OC doctor says his experiences with cancer made him a better doctor

DENVER — A Denver doctor says his own experiences with cancer helped him become the doctor he is today.

Dr. Luke Mountjoy is a physician at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, but he didn’t always want to become a doctor.

“I just wanted to be a firefighter or a police officer when I was young,” Mountjoy said. “Actually, even in high school, I worked there. That was kind of the plan, one of two.

His life changed forever when he was 14.

“My dad was having abdominal pain and wasn’t feeling well, and he started getting jaundiced or yellow, and unfortunately he was diagnosed with pretty advanced pancreatic cancer,” Mountjoy said. “He started his chemotherapies and all that, but unfortunately he passed away about four months later.”

Dr Luke Mountjoy

It wouldn’t be the last time Mountjoy faced cancer.

“Two years later, I was having some pretty bad bone pain,” Mountjoy said. “People say, ‘Oh, you have shin splints.’ Or I was playing basketball and they thought I had tendinitis or something. But it eventually got worse, to the point where I ended up in the emergency room and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at the age of 16.

A normal white blood cell count is around 12,000. His was around 120,000. The situation became so severe that his blood began to turn syrupy and his organs could no longer efficiently pump blood through his body.

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In the midst of a 95-day hospital stay, he was receiving updates – good and bad – from his doctor, Dr. Lorrie Odom.

“When she walked into the room, her affect, her demeanor, her confidence, the way she explained things,” Mountjoy said. “I mean, I’m 16. I don’t know anything about what’s going on and she was able to explain these things to me in a way that I could understand.

At the time, the medical community did not know as much as it does today about treating blood cancers. The question arose whether or not to perform a stem cell transplant, and doctors at Mountjoy were hesitant.

“If I had done the transplant, I would have had to change doctors to someone else,” Mountjoy said. “It was the tiebreaker, and it was an easy tiebreaker. I didn’t want to lose Dr. Odom as a doctor, and she saved my life.

He continued, “After that experience of being in the hospital for a long time, sick and vomiting, and with what my dad went through and all that…I really couldn’t do anything else with my life.”

After recovering and going into remission, he set his sights on becoming a doctor specializing in blood cancers. He wanted to give back to the medical world that saved his life, and he wanted to reflect his relationship with patients on how Dr. Odom treated him.

Ethan Carlson of Denver7

“Cancer patients, we just want to know that we’re still OK, and that’s what I loved about her,” Mountjoy said. “When she would walk into the room before she even sat down, she would just say, ‘Luke, your bone marrow is clean.’ Everything’s okay. How are you?’ You could just feel the weight being lifted off your shoulders because Dr. Odom had just understood how stressful these things are.

Mountjoy considers himself lucky to be in the position he is in today.

“I just want people to know that this is temporary darkness and there is hope, and that everything we do here as a team here at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, our goal is to move that needle,” Mountjoy said. “The patients and doctors who have come this far have brought us to where we are today, and it is my life’s mission to continue to carry that baton.” To be a part of that, to be part of the tip of the spear, as we are here at CBCI…it’s an honor. It’s a dream job. »