Home, Sweet Home

UAMS Breast Center offers hope, healing in spacious new setting

“I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS.”

Most of the thoughts rolling through LeaAndrea Maxwell’s head on that day, Feb. 27, 2020, were a numbing buzz. The medical professional in front of her hadn’t stopped talking, but the words ceased to make sense, like listening to music underwater. The entrepreneur, performer and caregiver to her aging father had just been given news none of the women in her family had ever had to hear — breast cancer. And the shock of it dulled her senses aside from one quiet but firm voice, on repeat: “I don’t want to do this.”

“To be diagnosed with cancer at such a young age and then, right at the beginning of the pandemic, I really didn’t know what to do,” Maxwell says. “I thought, this is going to just stop everything in my life, and I was having some second thoughts about treatment, and whether or not I wanted to do anything about it.

“One of the things that I really loved about my doctor is she knew that, and she actually took the time to call me — like, personally, herself. She sat on the phone with me for almost an hour, explaining the type of cancer that I had and how imperative it was that we do something about it. So that’s what gave me that extra push.”

Even with the physician’s consult giving her direction, Maxwell’s choice of the UAMS Breast Center didn’t do much to inspire her in her recovery. With its cramped quarters stuck into a make-do space in the aging Outpatient Center, the accommodations were somber and inefficient, far removed from the hospital’s stellar reputation for level of care that attracted her in the first place.

“Initially, I chose UAMS because I know they are second to none when it comes to care and the patients and forward-thinking treatment and medication,” she says. “UAMS has saved my life on more than one occasion, so I definitely wanted to go there.

“As far as the Breast Center, it definitely left a lot to be desired. I don’t think it was laid out well. You were kind of confused where you needed to go, and everything wasn’t centrally located.”

Maxwell nonetheless reported for her treatments as scheduled during March and April, pandemic be damned. Then, by the time she made her next appointment, she was directed to the new UAMS Breast Center, freshly opened in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. It was like stepping onto the surface of another planet.

“It had such a nice, open feel about it. I mean, it’s like a breath of fresh air,” she says. “It’s easier to find everything, every doctor that you need. When you go and get your blood work, it’s right there when you first come in the door. I think it’s a lot easier for people.”

Through a series of medications, radiation and surgery, Maxwell was declared cancerfree and put onto a stepped-up maintenance program of exams and return visits to ensure the cancer doesn’t come back. She considers the new facility to have been critical in her recovery.

“When you’re dealing with cancer, you’re going to be exhausted. You’re going to be tired,” she says. “You really don’t want to have to trek from one building all the way to the next, or to another floor, or this is in the old

The functional and artful design of the new center left no detail to chance.

Dr. Gwendolyn Bryant-Smith, director.

in makeshift quarters until the necessary outgrown our space. We had kind of a closed The new Breast Center has been in the works forever. This has been 17 years in the making. “ ” funding can finish out their floor alongside area waiting room with no windows. The their fellows. space was small. We had three mammography Such was the case with the UAMS Breast rooms, two ultrasound rooms.” Center, which finally welcomed patients to The overloaded space forced a daily its new, 12,000-square-foot space in early three-card monte of personnel, shuffling 20 April. It’s part of a domino effect of cancer employees and a stray medical student or departments at long last coming home. two among the average 67 scheduled patients “The new Breast Center has been in the a day, not counting drop-ins. Wait times works forever. This has been 17 years in the could expand at the drop of a hat when the making,” says Dr. Gwendolyn Bryant-Smith, unexpected walked in. director. “Funding was the issue. There’s been “We often got behind if we had a biopsy part of the hospital, or this is in the new part a pursuit of fundraising for a number of years going on in one ultrasound room and two or of the hospital. With them putting it all in one to finish out floors three, six and seven. That is three patients unexpectedly showed up with area, and the nice open-space design with the all happening now. lumps,” Bryant-Smith says. “They would windows, and you get the sunlight coming in, “Six was finished first and opened first a few schedule as a screening exam, then they would it’s definitely beautiful. It makes you feel a lot months back. Then we’ve opened on the third come to clinic and say, ‘Oh, by the way, I feel more welcome. floor, which is housing the Breast Center and this lump.’

“It was a very emotional journey, but I’m bone marrow. Bone marrow opened a month “So that would completely change their thankful for the doctors that I had because or two before we did. The last project that they exam and, of course, we’re not going to turn they were very understanding. You never felt expect to open in the fall is the seventh floor, them away and say, ‘This is not what you were rushed. If you were having a happy day, they which is going to be a multi-disciplinary clinic scheduled for.’ That could change a wait time were all for it. If you were having a bad day where multiple doctors can see a patient at one from 20 minutes to an hour or an hour and a and you wanted to cry, they let you cry.” time, so the patient’s not having to go all over.” half if you had to just sit and wait until another Bryant-Smith is a small woman with a huge patient finished having an ultrasound.” *** personality, whose personal and professional The new Breast Center, by contrast, roots in Little Rock run a mile deep. UAMS is an open and airy space where no design

Laying eyes on the Winthrop P. is familiar turf; here, she completed medical detail has been left to chance. Attention was Rockefeller Cancer Institute is an awe- school, her five-year radiology residency, her given right down to placement of changing inspiring experience. Twelve stories of glass one-year breast fellowship, then two more rooms’ fixtures and lighting. Special attention soar skyward ushering in countless people years on staff. After an eight-year stint as chief was devoted to traffic flow, minimizing the whose only commonality is they are facing of breast imaging for the VA, she came back to number of steps a woman takes from one area the biggest fight of their lives. Tour any one UAMS in 2016 as head of breast imaging and to the next with a special discreet entrance of the departments and see the latest in cancer director of the program. for public figures to avoid prying eyes. technology at work with equal attention paid Despite all of this affinity, she doesn’t pull On par with the medical offerings is the to patient comfort and emotional health, any punches when describing the challenges attention given to ambiance, anchored by a while drugs and machines wage war on of the center’s previous digs, as it awaited the large wall at the entrance finished in a texture mutated cells. funds to expand. that simulates waves on a lake or ocean with

The finished floors are so impressive that “The Breast Center, prior to our April 5, soft color-change lighting flowing over it. it’s jarring to find a floor that is still just steel 2021 move, was housed in the Outpatient Original artwork is soon to arrive to adorn studs and drywall. Most people don’t know Building, an older building that’s been around the walls, and natural light is everywhere. If the looming tower is not yet fully built out, for many, many, many years,” she says. “We these considerations seems superfluous, it’s forcing some cancer departments to reside were in about 4,500 square feet, and we had only because you haven’t found yourself in this

Dr. Cam Patterson and other UAMS leadership touring the center.

situation, Bryant-Smith says.

“Anxiety is quoted as one of the harms in the literature of mammography. We are fighting to decrease that by creating a space for the patient that feels more serene, less claustrophobic,” she says. “You always remember the painting that was in the room when you get diagnosed. Or, you always remember the painting in the room when you sat there scared, waiting on the diagnosis or if they were going to tell you that you were cleared.

“So, artwork is a very important way to minister to patients, as is lighting that’s serene. The whole thing is to create a calm environment for medical procedures and tests that tend to provoke anxiety.”

There’s no telling how many lives will be saved by the new Breast Center, just like no one can say for sure how many women skipped or avoided their exams last year due to a combination of COVID-19 fears made worse by the cramped quarters of the previous space. But as the saying goes, just one death is too many, and just one woman saved makes all efforts worth it.

Holly Choate is one such patient.

“My gynecologist told me, ‘You’re 40 now, so you need to start getting your mammogram screenings,’” Choate says. “I said, ‘Sure, will do. We’ll go to UAMS and get everything done.’ My first round here was about three years ago, and I was getting diagnostic mammograms at that time. They just saw some things that didn’t maybe look quite right. Instead of the screening route, they sent me through the diagnostic route. I did the mammograms, and I did the ultrasounds every six months.”

Like most people, Choate saw the former Breast Center space as substandard to meet the needs of patients, but she chose it in part because of being a UAMS employee. But once 2020 rolled around, even that wasn’t enough to keep her on her schedule.

“I was really super-nervous about coming in during 2020,” she says. “My mammogram was actually scheduled for July 2020, and I canceled it. And I saw the commercials, ‘Don’t put off your screenings! Don’t put off your screenings!’ But I really was more scared of COVID than I was of my screening.

“So, recently, I was talking to one of my coworkers, and I said, ‘I’ve really got to get an appointment, I put it off.’ She said, ‘Do not put it off. I got my screening and found out I had breast cancer. If it hadn’t been for the screening, I would’ve never known. Get your appointment.’”

Choate, who ultimately proved cancerfree, said the new center will put anyone’s fears to rest — COVID-19, cancer or otherwise — while at the same time inspiring hope in patients.

“It definitely lifts your spirits,” she says. “My first experience, when I did have that little scare, was in a dark, dingy space. When you get the news, it’s just … not the best headspace that you want to be in. When I walked into the new center, everything was so nice. Even the little changing area that they put me in just was so welcoming and warm.

“Between the nice space that you’re in, plus the staff being so caring, I think it’s just a wonderful experience to come here.”

PRIVATE SETTING HOLDS APPEAL FOR PATIENTS

CONWAY REGIONAL CLINIC OFFERS RELIEF TO PEOPLE WITH CORE AND PELVIC CONDITIONS.

Darla Cathcart spends much of her time alleviating her patients’ fears and misunderstandings surrounding the very private and isolating conditions that she treats.

Cathcart is a physical therapist and the director of Conway Regional Health System’s Core & Pelvic Physical Therapy Clinic. Cathcart and her staff of five licensed physical therapists rehabilitate the muscles of the pelvis, pelvic floor, lower abdomen and trunk to help patients overcome bowel, bladder and pelvic pain conditions.

They also provide rehabilitative services for pregnant and postpartum women with lower back and pelvic pain and bowel and bladder issues. About a third of the clinic’s patients are pregnant and Cathcart says about 70 percent of women will experience some type of lumbar or pelvic pain during pregnancy.

The other two thirds of the clinic’s core and pelvic patients experience issues for a variety of other reasons, with 10 to 20 percent of their patients being men. They also work with children with bowel and bladder problems.

“Core and pelvic issues are not exclusively problems for women,” Cathcart says.

PRIVATE THERAPY

Patients experiencing incontinence, constipation and pain during sex among other sensitive conditions are common, so all of the Core & Pelvic Physical Therapy Clinic’s services consist of private, one-on-one sessions with each patient.

To treat her patients, Cathcart helps them to overcome the fear of talking about private issues.

“Oftentimes, we are reassuring the patients that this is not like going to another physical therapy clinic,” Cathcart says. “They are not going to be out in the middle of a gym talking about bowel and bladder issues. They are not going to be doing treatment in a big open space.”

She adds, “You are in a private room with a therapist who has experience dealing with these issues. Our clinic is focused solely on working with people who have bowel, bladder and pelvic pain or pregnancy or postpartum related conditions.”

Knowing they are not alone in experiencing a medical condition helps decrease the anxiety.

A typical first visit will last about an hour and will include a medical history and a physical exam to assess muscles, joints and nerves to determine the physical problem.

“Core and Pelvic Therapy does not cure everyone, but we believe it can improve quality of life for many people,” Cathcart says.

For instance, exercises to strengthen pelvic floor muscles can be effective in treating urinary incontinence, Cathcart explains. A quarter to a third of men and women in the U.S. will suffer from urinary incontinence, according to the Urinary Care Foundation.

After the initial visit, a treatment plan is developed and most patients go home with a set of exercises to begin rehabilitating the muscles of the affected area of the body.

“We make sure you are moving in the direction of healing and doing treatment at home that can prevent reoccurrence,” she says. “Patients don’t necessarily have to live with incontinence or back pain during pregnancy, pain during sex and other issues. For some patients, just getting them 50 percent better can change their lives. We will tell a patient if we don’t think therapy will help after the evaluation, and direct them to an appropriate treatment option.”

HIDDEN GEM

Cathcart is on a mission to educate the public about pelvic health therapy and how to visit the clinic. “One of the things that we hear over and over is that our patients did not know this service existed,” she says. “This is such a hidden gem within health care, and we want to let people know about it. Also, because of the history of physical therapy, people assume they have to have a physician referral. That is not always the case. They can reach out to us directly.”

A Louisiana native, Cathcart was in the fourth year of her physical therapy career in Shreveport when she was encouraged to apply for a women’s health residency at Duke University. After completing her residency, she returned to Shreveport and established a clinic there. In 2013, she moved to Conway to teach in the Physical Therapy Department at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA). After five years, she began to miss patient care and left UCA to help establish the Core & Pelvic Physical Therapy Clinic under Conway Regional’s leadership. Over the past 11 years, she has also been one of the course instructors who teach pelvic and pregnancy therapy to other therapists throughout the United States.

“I love teaching and being in the clinic,” Cathcart says. “It’s the best of both worlds.”

The Core & Pelvic Physical Therapy Clinic is located on the first floor of the Conway Regional Medical Office Building, Building #4 on the Conway Regional Campus at 2108 Ada Ave. For more information, call 501-513-5108 or visit www. conwayregional.org.

GraceSaved by By Carl Kozlowski / Photography by Jamison Mosley It’s the Tuesday night before Easter, and the sound of nails being pounded into wood fills the sanctuary of First Assembly of God Church in North Little Rock. More than 150 people are lined up, awaiting their turn to grab a hammer and nail pieces of paper to one of three crosses standing at the front of the church, as a band of volunteer musicians and singers perform praise and worship music. The experience is highly cathartic, and those who participate hunch forward in intense personal prayer once they sit down again. Some are visibly crying. The reason this is so emotional is that the attendees have been asked to write down their biggest life crises — ranging from alcohol and drug abuse to porn and sex addiction and anger management issues — and nail them to a cross as a firm statement of determination to turn their problems over to Jesus Christ Outside the First NLR campus. and declare themselves powerless over their weaknesses.