Lori Bari: Cancer Survivor

Lori Bari is a mother, a daughter and a stage-four cancer patient. As days pass without improvement, Bari’s slim odds of becoming cancer-free get slimmer.  But the 43-yr-old Florida resident chooses to remain optimistic.

She consciously brushes off sessions of debilitating chemotherapy and ignores the excruciating pain of those treatments. Having worked in the health-care profession, I knew something was wrong,” says Bari. “I had lost weight and I was tired. I thought it was stress-related. Ironically, my father got cancer when he was 71 years old. I am hopeful. I choose to be hopeful.” Bari was diagnosed with colon cancer after an examination a year ago.  “The doctors believe my tumor was there for seven years, ” she says. “I have a large tumor; 19 centimeters. It’s a monster.  I remember waking up after the exam. I remember thinking, knowing that I am a cancer survivor until the moment I surrender.”

A health-care provider before cancer struck, Bari is on a new mission: spreading the word that early detection can save lives. “I’ve been a part of the lives of the doctors and nurses at the Oncology Center for 10 months. I was not expected to be alive now. The medicine alone could not do that for me,” Bari says. “It’s the people here. They meet you with a hug, and they send you home with a hug. They are my friends. Anyone can give you chemo. Anyone can go anywhere and be hooked up to chemo.”  Oncology nurses have a high-stress job, but they make having cancer easier for their patients, Bari says. “It’s never going to be easy to have cancer, but these people make such a significant difference.”It’s painful to watch someone’s health start to fail, she says. “I was given a life expecancy of 18 to 20 months. I’ve lived 10 of them.” Patients at The Oncology Center root for each other and that helps, she said. There is a solidarity that I haven’t even found in church. The doctors, the nurses, I would stand in front of a bus for any one of them.”