In October 2011, there were a number of changes on the horizon for my husband Max and I. I'd gotten a big promotion at work and our daughter was getting married. We were enjoying teaching Sunday school and were planning on taking some awesome vacations. Life was very good.
Overall, I’d been a healthy person. I saw my doctor once a year for my annual physical and rarely had a cold. But as I was helping my daughter plan her wedding, I was experiencing some health issues. I had pain between my shoulder blades and the pain seemed to progress to a burning in my abdomen. I thought it might be acid reflux. I couldn't keep anything down. I went on a total liquid diet for weeks and dropped a significant amount of weight. Doctors at my local hospital determined something was wrong with my gallbladder, so they removed it. But following the surgery, I had complications that led to jaundice. Another doctor performed surgery to insert a stent to relieve the jaundice. But when he went to put in the stent, he discovered a mass in my pancreas. The doctor biopsied the mass and when I came out of the fog of the anesthesia, I received the news I had pancreatic cancer.
Because of my deep faith, I wasn't terribly afraid. I don't look at it as brave. It's just that cancer can hit anybody. Cancer doesn't discriminate. My only real fear was for my husband. I was afraid he would fall away from his faith, and I didn't want that to happen. That spurred me to do whatever I need do to overcome the cancer.
I received chemotherapy for months at a hospital near our home in Montgomery, Alabama, but I felt I wasn’t getting the treatment I deserved. That’s when friends from church recommended we look into the new Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) hospital in Newnan, Georgia, near Atlanta.
Clint Willis
In 2006, when I was 59 years old, I had a colonoscopy at a local clinic near my home in Evansville, Indiana. A nephew of mine had been diagnosed with cancer at age 31, and it was recommended to his family members that we all get tested for cancer. His clinicians were fairly certain that his disease stemmed from an inherited genetic mutation. We all got tested, but I was the only one who turned out to have cancer.
The results revealed colon cancer of the ileocecal valve, which separates the ileum from the colon. The doctor I was seeing at the time had discussed surgery with me, but before that could happen, I needed to have a CT scan. However, it would be 10 days before I could get the scan, and the results would take another week. At first I was doing okay with the wait, but the more I thought about it, the more unsettled I became.
I was working with a friend whose wife had been diagnosed with cancer. I called him to ask about his wife’s experience with treatment, and he said he could not recommend a better hospital than Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). They were both elated about the care she’d received. So, I called.
The Oncology Information Specialist I spoke with told me there was an opening the following week for me to come for the initial three-day consultation. All I needed to do was let them know I wanted to come. I wanted to think about it, but by the time I called back it was after 5 p.m. and it was too late to book the trip and I thought I’d be waiting all over again. But on Monday, the representative called me back and told me there’s been a cancellation for Wednesday. This time, I didn’t hesitate.
Kimalea ConradAfter noticing a lump during a breast self-exam in 2010 I had a biopsy in my home state of Colorado. I received the dreaded results - - it was cancer. A lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy revealed tumors in several lymph nodes that were larger than the one in my breast. I was diagnosed as having Stage II breast cancer and I would require another surgery to get a clean margin as well as chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
I was devastated. I was still grieving the loss of my husband, Gary, from a heart attack. I felt overwhelmed by fear. This disease was so dreaded and frightening. I thought it would change my life forever and I was discouraged. I felt my body had somehow betrayed me. I exercise and eat well, I am healthy. It seemed so unfair. I felt it was beyond my ability to cope.
Gradually my thoughts shifted: I realized as unreal and unfair as it seemed, I did have cancer and I wanted to fight. I was ready to fight the fear and fight the invasion of cancer cells in my body.
Chuck Glenn
I began 2001 going about my usual active lifestyle in Norman, Oklahoma. I was a "young" 52 years of age. I worked long hours at Tinker Air Force Base in an Industrial Engineering position as a planner, volunteered and taught in the elementary ministry area of Norman's Trinity Baptist Church, fished, rode my motorcycle and played competitive sports.
In early 2001, I was the only "old man" on a 4x4 basketball team of twentysomethings. My team, Glenn's Gunners, was the league champ, with a 20–0 record. However, I didn't feel totally well. I had chronic acid reflux, but a checkup showed I had perfect blood pressure and low cholesterol. My lab results were excellent.
Medication eliminated my acid reflux, and I felt better until one day when some popcorn got stuck in my lower esophagus and caused me great pain. My family physician ordered further tests, which led to an endoscopy and a stunning diagnosis—a stage III adenocarcinoma mass measuring over 7 centimeters by 3 centimeters in my lower esophagus, extending into my stomach with several enlarged lymph nodes.
It was determined that surgery was not an option and I was advised to find a clinical trial (experimental medicine). My wife of 28 years, Ann, immediately started to search for the "best" place for treatment.
Just as we were heading to one of the country's premier cancer hospitals, the staff there halted my admission until further tests could be done. However, the first gastroenterologist who diagnosed me, as well as experts at a leading medical center, deemed these tests unnecessary. They even said the tests could lead to potential complications that could delay or compromise my treatment. In fact, we were told any delay in starting treatment could be fatal.
We had never heard of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) until Ann saw one of its television ads. She searched the Internet for more information about CTCA, and after intense prayer and a miraculous sequence of events (that’s another story), it was very clear I was supposed to get treatment at CTCA.
In August 2005, when I was 53 years old, I was still grieving the loss of my father, who had died of heart disease the prior November. I suppose I was tuned into more physical matters of the heart at that time too. One day, while I was washing my hands in the bathroom, the light was hitting my neck in just the right way and I noticed a bump. My first thought was there was something wrong with my arteries. I showed the bump to my husband and he took me to the emergency room at a hospital near our home in Shawnee, Kansas.
At the hospital, X-rays were taken and the doctor told me to return the next morning for a CT scan. There was a small mass visible in the X-ray, but the doctors weren’t sure what it was; a CT scan would provide a clearer view. When I returned the next morning, one person after another told me I needed two different scans because the radiologist had noticed a spot on my lung when he looked at my X-ray the previous night.
After the CT scans were completed, the doctor informed me I had cancer. He had already talked to my family doctor, who had said for me to go straight to him from the hospital. My family doctor then sent me immediately to a lung specialist. I ended up seeing three doctors about my diagnosis before I even saw my family.
The lung specialist sent me to a surgeon for a biopsy. After that, I went to a local oncologist, who told me the results of the biopsy. There was cancer in my left lung that had spread to lymph nodes and the center of my chest and neck. The spread of cancer to my lymph nodes was what I had spotted on my neck. The doctor told me I had stage IV non-small cell lung cancer.
Commentary
All of the patients were diagnosed with a cancer unexpectedly. At first they were highly upset and depressed. But they were determined to overcome that major obstacle in their life. They went to a doctor the first chance that they got. Now they are all alive and living their lives with a smile on their faces.
