The Lewis County Herald 10/25/22
Four weeks ago this morning (October 25) Tammy and I were preparing to walk from our hotel room across the street to the Lexington hospital where a great medical team performed a procedure that we believe has removed a cancerous mass in its entirety from my body.
The support from our friends, family, and the community has been overwhelming and I can't thank you enough for the prayers, cards, calls, texts, and each kind gesture.
Tammy and I enjoy some polka music as we celebrate my birthday.
My biggest cheerleader and pillar of support is Tammy. I can't imagine having gone through this without her next to me every step of the way.
Despite her having overlapping flu and COVID, she has been able to make sure I'm fed, well cared for, and not doing anything the surgeon told me not to.
In a visit with the surgeon last week he cleared me to drive a little and I can do some light duty. The handful of surgical staples that had closed my incisions were removed and some heavy-duty tape now serves to keep things in place. There are still some visible sutures (and from what I gather, several non-visible ones).
I didn’t think I would be this sore for this long. While things have improved greatly in the past month, my movements are deliberate and the positions in which I can comfortably sleep, sit, and walk are limited.
Our next scheduled meeting will be with an oncologist. With the prognosis given by the surgeon, we are hoping for a monitoring situation without the need for further treatments.
We are receiving regular home healthcare visits to ensure the recovery process is going as it should.
My surgeon stops by to check up on me the day after the procedure.
If all goes well, we’ll head back to the hospital in three months where the surgeon will reverse the loop ileostomy.
Tammy hasn’t yet reinstated my surgical marker privileges which were revoked when she discovered I had left a message on my abdomen for the surgical team.
I’m hoping to have those privileges restored by January.
We continue to receive cards, messages, and deliveries for which we are grateful. One day last week UPS delivered a sizable box with some chicken artwork on the outside. It contained a complete meal with chicken noodle soup.
Another recent delivery was from historic Yorktown, Virginia, which included an assortment of age-appropriate (5-12 years old) items from the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.
Home-prepared meals, flowers, fruit baskets, and musical messages have also been received with gratitude and grateful appreciation.
There is no way to know the number of prayers that have been said, but, without question, we have realized the resulting healing power.
While I have skipped or delayed some of the recommended regular health screenings over the years, I have now resolved to adhere to those recommendations.
I had no family history of cancer and no symptoms that would indicate colon cancer prior to it being discovered during a routine colonoscopy.
I most likely would also have put that procedure off except for the urging of Tammy to have a complete 60-year/100,000 mile check-up.
Looking back, I believe another reason I asked my family doctor for the full health review was Dave Taylor.
Dave was a journalist with the Hancock Clarion in Hawesville and was diagnosed in May 2021 with stage four esophageal cancer that had spread.
I served on the board of the Kentucky Press Association with Dave. He died September 5, after I had been diagnosed and prior to my surgery.
I had also considered whether or not to write about this adventure to share with readers of The Herald.
Dave had written regularly in the Clarion about his journey and placed the bar high for journalists with cancer.
His story, and the approval and support from Tammy for this public journal, prompted me to commit to it with the hopes of demonstrating the benefits of medical screenings for early diagnosis.
The decision was made shortly after the diagnosis and well before we learned the prognosis.
We know prayers have been answered and we are thankful to God and those who made the requests to Him on my behalf.
I still have a distance to go on this journey. And I am so blessed.