From a One Percent Chance to a Life Full of Possibilities

Katie Doble shouldn’t be here.

A few years after moving to Colorado to be closer to her family, her life and career were thriving. When her doctors found an early stage uveal (eye) melanoma, it was an easily treatable cancer with less than a 2% chance of spreading. “It was 22 days from the day I was diagnosed to the day that I had my plaque taken out,” Katie said. “I was like— cool. I’m good.”

Even though some doctors might not find it necessary for those with Katie’s type of cancer to have follow-up scans, Katie’s doctor wanted to keep an eye on it.

It would have been a fatal misstep had she not. A year and a half later, a routine scan revealed the cancer was back, and it had spread. Katie’s boyfriend proposed two days later.

The prognosis? Sixteen months to live.

It was a triggering event for her family— Katie’s mother had died of pancreatic cancer when she was just a teenager. “It was unnerving,” Katie said. “Our family had already been through this once before, and it didn’t end well.”

Still, Nick and Katie were optimistic. So much so that Katie’s dad, a physician himself, needed to sit Nick down and explain the reality of the situation, how grim the prognosis was. With his medical knowledge, he advised that Katie get a second opinion.

“Because of my dad, I was lucky to build a really incredible team,” Katie said. “Doctors who are willing to play in the sandbox together, who want to collaborate. My biggest piece of advice to people is to build a team and build it early. Don’t wait. You want that doctor to know who you are so that if and when you need them, it’s not a scramble. You’re an established patient.”

Over the next several years, Katie did indeed become an established patient. Taking her dad’s advice, she canceled the treatment that would’ve given her 16 months and, instead, enrolled in her first clinical trial.

There would be several more to follow.

Kate was in the fight for her life— with her optimism and her dad’s steadfast commitment to ensuring she was receiving the best medical care possible, Katie started her journey.

Meanwhile, her siblings were getting bombarded with loved ones asking for updates on her condition.

“I’d created my A team,” Katie said. Consisting of her fiancé, dad, stepmom, siblings, and stepsiblings, they were Katie’s “safe zone,” the ones who would care for her closely and communicate updates to her B and C Teams.

“There are going to be people on the C team who think they’re on the A team,” Katie said. “They think they need to be in their feelings with you. You have to navigate how to nicely put them in their place. That’s where CaringBridge was amazing. It was a really great way for me to own the narrative and tell people what was going on. What I needed from them. Who my inner circle was— they were the admins of the page, they’re in my day-to-day.”

The outpouring of support Katie and her family received through CaringBridge was incredible, and allowed them to channel the support they were receiving into the kind of support they actually needed.

“A friend asked to set up a GoFundMe page,” Katie said. “No matter what, people want to do something. If we didn’t channel it into something useful, I’m going to end up with a ton of plants, blankets, and candles.”

CaringBridge was a lifeline for her and her family. As they retreated inward towards each other, they were able to give updates to loved ones and request practical support, all while still holding a boundary that eased their stress.

“When you’re living in crisis, fight or flight mode, you can only handle so much,” Katie said.

She and her family were living in crisis for years enduring clinical trials, procedures, and surgeries.

In the midst of it all, Katie and Nick were married and continued to make plans for their future. Their CaringBridge page not only served as a place to provide updates on Katie’s condition, but also to show their loved ones they were still having fun and living their lives, through photos and stories.

As Nick jumped into being Katie’s caregiver, she recognized the need to prioritize his physical and mental well-being in addition to hers.

“I think the caregiver piece of this puzzle is so often overlooked,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. He’s just been an incredible caregiver. He’s really good about recognizing his own mental health and learning that if he’s not taking care of himself, he’s not going to do a good job taking care of me.”

During one lengthy hospital stay on the East Coast, Katie described how she and Nick made sure he was taking care of himself too.

“Every morning, he did his workout and then he would work all day. We found a local chef to bring him healthy, nutritious meals. He’d come and stay with me in the hospital, but then on the weekends we’d find something fun for him to do— a hike or a bike around the area. We were very careful about taking care of him so that he could take care of me.”

There were many big and small moments for Katie throughout the years, as she continued to defy the odds.

But perhaps one of the biggest moments was on September 17, 2021.

“I had a life-changing clinical trial in 2020— I responded really well to it,” Katie said. “But this one tumor kept growing, and my doctor wanted to surgically remove it.”

The tumor, nicknamed Uncle Fester, was removed a couple of weeks later.

“When I woke up from the surgery, my doctor said all the cancer was out. And I’ve had no evidence of disease ever since.”

Katie learned that she’d had a less than 1% chance of survival. She was incredibly grateful and happy to be alive.

However, there were many different emotions she experienced as a survivor.

“It was a lot to process,” she said. “It was something we never thought would be possible. We’d just been trying to buy more time the whole time. Everybody is so excited, and I’m thrilled, but I had a huge road to recovery. I couldn’t even go there.”

Years later, Katie still experiences survivor’s guilt and anxiety over her bi-annual scans. She worries about minor ailments, fearing they could be something bigger. It’s a fear that will never go away.

In the meantime, her A, B, and C teams continue to surround her with love and support. Katie also found a new purpose due to her journey— she works in patient advocacy, consulting with biotech companies that are creating trials to make sure that they’re patient-centric. She makes a difference in the lives of so many.

All you have to do is look at her CaringBridge to see all that she brings to this world. And for Katie, CaringBridge brought her world to her when she needed it most.

“I literally cannot imagine this journey without CaringBridge,” she said. “It’s been so instrumental in connecting with my community. There were times when I was in the thick of it and somebody else was writing the updates. When I could finally chime in, people would say, ‘Oh Katie, you’re back!’”

She’s back. Bringing her full self, all the big and small moments, all the good and the bad, to every moment of her life.