, and we're here every Thursday, but she also works a lot with UVA with the main hospital. She worked at all the ICU units. She works with the children's hospital, which is real special.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we kind of share the lap.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, she has a lot of friends. When we walk into the main hospital, I I just hear her name April, April, April. Yesterday we were there and uh they they joke in the volunteer office when I go in to check out. Uh she had a vet appointment at three o'clock, and uh so I I had to leave on time to get to that appointment. And they were joking with me about well, you need to go out the back door because I know when you go out the front, you go out the front, you won't be able to make it.
SPEAKER_01:I believe it.
SPEAKER_00:I believe it. So she sees all kinds of patients, and she brings a little bit of our goal is to be positive no matter what's going on. We're we we never are negative, we are always positive. And our goal is to leave everybody, whether they're kidding cancer treatment or whether it's something serious in ICU, we try to leave people with a little smile on their face, you know. Maybe two or three minutes we're there and then we're gone. But we try to make a little bit of a difference. And I see stuff that's close to a miracle just about every day, I really do. Um, because uh, and it doesn't always have to be a patient, a lot of times it's the nurses and doctors and that type thing. And she probably sees probably I would guess to make 500 people a week and an arm a week, and probably ninety percent of that is doctors, yeah, nurses and staff, you know, yeah that really need a little bit of a break too, you know.
SPEAKER_02:I believe it. I bet she makes a huge difference. Larry, thank you so much for the work that you do.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it helps me out. Don't tell anybody, but it helps me.
SPEAKER_02:It really helps. Oh my god. That makes that makes sense. Um, and thank you so much for being willing to be so transparent with your story. Um and we do what you like as you go into your next phase of your journey. Hopefully, we can check back with you once you've finished and hear the rest of it. And thank you all for joining us on and so much more.
