oncologist to discuss the goal of shrinking the tumor enough to surgically remove it. They determined the best course for radiation and chemotherapy for Bob when he returned to Yankton. The oncologist coordinated the treatments with the Avera Cancer Center so Bob could receive treatment closer to home. Bob was the 17th of 36 patients to participate in the treatment. The doctors injected a drug directly into the center of the tumor and one injection on each side of it. Upon returning home, he asked Dr. Michael Peterson, Radiation Oncologist at Avera Cancer Center to start chemotherapy and radiation immediately. Bob had a gut instinct that the medicine wouldn’t stay long in the tumor and he wanted to hit it as hard as he could. Through much discussion between his doctor at Mayo and Dr. Peterson, they decided that Bob would partake in six weeks of radiation and an infusion pump of another drug. Though they knew radiation wouldn’t work, they wanted to assure that every possible option was attempted. Shortly before Thanksgiving, Bob had a “port” put in his body where the chemo would be delivered. Throughout the course of Bob’s treatment over the next six weeks, Lisa kept family and friends updated through the Caring Bridge website. The webpage allowed the Willcockson’s to post updates where family, friends and co-workers could log in to Bob’s page to track his progress. Bob continued to work at his job during his treatments, he felt that one of his missions in living out his “final days” was taking care of his hundreds of clients at work. Dr. Peterson, impressed that Bob continued to work, was encouraged by Bob’s continuing good health during the process. Though Bob did feel side effects from the treatment, he continued to stay busy. He continued to work and wrote a book for Lisa with everything meticulously planned for her after his death. “When you’re not given any hope, nobody’s going to sit on the pity pot with me. It seemed like we needed to get from point A to point B,” he explains. In February of 2010, Bob had a CT scan to check the status of the tumor. The family was relieved to find out that the tumor had not shrunk nor grown and the cancer had not spread. Bob was set to begin receiving the drug Gemzar by chemotherapy, in hopes of slowing the cancer growth. Unfortunately, he didn’t tolerate the drug well and he got sick. Falling back on his initial condition about stopping treatment when it made him sick, this chemotherapy session would be his last one. When Bob started to “feel good again,” he hit a few bumps in the road, first a surgery to repair bilateral hernias and then a procedure to install a stent at the entry of his small intestine due to the tumor laying across it. A Chance Seven months had passed since Bob’s diagnosis, seven months of Bob’s life that weren’t predicted to happen. Unbelievably, Bob had beat the odds and lived to see Briana’s high school graduation. He continued to regain his energy and strength over the next few months until his follow-up CT scan at the Mayo Clinic one Tuesday in August. The doctor delivered fantastic news: the tumor had shrunk by 50% and they could finally perform the Whipple procedure to remove it. This was a huge achievement, as Bob was told at diagnosis that his chances of surviving to have the Whipple was not even close to being an option. Bob didn’t understand what this meant for him. “Everybody got it but me,” he reflects. “What good does surgery do? I’m still going to die. I’m terminal.” The family didn’t discuss the results any more that week. That Friday, Bob discussed his results with a client during a phone call. The client suggested that he might have a chance to beat his cancer. He hung up the phone and thought about it. It started to sink in. She was right, he had a chance to win this fight! Before long, Bob was undergoing surgery to remove the awful monster that had invaded his body. “We came out of surgery and the surgeon was just ecstatic,” Bob recalls. “(The surgeon) said, ‘You’re an R-zero.’” Bob didn’t understand and had to ask the surgeon what he meant. The surgeon told him, “R-zero means that you have no residual cancer. You don’t have any metastasis. I’m really confident we got it all.” Bob explained that all participants in the Phase 1 treatment had also received an R-zero result with their surgery. For now, he was in the clear, though the surgeon warned Bob that the cancer would come back at some point. Six months had passed before Bob started to feel better. In 2012, he hit another detour when they found a cancer spot on the liver, it appeared his cancer had spread. After he visited a radiation oncologist at Mayo who didn’t think anything would work, he sought another opinion from the radiation oncologist in Yankton who wanted to give radiation a try. Bob explained that it’s not uncommon for doctors to disagree, vWILLCOCKSON continued on page 22 Make Sure Your Furnace Doesn’t Give You The Cold Shoulder! Clean and check your furnace to get it in tip-top shape. Let Kaiser Heating & Cooling take care of your heating needs before old man winter comes for a visit! 605.665.2895 808 W. 23rd, Yankton, SD www.kaiserheatingandcooling.com Chris Frick • Doug Dykstra HISVOICEvSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017v13