Retired High School Business Computers Teacher and
Cisco Certified Network Associate
Survivor of Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma
Seymour, IL
During the summer of 2020, when David was 72, a large growth developed on the right side of his nose. About the time he was becoming concerned about it, one of his Great Danes must have bumped into it while he was sleeping. When he woke up and meandered into the bathroom that morning, David saw a bloody face staring back at him in the mirror. After his primary care physician arranged for a biopsy, David had a consult with a head and neck surgeon with Carle Foundation Hospital (CFH) in Champaign, Illinois to learn the results.
“She said David had a rare and aggressive form of cancer called Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma (UPS), and that it was so rare she’d never heard of the method of surgery that was required to deal with it, much less how to perform it, so she referred him to Dr. Wm. Holmes of CFH to perform the surgery on his nose,” explained David. “He successfully removed the growth and left his nose as good as it was before UPS.”
Shortly after David’s surgery, he felt a swollen gland under his right jaw. He quickly made an appointment to see his primary care physician, who prescribed antibiotics. When there was no change after two weeks, David made an appointment with his dentist, who verified that there were no swollen glands when David was seen two weeks before he felt the swollen gland.
Subsequently, another biopsy was arranged, with a second finding of cancer. This time, his medical team had an excellent gauge on how long the cells had been multiplying. David then underwent surgery to remove 66 lymph nodes between his jaw and collar bone, leaving a scar that “resembled what his oldest son (a Batman fan) called a ‘half Joker.’”
Post-surgery, he was referred to the head of Oncology at CFH on a Friday and received assurances they would be able to handle his subsequent care. The following Monday, after a careful review of David’s medical file, it was determined that that NONE of his 66 lymph nodes, including the one that had originally been biopsied as cancerous, were actually cancerous. He was then referred to the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
“The reassuring thing about seeing the sarcoma radiation specialist at SCC was that he was already treating 13 patients with UPS at the time, and he was confident in his ability to successfully treat him,” explained David. “That was until the specialist learned about the conflicting diagnoses. After considerable weeping and gnashing of teeth about the conflicting biopsy results, the decision was made for him to make multiple trips from Champaign to St. Louis to receive 25 sessions of Proton Beam Therapy (PBT).”
His medical team was concerned that David would be making the trips by himself during Covid, and that he would be very fatigued and experience much loss of weight. Since his wife was coping with Parkinson’s and his two adult sons both lived more than 100 miles away, David didn’t feel he had any alternatives but to make the trip by himself: broken into four legs of approximately equal length, five different times, starting in August and ending in September.
David decided he was going to be the best patient they’d ever had for this type of therapy. At the end of five weeks, he’d even gained weight. He had continued his routine of walking, jogging, and running five miles before breakfast, in addition to lifting weights and eating well.
He was commended for having the best attitude of any patient they’d ever treated, which might be the reason David didn’t experience any undesirable side effects, except for an impressive scar, a crooked smile and a great tan on the right side of his neck (all of which eventually returned to normal).
After a sonogram, two CT scans and an MRI, David has been declared “cancer free” 18 months after the completion of PBT. He has walked jogged and run over 3,000 miles in that time and his motivations are to outlive his wife, who is four years younger than him, and to see his grandsons (three and five years of age) happily established in their careers.
