Wayne Hicks

Wayne began hurting with pelvic pain over a year ago. In May of 2019 he was diagnosed with mild arthritis. In Oct. 2019 he fell down the steps while going out to get his stuff from his last shift. He assumed he had broken his tailbone and by Jan 2020 it was still bothering him along with other issues.  After a trip to our primary care and a tailbone x-ray it was determined it was not.  Feb. 21, 2020 he noticed that his right butt cheek was swollen to the point he couldn’t sit on it.  After a trip to the Er and a ct a rectal mass was found. He was admitted to the hospital and scheduled for an emergency colonoscopy.  The next morning during the colonoscopy it was determined he had rectal cancer. Our world came crashing down around us. He was 36 years old with 2 young girls. There was no family history either.  The next few weeks were a whirlwind  with a lot of appts. We started off with Thompson cancer and decided it was not for us. We then went to the University of Tn.  After the first appt it was determined that we were exactly where we needed to be. The urgency in all of the drs and the knowledge were unlike anything we had previously. March 16, 2020 he began treatments. God blessed us with his treatment plan and he was able to do Keytruda immunotherapy.  June 2020 he underwent 5.5 weeks of radiation therapy in addition to his immunotherapy. We learned on Aug. 17th with a meeting with the surgeon all of the cancer cells are dead. 🙌🏻.  We also learned during this how extensive and life altering his surgery would be. As a 37 year old man you can never be prepared for what was thrown at us. We are taking this as a blessing in disguise because God is leaving him here with us to raise our girls.