S5 Ep21: Doctor, Cancer Survivor and Marathoner Goes the Distance for Her Patients: ‘Now I Can Just Give’

<div>There’s no stopping Dr. Dawn Mussallem.<br> <br> Mussallem — a lifestyle medicine and integrative breast cancer specialist at the Robert and Monica Jacoby Center for Breast Health at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida — is a cancer survivor, a recipient of both bone marrow and heart transplants, a mother and a marathon runner.<br> <br> Mussallem explained to CURE® how her own life experiences have helped her connect with patients on health journeys of their own.<br> <br> “Going through what you go through, it really gives you the ability to connect with people,” she said. “It's such a gift, that ability to connect, and really kind of be able to have a good sense or intuition, if you may, of where they're at in their cancer journey, and just to be able to be there with them, and that time of vulnerability. And so, it's given me the ability to have a good pulse on exactly where I need to be with a patient.”<br> <br> When she was 26 and in the early months of medical school, Mussallem began experiencing shortness of breath and fatigue. One doctor told her she had asthma, another concurred and a third said it was all in her head. A few days later, she collapsed on her way home from class — she was in cardiogenic shock, and her heart wasn’t pumping.<br> <br> Doctors found a 16-centimeter mass in her chest wrapped around her heart that had collapsed her left lung. She was diagnosed with stage 4, large diffuse B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and was told she had three months to live if she didn’t start treatment immediately, she recounted.<br> <br> Surgery, chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant followed. And life continued for her. She began her career in medicine, gave birth to a daughter who’s now 19 and, three weeks later, began experiencing heart failure.<br> <br> Mussallem spent 18 years in heart failure. During that time, she stayed as active as possible, worked with her patients and volunteered at the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer operated by the <a href="https://www.curetoday.com/advoca