Vicki and Gary’s Story: There For Each Other At Atrium

When Gary and Vicki Leigeber said, “In sickness and in health,” they didn’t know they would truly need to uphold their wedding vows.

Vicki discovered a lump in her breast when she was between jobs, without medical insurance. She didn’t have it checked.

By the time she had insurance and a title=mammogram;healthinfo=Mammography, she had a large mass in one breast and a mass in her other breast. Her prognosis was not good. The only glimmer of good news was that the cancer was contained.

Vicki endured two rounds of heavy title=chemotherapy;healthinfo=Chemotherapy to help shrink the larger of the two tumors so it was operable. She ended up having a bilateral title=mastectomy;healthinfo=Mastectomy. Her positive, attitude helped her immensely. Little did she know that same attitude was going to help her husband.

Couple Finds Complete Cancer Care At Atrium

A few months after Vicki’s last title=radiation treatment;healthinfo=Radiation Therapy Treatment, Gary was diagnosed with rectal cancer. The first decision he made was to seek treatment from his wife’s medical oncologist at Atrium Medical Center.

When the shoe was on the other foot, Vicki told Gary she wasn’t sure she could handle watching him go through the surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Gary simply asked her to be there and push him through the tough times. “And she was there for me,” he says. 

Gary said a calming aspect to his and Vicki’s ordeal was the care they received at Atrium, where they had all of their treatments. And they couldn’t be happier. “It makes it so much easier to go through the process of healing when you have people who genuinely care,” Vicki says.