When
Sharon Hollis realized she was addicted to alcohol, she sought help from IU
Health West’s Addiction Treatment and Recovery Center. Now, she hopes to help
others by sharing her journey.

By Emma
Avila, epackard1@iuhealth.org, writer
for IU Health’s Indianapolis Suburban Region

For Sharon
Hollis, her drinking started gradually. It was a drink socially, then a drink
alone, then stronger drinks and then hard liquor. It happened over about a year
and took her some time to realize she needed help.

“I had no
idea what a slippery slope I was on. I had no idea I had become addicted,” she
said.

She used
alcohol to help combat sadness and stress, with the COVID-19 pandemic playing a
large role. She realized if she didn’t drink, she would experience tremors.
Even then, it was difficult to reach out and ask for help, but Hollis knew she
had to do what was best for herself.

“I was
ashamed to reach out. This isn’t who I am. I was afraid it would tarnish my
business,” she said.

Asking
for help

She reached
out to a friend, who happened to be a physician at IU Health West. Through that
connection, she was met Marlene Villecco, an addiction counselor at the IU
Health West Addiction Treatment and Recovery Center (ATRC).

She started
on a six-week program just days later. She met with Villecco once a week and
attended group counseling every night.

“The
standard amount of time someone who is recommended to our substance use
disorder (SUD) program here is anywhere from six to eight weeks, based
upon the patient’s needs,” Villecco explained. “Every patient is different, so
there is no set cookie cutter way of treatment for everyone that enters our
program.”

Hollis found
counseling beneficial. She learned what her triggers were and developed new
coping skills.

“The biggest
part that stuck out and has stayed with me is I could not believe how poor my
coping skills were until I got into group,” she said. “It helped me understand
myself. I use the coping skillset I learned in my business. I use them in my
personal daily life.”

“Our
evidence-based curriculum is set up to help educate, teach and discuss topics.
This includes early challenges in recovery, how to work through and process
emotions again, how to better communicate, setting and maintaining strong
boundaries with family and friends as well as how to develop healthy
relationship that will support their recovery,” Villecco added. “The final goal
is helping them to develop a relapse prevention plan that is going to support
their recovery.”

The road
to recovery

Hollis
learned new things about addiction, and the information helped eliminate some
former biases she had surrounding substance use.

“Addiction
in general, I am guilty of not understanding it. After I got started in
treatment, my compassion for people with addictions of all kinds has expanded,”
she said. “What I learned was that this disease, this problem, affects everyone
across the board.”

During her
recovery, Hollis took a step back and saw how her addiction hurt herself and
those around her. It had a deep impact on her wife and adult son.

“I wish I
would’ve known when I was drinking that I needed to be still and not make
compulsive decisions. Because I was doing that, I hurt everyone, including my
spouse,” she recalled. “Some people say alcohol is a truth serum. For me, it
made it easy to lie because I didn’t want to expose my issues. The lying
damaged my integrity, both to myself and to others. That is not who I am.”

After
completing her six-week program, Hollis continues to go to the occasional
meeting, if she feels it is necessary. Villecco was glad Hollis has been so
open to the program and recovery as a whole.

“I will have
to say, Sharon has been one of those patients that everyone loves to work with.
She is someone who has the willingness to keep an open mind to learn and
practice new tools that will help with her recovery management,” Villecco
said.

Thankfully,
Hollis has not had any cravings for alcohol since she finished her program. She
is grateful for her support system, and she reaches out to them if she has any
triggers.

“They are
random, and I’m blessed because they’ve been few and far between. They’ve
usually been when I’m stressed after a long day at work,” she explained. “I
instantly reach out to either a family member or someone from group.”

Her pastor
has also been a major source of comfort through her recovery. As an ordained
minister, Hollis leans on her faith continuously. She prays daily and meditates
for about 20 minutes each morning and evening.

“That’s
what’s working for me right now.”

The goal
is helping others

April is
National Alcohol Awareness Month. For Hollis, sharing her story is scary, but
she hopes it can help others who are struggling.

“Never think
‘it can’t happen to me.’ We are all in the grips of grace. This is a disease,
and it can affect anyone and everyone who is not set up with the correct coping
skills, regardless of our education, intellect and position in life,” she said.
“Asking for help did not make me less than or weak. It actually restored my
healing and my life.”

For Villecco,
she knows that someone must be fully committed to treatment with their heart,
mind, body and soul or else it may not work for them.

“I will say
this though,” she said. “I love to plant a seed and will be there, ready to
help it grow if they are ready for change.”

It was cold, dark, and rainy as Brandy M. Beyers, BSN, RN, CGRN, waited for her daughter to get out of volleyball practice. As she turned the key in the ignition to start the car back up, she heard the sound everyone dreads—the sound of an engine that won’t turn over.

Beyers was stuck 30 minutes from home with a dead battery.

“I had been texting my coworker, Travis Tate, about a joke from earlier in the day so I vented to him about my battery problem,” says Beyers. “While my husband was getting ready to leave the house to come and jump-start my car, Travis offered to stop by on his way home to take care of it.”

Tate doesn’t remember what the joke was, but his dedication to team, compassion, and purpose meant he couldn’t leave her out in the cold when he could do something to help.

“It’s in my core, due in part because of my family up bringing and also my Christian faith,” says Tate. “Knowing you made a difference in someone’s life, no matter how big or small, is such a great feeling.

Tate has an 11-year-old son who loves hands-on tasks, so he came along to learn about jump-starting another vehicle.

“He thought it was so cool that we jumped started a car that had stalled and got it back on the road again,” says Tate.

Beyers is very thankful for her teammate’s efforts that saved her husband a 30-minute drive in the rain while also ensuring she and her daughter got home safe that night.

“Travis takes ‘team’ with him wherever he goes, and it truly shows,” says Beyers.

Tate encourages others to pay it forward and help people when they can.

“Not only because it feels good, but when you’re on the receiving end, it’s such a blessing to have someone help you in a time of need,” says Tate. “Be part of a chain reaction of serving/caring.”

Jackie Allard is a wound, ostomy, and continence (WOC) nurse at Methodist Hospital. She’s one of ten WOC nurses who float between Methodist and University Hospitals. “Research has shown that hospitals that employ WOC nurses have increase patient satisfaction, increases in bedside nurse satisfaction… decreased hospital-acquired pressure injuries and decreased length of stay for patients,” said Jackie. “I love just the satisfaction I get when I can help that patient out who is sitting in a world of fear… and then when I can get them to accept the ostomy and be able to care for it is a very rewarding thing.”

In the summer of 2022, three months After Hal Miller received a lung transplant, one of his sons issued him a challenge to run a 5k. “He said he’d walk it with me so I said, alright. My goal was to get under 60 minutes so I come around the corner and they… had this timer and I looked up at it and it said 59 minutes and 11 seconds. That’s when I started to jog.”

Teresa Todd had been trail running for 40 years when she fell while trying to jump over a tree. She wasn’t about the let her injury stop her from running, but about a year later the pain got so bad she couldn’t walk.

That’s when she turned to Jonathan Surdam, MD, to help her get back on her feet.

Watch the story above.

Carl Schumacher began his career at IU Health 8 years ago working in the laundry room. He’s held several different positions since then and is now training to be a surgical technician, working shoulder to shoulder with surgeons in the operating room. “Working for a company like IU Health, once you get your foot in the door you can wiggle your way around. I’ve had a lot of jobs and [anyone] can do it if you put your mind to it.”

<p><em><strong>Joseph “Duke” Junod is no stranger to organ donation. When his wife received a kidney transplant, he vowed to “pay it forward” if he ever had the chance.</strong></em><br></p>
<p><em>By TJ Banes, IU Health Senior Journalist, tfender1@iuhealth.org</em></p>
<p>He knew it four years ago. He remembered it last year. </p>
<p>“When my wife got her kidney transplant, I stayed in her hospital room all night and I told the good Lord that when I’m able I want to donate a kidney,” said Joseph “Duke” Junod. </p>
<p>It was October 2019 when Junod’s wife, Joanna received a kidney transplant. Her donor was the mother of her grandson. Junod had been tested and wasn’t a match for his wife, but he hoped someday he would be a match for someone else. That day came in December 2022. </p>
<p>“Kidneys are kind of thing in our family,” said Junod, 59, of Oaktown, Ind., just north of Vincennes. Joanna Junod, 60, was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a hereditary disease that causes cysts to develop on the kidneys. Her mother also had it and a sister died of complications from the disease. The Junods have two children, a daughter, Hannah, 25, an elementary teacher, and Colton, 26, who is studying emergency medicine. </p>
<p>Joanna received her transplant at IU Health in the care of <a href=”https://iuhealth.org/find-providers/provider/william-c-goggins-md-6322″>Dr. William Goggins</a>. Years went by, and the Junods reconnected with a family friend Byron Wolfe, 69, who lives in Villa Hills, Kty. Joanna Junod and Karla Wolfe have been friends since childhood. It was at the funeral of Karla’s mother in Evansville when the two families met up. It was there that they learned that Byron Wolfe needed a kidney transplant. </p>
<p>April is National Donate Life Month, a time to recognize those who are organ donors and a time to encourage others to register for organ donation. According to Donate Life Indiana, more than 100,000 men, women and children nationally are waiting at any given moment for a lifesaving organ transplant. More than 1,000 of those waiting are Hoosiers. Last year 4.2 million Hoosiers signed up to be organ donors; 276 organ donors saved the lives of others needing lifesaving transplants, 949 lifesaving organs were transplanted to recipients. </p>
<p>At IU Health, organ recipients receive both living and deceased kidney transplantation. A living kidney donor isn’t necessarily related to the recipient. Compatibility is based on blood type and tissue typing. Age and size are also taken into consideration. If a healthy donor is incompatible with the intended recipient, the donor may opt to be part of paired donation. Also known as “donor swap” recipient /donor pairs are matched according to compatibility. Over the years, IU Health’s kidney transplant team has performed a number of paired donations. Some chains have included multiple people. </p>
<p>It was during the hour-long drive home from Evansville to Oaktown, that Duke Junod became quiet. </p>
<p>“I started crying as we walked to the car and Joanna just shook her head. Nothing more needed to be said. She knew what I was thinking and I knew what she was thinking,” said Duke Junod. He found out on May 13, 2022 that he was a match for Wolfe. They jumped in the car and drove more than three hours to Wolfe’s home to tell him the news. </p>
<p>In December 2022, Junod went to IU Health University Hospital where he was in the care of <a href=”https://iuhealth.org/find-providers/provider/john-a-powelson-md-8786″>Dr. John Powelson</a>. After his kidney was removed it was transported to The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio where doctors performed Wolfe’s transplant. </p>
<p>Five days later, on Christmas Eve, Wolfe was at home celebrating his gift of life. </p>
<p>“When Byron’s situation came up, I started praying. I’m a very spiritual man and I believe the Lord opened every door,” said Junod. He said he was released from the hospital in a matter of days, adhered to weight restrictions for six weeks but was out walking two weeks after surgery.</p>
<p>“This has rocked my world in a good way. I said I wanted to do this for someone else and it happened just as it was planned.”</p>

Haley Peterson is a patient care assistant (PCA) on University Hospital’s medical progressive care unit. She’s been caring mostly for liver failure patients for the past three years. “I like to be the smiling face my patients see first thing in the day. I think it’s very important that they feel comfortable to ask me questions and that they feel safe.”

<p><em><strong>They live about a mile apart and are joined by distant relatives. Now two women share something else – one donated her liver to the other.</strong></em><br></p>
<p><em>By TJ Banes, IU Health Senior Journalist, tfender1@iuhealth.org</em></p>
<p>On a recent day, in the basement of IU Health University Hospital two families were joined in a surgery waiting room. To some it may have appeared to be a reunion of sorts. They weren’t strangers, but they also weren’t relatives. They were the mother, sister, spouse, and brother of two women undergoing a life-altering surgery. </p>
<p>The four family members wore matching green t-shirts with the words: “Support Squad.” As they patiently waited, their loved ones were giving and receiving a liver transplant. </p>
<p>April is National Donate Life Month. These two women – Amelia Fisse and Sara Schwering – want to bring attention to living organ donation. </p>
<p>Schwering said it was completely out of the blue that she began having GI symptoms. Tests showed an inflammatory bowel disorder – possibly associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The chronic liver disease causes bile ducts to become inflamed, scarred and eventually blocked. On her birthday, Nov, 22, 2021, Schwering met IU Health gastroenterologist <a href=”https://iuhealth.org/find-providers/provider/lauren-d-nephew-md-8388″>Dr. Lauren Nephew</a>. By January 2022, she was listed for a liver transplant. </p>
<p>Schwering and Fisse are both Greensburg residents and live about a mile apart. They both work in different departments at Decatur Memorial Hospital. Fisse’s husband and Schwering’s brother are childhood best friends. </p>
<p>“We weren’t strangers and we are distantly related – our grandfathers were cousins,” said Schwering. “We joke that now we’re closer friends than we are relatives.” That close connection was sealed on Feb. 16, 2023 when Fisse, 40, became a living liver donor for Schwering, 34. They were in the care of IU Health’s <a href=”https://iuhealth.org/find-providers/provider/chandrashekhar-a-kubal-md-7466″>Dr. Chandrashekhar Kubal</a>. </p>
<p>According to Donate Life Indiana, more than 100,000 men, women and children nationally are waiting at any given moment for a lifesaving organ transplant. More than 1,000 of those waiting are Hoosiers. Last year 4.2 million Hoosiers signed up to be organ donors; 276 organ donors saved the lives of others needing lifesaving transplants, 949 lifesaving organs were transplanted to recipients. </p>
<p>At IU Health many recipients receive kidney and liver transplants from living donors. Last year, IU Health performed 473 adult and pediatric organ transplants – 237 kidney transplants; 22 pancreas transplants; 160 liver transplants, and 10 intestinal transplants. IU Health ranked among the top 10 transplant programs in the nation for liver, total pancreas; and intestinal transplants. IU Health also performed 14 heart transplants and 30 lung transplants last year. </p>
<p>IU Health’s Transplant program is not only nationally known by the number of patients served, but also by the team members in the program. Patients come from across the country and even outside the United States.</p>
<p>“Before this, Amelia didn’t know you could be a living liver donor. We wanted people to know you can,” said Schwering, the mother of two girls ages seven and five. Fisse is a foster mom and the parent of a son, 7, and a daughter, 6.</p>
<p>“I didn’t really have any reservations about becoming a donor,” said Fisse, who recently lost a cousin from complications of liver disease. “I saw the impact it had on their family and knew that if I could do something for this mom, I would.” </p>
<p>An organ from a living donor can function better and last longer than one from a deceased donor because it is healthy. Liver donation is done by working with a team of IU Health transplant experts including surgeons, donor coordinators, social workers, dietitians, pharmacists, and financial coordinators. </p>
<p>Living donors undergo an initial screening, multiple tests and evaluations. The transplant involves removing a portion of the donor’s liver and then using it to replace the diseased liver in the recipient. The liver regenerates and returns to full function within a month. Both kidney and liver donors are typically discharged from the hospital within a few days.</p>
<p>Fisse said she felt better after the first week and a half. By spring break she was able to travel to a national park. </p>
<p>“Getting a new liver was about watching my girls grow up,” said Schwering. “I work full time and was jaundiced, and so fatigue I’d have to come home a take a nap. Now I have so much more energy and can enjoy playing with my kids.”</p>

“It was really hard,” says IU Health Arnett nurse Lynzie Primeau, about learning of her son’s cystic fibrosis diagnosis. “We had been home for around 10 days when we received a call from Dr. Criswell (pediatrician Marshall Criswell, MD, FAAP). Luke’s newborn screens flagged for two mutations.”

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic condition that affects a protein in the body. People who have cystic fibrosis have a faulty protein that affects the body’s cells, tissues and the glands that make mucus and sweat. CF leads to severe respiratory and digestive problems as well as other complications such as infections and diabetes.

“You come up with all kinds of excuses on why the test is not right,” says Primeau. “As a nurse you become hyper-focused on everything with your baby.”

Primeau took a break from nursing to focus on Luke, who she describes as the most outgoing, friendly loving and lovable human being.

Luke, now a kindergartener, has been fairly healthy, with his major issues being nasal polyps. He has had five sinus surgeries and does a sinus rinse twice a day, which he has figured out how to do on his own.

“He loves getting out the really big boogers,” says Primeau with a laugh.

Primeau credits the CF clinic at Riley Children’s Health for pushing Luke’s independence. He is able to put on and plug in his vest twice a day which inflates and vibrates to loosen the mucus in his chest. He knows all the names of his various medications.

Primeau shares that sending him to school was scary due to all the germs. When he catches the latest bug, it takes him longer than most to recover.

“He has missed a lot of school, but has done better than we expected,” says Primeau, adding that Luke is right on track.

His independence streak allowed Primeau to return to work in July 2021. She works in the intensive care and progressive care units at Arnett Hospital with pulmonary physicians and patients — which she shares is more interesting because of Luke.

The best part of her job is seeing patients improve and leave the ICU.

Luke will turn six soon, which means he will be able to start a new medication Primeau says “is supposed to be the miracle drug for CF.”

“We have been practicing our swallowing skills, so he is ready,” says Primeau.

On Sunday, May 7, the family will be walking in the Great Strides event for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The walk begins at 11 am at Victory Field in Indianapolis.

“It has been a great privilege for me and my family to learn about cystic fibrosis through our relationship with Lynzie, Luke and their amazing family,” says Ashley Lewandowski, IU Health Arnett human resources specialist. “Prior to meeting Luke, I had no knowledge of CF but through our friendship, we’ve learned so much about this illness, its impacts and available treatments. My family looks forward to the CF walk every year, and it’s a great opportunity to teach my children about the importance of fundraising and research that helps many people, like our friend Luke. I am inspired by Lynzie’s efforts, bravery and advocacy on behalf of Luke and all the other families impacted by CF.”

If you would like to support Luke’s League team, visit: https://fightcf.cff.org/site/TR?px=4063528&fr_id=9602&pg=personal.