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| Attitude, Effort and Appreciation for Life |
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For cancer survivors, diagnosis day is often hard to forget.
For Paul Decker, it would be nearly impossible.
In spring 1997, as vice president of a small manufacturing firm, and having moved into a new home he was looking forward to the next life chapter. "Life was just going great, and we were anticipating a wonderful summer ahead of us."
It was April 26th. His physician was pleased with what had been a successful, routine physical for someone who worked out regularly, played league basketball and was biking and running getting ready for softball season. However, because of a history of heart disease in Paul's family, the doctor asked Paul to get a chest x-ray. "As a baseline," Paul remembers the doctor saying. The x-ray showed a large growth in Paul's right lung.
"I was considered a very healthy person. The oldest of five, I ate healthy, lived healthy. I never smoked and was always very adamant about the problems smoking caused. So everyone I knew thought 'How could this happen to Paul? What the heck?' It just caught everyone by surprise."
10 days later, Paul underwent surgery that revealed the growth was a cancerous tumor. It had already spread to Paul's lymph nodes.
"I was scared," Paul's wife, Paula, recalls. "I knew of all the possible diagnoses that was the one that Paul didn't want."
The discovery also forced Paul's surgeon to tell the family one piece of news they didn't want. He bluntly told them the surgery was now far more complicated than anticipated and warned that Paul might not survive the night. "My knees got weak. I felt faint. I just got emotional and panicky," Paula remembers. "I thought 'I didn't even say goodbye to him!'"
During the procedure, the surgeon removed Paul's entire right lung and several lymph nodes. The prognosis for survival was poor. "It looked pretty grim. I guess nobody ever came out and said it. It was just 'let's take it one day at a time'."
Paula's nickname for Paul before all this had been "Pollyandy, because of his way of looking at life." Over the next several "one day at a times," Paul lived up to that name and felt optimism was the only option. After reviewing several treatment options, the couple agreed to try an experimental therapy not originally designed for lung cancer at the Medical College of Wisconsin. It required three increasingly large doses of chemotherapy followed by six weeks of radiation therapy. The therapy is now a traditional means of therapy for lung cancer patients. Recent articles discuss this therapy and show that there is an increased survival rate for lung cancer patients from less than 2% in 1997 to 17% in 2003 using this therapy. But Paul was far from finished. After cancer therapy, with 3/5 of his lung capacity gone, Paul had to learn how to breathe again, regain muscle tone and repair scar tissue, so months of grueling physical rehabilitation came next.
"I never thought I was not going to be OK. I guess the emotion was keep on fighting, best as I can. Think positive, pray and ignore the statistics. I did what I had to do. Coming through it reaffirmed my spiritual and life beliefs."
Now more than 7 years removed from his diagnosis, Paul serves on the American Cancer Society's Midwest Board of Directors and has become one of the organization's biggest cheerleaders.
"I just like being involved in not only my own personal battle but the battle overall."
Since surgery and rehabilitation, he's given up running, but still works out, bikes, walks extensively (on and off the golf course) and remains an optimist. "It's easier on my knees," he laughs. "(Cancer has) taught me a whole new word, patience. This was never my forte, beforehand. I've learned so much from the experience and from interacting with other cancer patients and their families." He hopes his service with the American Cancer Society and Stillwaters Cancer Support Center, makes life easier on those battling the same potentially devastating disease he has beaten so far.
"To help others and do things that are beyond self is such a great feeling. The idea that I'm actually able to fight back against cancer after what it's done to me… it's healing," Paul says. (Original story by Cory Miller, edited for this format)
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