“When you put yourself in a doctor’s hands, you should feel safe. That’s how I feel with Dr. Goldman. He’s accessible, he’s knowledgeable and he’s kind. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
Pam Alson’s journey with ovarian cancer has been a successful but long one—and one that’s left her with wisdom she wants to share with others: “Be your own advocate.”
In 1996, Pam had an abdominal mass removed that, her doctor told her, was benign. In 2004, now with a new doctor, she had surgery for another abdominal mass. “Your ovarian cancer has recurred,” the surgeon told her. Indeed, her records showed that the first mass had been cancerous—a fact that the first doctor had not shared.
In 2006, an intestinal blockage was discovered. “My surgeon literally snapped his fingers and said he’d go in and remove it,” Pam recalls. The major surgery that followed led to an infection and an arduous, year-long recovery period.
In 2009, a marker in Pam’s blood indicated another tumor. “This one was in a very bad place, in the blood vessels near my heart,” she recalls. “The same surgeon snapped his fingers again and said, ‘I’m going in to take care of this.’"
That didn’t sit right with Pam. “I thought it was very aggressive,” she says. “The cancer journey is tough, and at first you’re like a deer in the headlights, but by this point I was more savvy. I was able to say, you know what? I need a second opinion.”
With a friend, Pam conducted extensive research into doctors with expertise in her very rare type of cancer, granulosa cell tumor. That search led her to gynecologic oncologist Noah Goldman, MD. “I went to see him and he told me, ‘I am not a cowboy,’” Pam remembers. “He said he would not do surgery, but would go the route of chemo and radiation.” The course of treatment took care of Pam’s tumor without damaging the vessels around her heart. “I believe Dr. Goldman saved my life, because I don’t think I would have survived the surgery,” Pam says.
In 2015, Pam required another pelvic surgery, which Dr. Goldman performed. In May 2018, Pam required a fifth surgery, which Dr. Goldman was able to do laparoscopically at Clara Maass Medical Center.
“I walked out of the hospital the same day,” she says. “And Dr. Goldman had tests done on my tumor and told me we now have new options in the chemo area. That was like a breath of fresh air.
“When you put yourself in a doctor’s hands, you should feel safe,” Pam says. “That’s how I feel with Dr. Goldman. He’s accessible, he’s knowledgeable and he’s kind. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
Any woman undergoing treatment deserves the same, she says. “You can switch doctors. Be sure to keep a notebook, get copies of all your test results, talk to other people who have done it and do your research.
“Be your own advocate—and find a doctor who is willing to allow that relationship.”
To learn more about gynecologic oncology services at Clara Maass Medical Center, visit www.rwjbh.org/gynonc.
To schedule an appointment with one of our cancer specialists, click here or call (844)-CANCERNJ or (844) 226-2376.