MANSFIELD — When COVID-19 hit, the Centers for Disease Control warned that some individuals were more at-risk for severe illness.
As a patient in recovery from cancer and an autoimmune disorder, Aimee Jerger fit the bill.
But that didn’t stop her from going to work. Jerger, a licensed practical nurse for Avita Health, was determined to continue serving her patients.
“I never thought about not working,” she said. “‘All of my family was like, what are you doing?’ I said, ‘I still have a job to do.’”
Jerger works as an LPN under Barb Wickham, a nurse practitioner in family practice. Wickham calls Jerger “the strongest woman she’s ever met.”
As a single mom, a nurse and a double cancer survivor, Jerger fits the bill for that, too.
When her children were young, Jerger worked as a phlebotomist. Years later, following her divorce, she returned to school to earn her nursing license. From 2005 to 2010, she worked, raised her four teenagers and took courses at North Central State College.
“The kids knew when they would sit down and do their homework, I would sit down and do mine,” she said. “I had some scholarships which helped and student loans. It was rough, but well worth it.”
“They’re pretty proud. Not too many people can say ‘I got to watch my mom graduate from nursing school.’”
Prior to entering family practice, Jerger worked as a substance abuse nurse and home healthcare worker. After 10 years in nursing, she can’t recall experiencing burnout.
“There’s something about the human body and how every little thing makes it work, and if one thing goes out of sync then nothing else works, it just intrigued me,” she said. “The more I got into it, the more I knew this is where I’m supposed to be. It just felt right.”
Wickham said that at work, Jerger brings joy to everyone around her.
“Aimee is one of the happiest people I have ever met. She’s very bright, she’s very smart, the patients absolutely love her,” Wickham said. “She’s the best doggone nurse I’ve had.”
Before going back to school, Jerger battled health conditions. She was diagnosed in 2002 with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the thyroid. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2004.
The symptoms of her Hashimoto’s grew more severe last year — it got to the point she was choking on soft foods, having trouble swallowing and struggling to breathe when she went to bed at night.
Her endocrinologist recommended removing the thyroid, so Jerger underwent surgery in November.
After surgery, Jerger took a brief medical leave to focus on her recovery. On her first day back at work, she finally got the results of her post-surgical pathology report — she had thyroid cancer.
“Hashimoto’s thyroiditis has the same symptoms as thyroid cancer, so I had no idea,” she said.
The cancer’s reach was extensive.
“Your thyroid looks like a little butterfly. Normally thyroid cancer is on one side or the other. It was on both sides and the little body,” she said.
Jerger called her boyfriend, her mom and her sisters. She cried. Then she went back to work.
“When I got my diagnosis, I let myself break down for an hour and then I was like, this is ridiculous. I’m not letting this stop me. I don’t have time for this,” Jerger recalled.
Thyroid cancer doesn’t respond to typical cancer regimen, Jerger said. So she had to undergo a unique treatment — taking radioactive iodine pills to eliminate any remaining cancer in her throat.
Jerger had to quarantine herself after taking the pills, which came in a lead container and weren’t safe to touch by hand. For two weeks, she wiped down every surface she touched and wore plastic gloves in the shower. Afterwards, her doctors gave her a card to carry for three months certifying that she was undergoing the treatment and not carrying explosives.
“Luckily, because of COVID, I’m not flying anywhere,” she joked.
Humor is typical of Jerger’s response to cancer. She chose to take her radioactivity in stride, joking with co-workers about glowing in the dark. One of them even bought her a personal geiger counter.
“I think the power of positivity makes a huge difference,” she said. “If you sit around thinking ‘Woe is me, I’m sick’ you’re just going to make yourself feel even worse. The power of prayer has been amazing, too.”
“You would never, ever guess that she had cancer,” Wickham said. “She just went about her business, she did what she had to do. She never complained about it. She was never upset about it. She was a git-r-done type of girl.”
It’s not to say that Jerger was completely unafraid, but she chose to focus on the positive.
“Maybe deep down I really was scared of what was going to happen, but I never let myself go there. I know if I did that I would never come out of it,” she said.
Jerger said during treatment, her patients came through for her in ways she never expected.
“I had several patients who sent me cards, dropped flowers in when they knew I was going in for treatment,” she recalled. “I was floored the first time I got flowers and a card.”
Months after her treatment, Jerger still feels the side effects sometimes — exhaustion, nausea and losing her voice at the end of a long day.
“I have an amazing family, I have amazing co-workers that have all been very supportive,” she said. “You don’t fight cancer by yourself. It is definitely a family fight.
“There were days where I would come home and just collapse on the couch. I can’t do it all.”
Jerger is currently undergoing speech therapy to strengthen her vocal chords, which were damaged as a result of her thyroid cancer. She’s finished treatment for now and will return for scans later this summer.
Jerger said she’s grateful that her risk of contracting COVID-19 at work was minimal. No one who had tested positive came into the office, though she did help with screening on the phone.
“I am so not a hero. I’m not working in the frontlines with the COVID positive people,” she said. “I’m just somebody. I still have to work, I’m still doing my job, I just had a little bump in the road.”
