Disease and the Almighty : Center Battles Cancer on 3 Fronts: Medical, Emotional, Spiritual

Some nights at about 3 a.m., Jo Ann Quak finds herself fighting a raging battle with God.

“It feels like I’ve been turned inside-out spiritually,” says Quak, 51, who learned she had lymphoma cancer in her left breast three months ago. “I have always had everything in a neat order. I can’t have my order and my lists anymore. To surrender that to God, and have peace, is very difficult.”

Quak, a practicing Christian, has found a forum for her feelings and struggles. The Christian Oncology Care Center, based in Laguna Beach, battles the disease on three fronts--medical, emotional and spiritual--offering cancer patients traditional medical treatment as well as a place to vent their fears and spiritual dilemmas.

The Oncology Care Center, open to Christians of all denominations, opened last November. It operates from both Western Medical Center in Santa Ana and St. Lukes Medical Center in Pasadena. The Christian-oriented staff is made up of two oncologists, a psychologist and a pastor. They also call on a network of specialists.

The center provides a 24-hour hot line and case managers who track patient care and follow-ups, arrange doctor appointments and accompany patients to their appointments. The center so far has treated nearly 150 people.

“Our goal was to combine state-of-the-art cancer care with an emotional and spiritual support program,” says Kenny Luck, director of the center. “We didn’t have to look far to see that cancer care is high tech and low touch.”

Luck says the facility, which is a division of New Life Treatment Centers, a nationwide program offering clinical and spiritual treatment for psychological disorders and addictions, is the only one of its kind in the country to provide such treatment for cancer. He hopes to bring the program to more hospitals across California.

“When people find out they have cancer, usually they feel very scared, very alone, with no one to explain the terminology, no one to process the hell they are going through,” Luck says. “We’re with them every step of the way.”

Nancy Parkinson, 32, came to the Oncology Care Center in April after doctors removed a malignant tumor from the right side of her brain. She says the center’s staff has helped her cope with the disease.

“They tend to be more cohesive as a team,” says Parkinson, who lives in North Hollywood. “I don’t have to do as much administrative work, and I feel very supported.”

Another major component of the program is its weekly 2 1/2-hour support groups, which are free and open to all cancer patients and their family and friends. The Santa Ana group has become the single largest cancer support group in Orange County, with more than 25 weekly members.

The group sessions are divided into three parts. During the first segment, oncology nurse Marianne Gonsalves answers medical questions. Next, psychologist Randi McAllister conducts an open forum, paying special attention to the fears and isolation that often afflict cancer patients. Finally, pastor Paul Barnes ends with a mini-sermon and Bible study, and guides a discussion of the illness in a spiritual context.

Discussions revolve around patients’ attempts to maintain their faith despite conflicts and anger at God. Barnes stresses that anger is a natural part of the healing process, and points to Biblical figures such as Job and Jeremiah who also questioned God during painful times.

“I’ve always been told as a Christian woman, anger is not good,” Quak says. “Even now, when I try to accept God’s will, sometimes I don’t really know if I want his will.”

Frank Stabile, 58, was given three months to live in April, 1992, after his colon cancer spread to his stomach. He says it was easier for him to handle imminent death than to cope with the ongoing uncertainty of life.

“There’s a point when you say, ‘I don’t have an answer.’ Then you just say, ‘Lord, I trust.’ The answers may not come right away, but they come,” says Stabile, who lives in Orange.

“The end of the journey, even for people who get well, is that we have what we never would have had without cancer,” he says. “Cancer, like any major catastrophe, heightens the meaning of life--material things don’t become so important--touch, feelings, smiles and those around you become important. You focus on those things and faith comes back.”

Lorri Voss, 34, a Tustin resident who four years ago was diagnosed as having ovarian cancer, says the support group has become like a family. She recently completed her sixth surgery and has undergone chemotherapy.

“We all share one thing in common--our love for the Lord, and a common diagnosis--cancer,” she says. “We all have something that has made us look at our mortality more than the rest of the population. This program treats the whole person.”

In December, Gene Fisher, 50, received a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer and was given six months to live. The Chino Hills resident and his wife, Barbara, have recently begun attending the Santa Ana support group.

“I’ve been to a lot of support groups made up of people who haven’t experienced cancer,” says Fisher, his feet--swollen from medication--stuffed into lace-less running shoes. “They’re well-meaning, but they can’t relate.”

Gonsalves, the staff oncology nurse who has worked in the cancer field for 20 years, wears a beeper and encourages Oncology Care Center patients and support group members to contact her 24 hours a day with questions or fears.

“I get as much or more out of it as they do,” says Gonsalves, herself a practicing Christian whose mother’s death from breast cancer at 42 motivated her to work with cancer sufferers. “I’m dedicated to working in this field till the war is won.”

Dr. David Spiegel, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, says treating the spiritual, psychological and medical issues surrounding critical illness is optimum for recovery.

“We have found that spiritual support provides a context in which people may derive enormous social support, and which we have found is important in their health outcome,” said Spiegel, author of the recently published “Living Beyond Limits,” which focuses on the significance of support groups for those facing life-threatening illness.

Spiegel adds that while the psychosocial, biomedical and spiritual work well together, one cannot replace either of the other two.

McAllister, the staff psychologist who has a private practice in Anaheim, says she finds a major difference in counseling those with religious beliefs and those without.

“I find that when I work with more spiritual patients and those with no faith, the level of suffering is qualitatively different,” she says. “People without a spiritual path have no hope, they see no meaning, no purpose. They stay stuck in the anger and suffering and questioning.”

The philosophy of providing comprehensive spiritual, emotional and medical support to cancer patients seems to be catching on.

A recent workshop sponsored by the Christian Oncology Care Center focusing on the spiritual needs of cancer patients attracted more than 50 pastors from across the Southland. Gonsalves has set up a meeting with local rabbis to discuss starting a similar program.

For Parkinson, who has been told that most people with her condition live 10 months to two years, cancer has forced her to come to terms with her mortality.

“This has brought me closer to God, and allowed me to develop the relationship with God I always wanted and wasn’t able to have until I got sick,” says Parkinson. “Either I’m going to live another 10 months, or I will live another 30 years. It’s not up to me to determine that, or the doctors. Whatever God’s will is, is for me to accept.”