For Tammy Peach, An Annual Lung Screening Went From Routine to Life Saving

Heading into January, Tammy Peach had two events on her calendar: one was once-in-a-lifetime, the other had become routine.

The first one – the one she thought would change her life the most – was her retirement. After years as an employee at Southern Ohio Medical Center, she was ready to enjoy some much-earned downtime.

The second was an annual lung screening. Tammy had been part of SOMC’s Lung Navigation program for years, and every year they would call to schedule a routine screening. She never had any issues, wasn’t experiencing any symptoms, and had no reason to believe the would be any issues with this screening either. In fact, she asked if they could wait to do it until after her retirement party.

But something unexpected happened after her lung scan. Something had shown up that wasn’t there in previous scans. Something that turned out to be stage one lung cancer. Because Tammy’s lungs were screened annually, her cancer was caught in its early stages and surgically removed. She didn’t have to go through any chemo or radiation. Instead, she just had a five-day stay in the hospital and follow up appointments every three months.

“That’s really unheard of with lung cancer,” Tammy said.

Tammy knows her experience and outcome was better than that of many lung cancer patients, and credits early detection with making that possible.

“The key to lung cancer is getting it early,” she said. “Usually there’s not a sign or symptom until it’s so far gone there’s no fighting it. But if you can catch it early, like mine, then have a better chance.”

She also praised the team at Southern Ohio Medical Center, including Dr. Elie Saab and Dr. Jeremiah Martin, for acting on the signs so quickly.

“They showed me the pictures of my cat scan from a year ago and my cat scan from January. The way it grew, I mean, it was hardly detectable. It’s just his little eagle eye that could see it… We are very lucky to have such good doctors here who care about our community.”

Based on her experience, Tammy encourages others to also have regular lung screenings. Starting regular screenings before there’s a problem makes it even more likely that issues will be detected and addressed early.

“I tell everybody my story because if I save one life, then it’s worth it to me to have had this experience,” she said. “I’ve called all my friends that are smokers or used to be smokers and told them about the program… The program calls you every year to reschedule, so it’s not something you have to think about. It’s not something you have to worry about. They’ll call you every year and say, ‘it’s time for your lung scan.’

Tammy’s passionate about the value of the program in large part because she knows that without it, she’d be telling her friends and family a very different story.

“If that had grown in my lung, I might be looking at another five years and I’d be gone,” she said.

For more information, visit somc.org or call 740-356-LUNG (5864).