From Doctor to Patient: Cameron’s Story

Hello! If you’ve found your way here, you probably know or have worked with Dr. Cameron Palmer, who just finished his first year of Internal Medicine residency at Sentara Norfolk General in Norfolk, Virginia.

Cameron was initially diagnosed with metastatic testicular cancer in August 2023, not long after graduating Medical School and starting his residency. By January, after having a testicular cancer tumor resection surgery and receiving 4 rounds of chemotherapy targeting the metastatic tumors in his lungs, he was considered in remission and fully resumed his residency at the hospital.

Unfortunately, a few months ago, Cameron had a seizure which revealed that the metastatic cancer had made its way to the outer layers of his brain. Amazingly, Cameron resumed his residency duties soon after recovery from the first craniotomy and brain tumor resection. Cameron is presently post-op from a second craniotomy, which was necessary after working two days on the hospital wards while suffering severe headaches. These headaches were found to be caused by blood accumulation within his skull. After the release of the fluid, it was discovered that a second tumor was present and an immediate craniotomy was performed to remove it.

Throughout the phases of his battle, Cameron has sought to resume his residency duties as quickly as possible. Even while on his ICU rotation, he only took brief breaks during the day to go receive his radiation treatments. Unfortunately, due to the current state and aggressiveness of the cancer, in order to seek life sustaining treatment, Cameron will be forced to take more extensive unpaid time off from his residency than he initially hoped.

On July 8th, Cameron headed to the Indiana University Cancer Center in Indianapolis to begin specialized treatment under the care of highly regarded experts for successful management of metastatic testicular cancer. Hematologist, Dr. Rafat Abonour and Oncologist, Dr. Larry Einhorn will perform Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) harvesting and transplantation after administering high dose chemotherapy.

Treatment, travel and housing are going to be very costly so anything you can donate will help! Please donate what you can to help support Cameron’s cancer treatment!

Cancer will not keep Cameron from reaching his goals! He will one day be a Gastroenterologist! Or perhaps his Oncologists will be successful in their attempts to lure him into their practices!

To stay up to date, please visit Cameron’s CaringBridge!

If you would rather Venmo: @cameronpalmer17