We will keep you updated via this page along with Facebook as Jim tackles and conquers this dirty little intruder named cancer.
In April of 2018, Jim was diagnosed with high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma of his right maxillary sinus and was referred to Mayo Clinic upon diagnosis.
Treatment will consist of 2 cycles of chemotherapy along with 6 weeks of radiation and will run from July 9th - August 17th. He is undergoing all of his treatments at Mayo clinic in Rochester, MN. Mayo is one of a handful of facilities in the country that offer proton radiation, which is supposed to be more targeted to cancer cells and hopefully will do less damage to the surrounding tissue.
Jim’s wife, Darcy, and children Anna (9) and Jackson (3) will be in Rochester with him during his treatment course. Darcy’s sister, Amy, will also be accompanying them through the 6 weeks so that Darcy and Jim can focus on his treatment and recovery. - What a BLESSING!
A little about the cancer:
Jim’s cancer presented at the end of March as what he thought to be a sinus cold. The problem worsened from a mild congestion into a complete blockage of his right sinus within about weeks time. He made an appointment with an ENT in Sioux Falls and from there, a sinus surgery was performed to remove what was thought to be a nasal polyp, but was later diagnosed as cancer. The high grade in the name tells that it is a very aggressive form of neuroendocrine cancer, as we can attest by its rapid onset. Unfortunately, it also has a very high rate of reoccurrence. In itself, Neuroendocrine cancer is considered a ‘rare’ cancer and in Jim’s situation it also presented in a very usual place (the maxillary sinus). Neuroendocrine cells are found throughout the body but mostly in he GI tract. Most cases of NET (tumors) or NEC (carcinomas) develop in the GI tract or lungs. From what we were told this isn’t an unusual lung cancer for long term smokers. Presentation of this cancer outside of these locations is very unusual. A group of German physicians on YouTube video claim only about 300 cases per year are diagnosed outside of the GI or lungs. A recent story of a young lady with this cancer in the sinus, claimed there have only been about 75 cases of this cancer in the sinus. Honestly, I don’t expect that we will ever know the true statistics. We do know this though. Thus far GOD has been sooooo good to us! I will tell the Joshua 1:9 story at the end of this but for now I will just say - EVERY situation has turned out be be best case scenario for us. EVERY SINGLE ONE! Here is why:
1st: because of its location, the symptoms were noticed quickly - so it was removed quickly. (PRAISE JESUS🙌🏻)
2nd: after diagnosis Jim underwent several scans to see if it had spread or if there was a primary tumor elsewhere in the body. Several lymph nodes ‘lit up’ on the PET scan. I could tell that the doctor thought it was likely the cancer when he went over the report but also said there was a possibility that it could be something else, like sarcoidosis. Guess what - it was sarcoidosis. (PRAISE JESUS 🙌🏻)
3rd: Jim had a second surgery in June at Mayo to clean out any potential remaining cancer cells as the first one was done without knowing or expecting cancer. They sampled tissue all around the tumors original location and to ours and the doctors amazement - ZERO residual cancer cells were found (PRAISE JESUS 🙌🏻).
4th: A few of our close family/friends threw us a benefit at the end of June. It was an amazing day packed with activities - starting with a 9am golf tourney and ending with an outdoor concert. All week preceding that Saturday showed thunderstorms all day. Even the morning of the benefit t-storms were expected at noon and to continue throughout the night. We had no plan B for the concert. Slowly through the day the forecast pushed the storms from noon, to 1, then 4.... as the day went on they kept getting more and more delayed. My sister told me that morning ‘Darcy, don’t even worry. God reminded me this morning that he loves answering last minute prayers... just trust, it will all work out’. Well at 4pm I had people approaching me asking to move the event because there was an 80% chance of rain at 8 when the band was set to start. Guess what - the rain started at about 1am - JUST as we were driving home! (Can I just say PRAISE JESUS!!! 🙌🏻). Not to mention,.. the event had a huge turnout. We had a rare opportunity to see friends and family and loved ones from all over - in one place. We were graciously reminded of just how incredibly blessed we are to have such a community of friends and family in our lives. I know that we will never be able to fully express our gratitude, but we thank you ALL ❤️.🎗⭐️Please know, the financial concerns of this battle are now covered! ⭐️🎗
God has been so, so good. As I told a friend, the only word I can find to explain how we feel is humbled. And humility is NOT a bad thing. Humility is a gift that God gives us. He is the giver of all good things and in our case he has taken from us the burden of pride and replaced it with the blessing of humility. Thank you for all who he used to bless us - we feel and welcome your ongoing prayers.
Because of all of the rarities of Jim’s tumor, the doctors at Mayo have never seen such a case: primary tumor - found quickly, no residual tumor, strange location. So there is no other case to reference and no standard of treatment and left a lot of the treatment in our hands. Because it’s an aggressive cancer, we have decided to treat it that way - aggressive and with no holds barred.
💪Here goes the fight🎗suck it cancer! 💪
If you see us and wonder why we are full of joy and fearless amidst this situation, I will point you to Joshua 1:9. Here’s the story:
The Monday of our first oncology appointment was a day of great anxiety and anticipation. Through the weekend I had began to return to my faith and began seeking the Lords guidance. So Monday morning I turned to scripture and found Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” I sent the scripture to Jim to comfort him as well. Jim sent me back a text thanking me and said he had come across a similar scripture on Friday (the day we discovered his diagnosis) and he shared it with me. It was Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you”. I will tell you all now - the times in my life that God has hand delivered messages to me he has done it through his word. And when he’s trying to hammer a message in me for some reason he does so by sending the same scripture back to me, by different means, THREE times. Seriously, this has happened 3 times in the past and usually when I’ve been in a state of broken desperation and truly seeking him. So I told Jim - “thats God speaking to you - that’s how he works babe, he usually sends me the same scripture 3 times. Be aware of his presence and he will present himself”. That same night, as we were laying in bed I receive a text from our pastor at 9:30pm and it read, in summary, “forgive me for texting so late, Terry wanted me to let you know that he is praying for you Joshua 1:9 and Isaiah 43:1-3” (there was our message #3). So let’s do a little digging into Deuteronomy 31:6 and Joshua 1:9. These scriptures are only a couple of chapters apart and are both scriptures of God directing Joshua. In Deuteronomy Moses is telling Joshua Gods command to go on and lead the Israelites into the land that he had promised them “be strong and courageous don’t fear,.. God says he is with you’. 3 chapters later Moses is dead and Joshua is venturing on this journey and about to cross the Jordan to claim this land and it is at this time that God, himself, speaks directly to Joshua saying ‘have I not commanded you?,... OR.. did I NOT tell you - be strong and courageous, don’t fear I.AM.WITH.YOU’. I hope you all see this in perspective as we do. On Friday we found out Jim had cancer and god sent him Deuteronomy ‘don’t fear, I’m with you on this’ On Monday, as we were digesting the reality of this journey he gave us Joshua - it was like him reminding - ‘hey Jim, don’t you remember what I told you Friday?’. From my perspective, the order of these scriptures has far more significance than if we had only been given the one. The look on my husbands face when I received the text message from our pastor was one that will forever be etched in my memory and my heart. At that moment we both KNEW that our GOOD and GREAT creator has His hands all over this. This is not our battle, it is his. And in his mercy he has given us the opportunity to show all of you how he works. He is real, he is with us and he IS our comfort. What is there to fear? The only thing to fear is God himself and as we hand this over to him he is pouring out his blessings on us and all who witness this journey we are on. There is so much good in this already. We are blessed with the beautiful gift of enjoying each and every moment. God is the only one with a claim to our lives and to him we must praise for every undeserved moment. Every good and perfect gift is from above - These perfect moments, these feelings of overwhelming love - we are now praising for what we once took for granted. And we refuse to look to tomorrow with fear (Matthew 6:34) because what good will that do? It will only take away the joys of today. Be blessed! We are better than we deserve!!!
Here’s our update: Jim is a whole year out from treatment! That is so hard to believe, it feels like that time was an entirely different life ago. We were back in Rochester for appts this week. He has a scan yesterday and everything looks great! No surprises so far. He will continue with his 3 month follow-ups, probably for another year and then will slowly wind back on the scan frequency. We appreciate all of your prayers and support ❤️. We brought the kiddos with us for this run and enjoyed a little Owattana fair time before school starts next week.
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