My experience all started with a simple yearly checkup with a new doctor.
A little bit about our family first. I am Linda Dozard and I am married for 42 years with my best friend and life partner Larry. We have resided in East Peoria for 37 years. Our eldest daughter Anita is married to John Smith and resides in Bartonville and they have two wonderful sons, Kevin and Grant. Our youngest daughter Amy is married to Bryon Morrison and has a son Zakry and a daughter Kyra. These children and grandchildren are the loves of our lives which is why this experience was so hard for us to deal with.
Our first experience with cancer was in the fall of 2003. The experience with cancer for me was bad enough but when my children also were diagnosed within a month it was almost too much to bear.
I went to the new doctor for a regular checkup and when my family history was discussed he became concerned with my blood workup. The doctor called us at home that night and he suggested a colonoscopy for me and the outcome was not good.
When the word cancer is introduced to your life you think of it as a death sentence.
I was told immediately to see a surgeon and my options were told to me for surgery the next week. I was in the hospital and the surgery was done with Stage 2 as the outcome. I thank God for sparing me from having to go through chemo or radiation. Thankfully everything was contained within the mass. They removed 10 inches of my colon and 32 lymph nodes and surrounding tissue.
Within the next two weeks our eldest daughter Anita, with a lot of encouragement from us and our doctor to be tested, had some testing done. She was very reluctant to do this because “surely this couldn’t happen to me, I am too young.” She was not so lucky. They removed all but a few inches of her colon because of where her two masses were located. Her cancer also was contained within the masses and was in Stage 1, and lymph nodes also were removed. So no Chemo or radiation for her also which is truly a blessing.
With much encouragement from mom and her doctor, the youngest daughter was tested, and thank God there were no tumors in her colon. However she was having some other issues with her health. They did some tests and found a mass on her thyroid and did a biopsy and it was cancerous. She was put in the hospital and it was removed and contained within. She was truly blessed with not having to have any treatments also.
This experience is truly a wake up call for us all. Our family and friends have been a wonderful uplifting help to us all. Without them I don’t know if I could have endured this all.
The experience was magnified by being told that there is a genetic side of this which was really hard for me to endure. Just knowing that I have passed this on to my children and grandchildren put a lot of guilt on me. The kids helped me with this assuring me this is not my fault. I know this now to be true but it is still hard to imagine and I struggle with this everyday. My faith in the good lord above is helping a lot.
People in life who complain should visit a cancer center and watch the people there and the struggles they have to go through. This is the reason we feel so strong about the Relay For Life and the research the American Cancer Society has done. Thank you for letting me share my story with you.
East Peoria, Ill. —
