When Fighting cancer- Show a Whole Lotta Love

I was looking forward to catching up with Henry Nicsinger to share his story. I was happy that his wife Melanie offered the encouragement, to get it done. They are friends of mine from Overland Park, KS and they agreed to come up to Omaha, to tell their story to What’s It Like. I was excited to hear the full story and to share it with others.

I wasn't so sure about the subject though.

cancer.

Yes, I write it with a small “c” ‘cause, I don't like to give it any more power than it deserves. Which is likely one of the reasons that I didn't like talking about it at all. Most of my life, it has been a topic of conversation usually whispered as, “I hear she has (whispered) cancer. Poor thing.” Sometimes those silent conversations included evocative, brutal descriptions.

So, not a fan.

That, and the fact that “it” took my dad from me.

(My grandfather, too but in fairness, he was a champion smoker.)

My dad fought the good fight with bouts of prostate and squamous cell carcinoma. He’d get one beat back and the next one would pop up. My dad endured a horrible version of whack-a-mole.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. Cancer touches too many families - one in four deaths are due to cancer with more than 500,000 per year. It’s no laughing matter.

Thankfully, some people are winning the fight with a combination of better awareness, new tech and treatment. People are living longer with the diagnosis.

Which brings us back to Henry. Henry survived. Not one occurrence of testicular cancer, but two. And, not when he was a younger man, but when he was older, too.

Henry won, despite the odds.

How did he do it? Based on what I heard in our interview, in a word, “love.”

Not fear and loathing, but love. Especially from his wife, Melanie.

You see Melanie took it upon herself to learn as much as she could about their enemy. She read everything she could get her hands on. She quizzed nurses and challenged doctors. She convinced Henry to change his diet and made exercise, meditation and visualization part of his everyday treatment. She kept “the book” with his test scores, treatments, prognosis and progress. Melanie was able to make things happen.

She decided she wasn't going to sit by and grieve, but got serious and went to war with Henry's cancer. She kept his head in the game, providing him with love and hope and a game plan that she followed like a Field General. She provided the type of real support and advocacy that got the results they were looking for; a clean bill of health.

Two + years now.

So, if I've learned anything about cancer from this loving couple, it is not to be superstitious of it, but meet it head-on. Back it into a corner with relentless love and information. Don’t lose faith. Stay positive, no matter the ups & downs along the way. The final score is all that counts.

Whatever the outcome, you'll be glad you spent it all for love.

Melanie shared these resources as her picks for where people can start their education of cancer.

Books

Life Over Cancer by Dr. Keith Block

Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber

The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen by Rebecca Katz

Websites

Memorial Sloan Kettering – offers symptom and treatment info

National Cancer Institute – project from National Institute of Health

Cancer.Net oncologist-approved information for patients & family