Michelle Maricic: More Than a Diagnosis

This episode was the very first Pep Talks story recorded nearly five years ago and was originally shared only with our internal team members. As we look back on the heart of this podcast: stories of connection, compassion, and intentional care, we felt it was time to share Michelle’s story more broadly. Her experience reminds us that the fundamentals of patient experience never change: listening, presence, kindness, and hope. These are as important now as they were then, and her story continues to reflect the promise we strive to live every day.

Michelle shares how her life changed overnight with a cancer diagnosis she never expected, and how moments of genuine connection made all the difference. Through her story, you’ll hear how calm voices, kind gestures, and a physician who took time to listen and lay out a clear path forward brought hope in the midst of fear. This episode is a powerful reminder that while treatment matters, it’s often human connection that helps patients find the strength to move forward.

What You'll Learn From Michelle

• How quickly life can change, and the emotional whiplash that can come with a cancer diagnosis
  
  
• How medical teams can restore hope through communication, clarity and time
  
  
• Why small acts of kindness from healthcare staff matter deeply to patients
  
  
• The importance of having a roadmap (Plan A, Plan B, Plan C…) and how it can bring back a sense of control

Podcast Transcript

MICHELLE:

My name is Michelle Maricic, and I am a nurse with an MBA that has been quite accomplished in my career.

 I will say that then things stopped on a dime. I have a slight cramp. I think it's a UTI. My girlfriend, who is a doctor, seems to think I've got kidney stones, and it turns out I'm diagnosed with diffuse large B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. So I go from someone who could do anything- so I thought to being a cancer patient.

And now what? The person that you are before you're diagnosed, this woman who has become a nurse, who has decided to become a businesswoman, married thirty-two years to my handsome husband, friend to many, a ballerina and achieved athlete. I thought they had the wrong girl. I was positive of it and I argued with everyone about it. Just couldn't be me. I had no symptoms. How could this happen?

Once we got to an oncologist locally where I live, he had said, you have one year and my husband shattered into a million pieces in front of everyone in the room. Um, what's difficult about that is then my husband turned to me and said, you can't leave me. You're my rudder, and I'll just die if you're not here. Of course, now you've got to compose yourself, because now it's time for me to be strong. And I said, you know, we're going to go. get some advisement at H. Lee Moffitt. Uh, I think we need to reserve, uh, some strength to face this together. So pull it together. And, um, if this is survivable, I'll survive it.

From the moment that I asked to be referred here, um, within an hour, I had someone on the phone. Every one that answers the phone at H. Lee Moffitt. They want to help as much as they can, help to their ability. And it's shocking to me. Someone to answer the phone and understand what you're facing. Understand what you're doing. Saying that they understand. Everybody here has had a significant impact on me. Um. Their words matter. Uh, the way in which they embrace your circumstances, they seem to understand. You feel like you're part of a family immediately, and they're calm. Their tone of voice is relaxed. They're gentle about how they address your questions.

When you sit down in the labs with this young lady or young man. Uh, it's you and them. And the way that they treat you makes all the difference. Um, I couldn't have found a more kind, thoughtful, careful and gentle human being on that side of the wall. I was again taken aback, I think she had to take twenty vials of blood and we were just joking. Like, am I going to need something to eat here? But she was just laughing and saying, I've got crackers in my purse. So, you know, suddenly you're with somebody that is your sister or your brother in the lab that's willing to give them food out of their purse, uh, to keep your blood sugars up. It's the experience, though, of you're scared to death and you're looking around for something. Some sense of, uh, hope.

And here's where it comes. Um, because I was directed to Doctor Gaballah and Nicole Lee, who was his nurse. Um, he came in, said, uh, I've got my mask on, but I'm going to take it off for a moment. Took his mask down, smiled and said, nice to meet you. Suddenly you become a person. You're not just a patient.

DR. GABALLAH

A lot of what we do is communicating with patients and trying to connect with them. Obviously in Covid times it's hard because you have the mask on and a lot of our interactions have to go through facial interactions. Obviously, I highly advocate putting on masks, and we have to make sure our masks are on all the time. But occasionally it usually helps if just very, very briefly just showing them a smile. That always helps us to to connect.

MICHELLE:

And then he sat down and proceeded to go through the images. It's not so bad, but this is the way in which we're going to go through it. Um, I will tell you that when he said this is survivable and that, um, you can actually be cured if we take the right measures. Well, my husband melted onto the floor and I had to pick him up. And I said, if it's survivable, I'll survive it.

DR. GABALLAH: 

We have to provide hope. We have to be very honest, too. But it's just a way of how you say things is really what makes the difference for patients. Patients coming to a cancer center, they think that they are going to die. So if you lay out a roadmap to them with what are the possibilities down the line? If this works, we're happy. If it doesn't, this is our safety net. And I'm usually very honest with them about what to expect. And that goes well with a lot of people who are planners or, you know, type A personality, kind people, which which obviously Michelle is. The people that teach you are actually the patients. They will come and tell you their experiences. What actually mattered to the patient the most was not, you know, that their oncologist gave them this treatment or that treatment, but it was they listened the time they spent with them just being their advocate, taking ownership, all these things. Patients will sense, you know, your patients are your best teachers.

MICHELLE:

He took as much time as we needed with her sitting right there with us. I've never felt so comforted. I've never felt one word. Hope. He gave us hope. And he gave us directionally, a plan A. He gave us a plan B if plan A with the chemotherapy r-chop did not work. Uh, a plan C and a plan D, and he said, if we don't get it this way, we're going to get it that way. If we don't get it that way. And he went through explaining each treatment plan, uh, and why and what we needed to do. I've never felt more prepared for the journey. Uh, and as he was talking, I was putting on my armor and my superwoman cape. Uh, I think when we walked out of that room, I was ready. By treatment three I was completely cancer free.

We asked Michelle if she had a message for Moffitt team members, and here is what she had to say. Thank you. You make a difference, and you can make a difference with the tone of voice that you use with, uh, reaching out. Even with Covid - touching someone's arm, it is a moment that changes the life of the person you interact with. So thank you for doing that for us. Keep doing what you do.