Survivor Spotlight: JOANNE D'ALTON : Breast Cancer Survivor
Summer, 2007

Survivor Spotlight: FRANK YINKO : Colon Cancer Survivor
April, 2007
Note from Tim: Prior to this article I knew little about Frank or his cancer experience other than what I heard around the office. So when Dr. Bettag suggested him as our “Survivor Spotlight” I thought this would be a great opportunity to meet the man that I have heard so much about! I quickly found out what all of the talk was about!

I just couldn’t believe it!

About ten months ago I noticed some blood in my stool so I went in for a colonoscopy. They removed some tissue that they thought was suspicious and four days later they called me. I remember it was on a Friday and I was just pulling into the parking lot at Piggly Wiggly around lunch time… I almost pulled over and threw up as soon as I heard that I had cancer! Without meaning to brag, I had hardly ever been sick in my life! I’ve missed maybe two days of work in my 38 years at Sheboygan Paint Company. I just couldn’t believe it!

I had an appointment with Dr. Lisberg that next Monday. Then in mid-June I met with Dr. Bettag. My wife Wendy really wanted to come along with me to the appointment but she couldn’t get off of work so I used my PDA, which has a voice recorder on it, to record our discussion. It worked out well because I was given so much information in that first appointment so instead of trying to remember it all I just recorded our conversation and later replayed for myself and my wife.

Next was surgery. I was up and walking the same day as surgery, which the nurses thought was pretty incredible. I’m a pretty slender guy… so I figure for me to get out of bed it isn’t as much effort as someone who weighs 300 pounds. I have always been a believer that if you keep a healthy mind and a healthy frame it can only be to your advantage. I started walking the halls and they were all cheering me on. I got out of the hospital in just four days and I was back on the golf course in a little over three weeks. Of course, they told me I shouldn’t golf so soon… but I tried swinging a golf club in the back yard and I felt so good that I didn’t see any reason not to golf.

I really had no severe side effects!

For the first eight of my twelve treatments I really had no severe side effects! Then I started getting some tingling in my feet and hands as well as some mouth sores towards the very end of treatment. That’s when I started losing weight. I couldn’t chew with the mouth sores. I’m glad that treatment is over but it really wasn’t that bad. I would come in here and get treated… then I would have to wear a pump for two days but that wasn’t even that bad. I didn’t enjoy chemo… but they made it as pleasant as it could be… and I just did whatever they told me. After I left here I put my attention back on the things I can control. I even went golfing one day while wearing the pump and I shot pretty well because I was swinging a little easier. I even joked to my friends saying, “You guys might want to try this! Maybe it will improve your game!” And the nursing staff here is just wonderful! They were always very upbeat and positive.

I lost most of the hair on my legs, my arms, my arm pits but I didn’t lose much of the hair on my head! I think the only hair I lost on my head were the brown hairs… all of the white and gray hairs stayed!

I think laughter is important! I’ve always had a good sense of humor and found that I would certainly rather make people laugh than cry! And it seems that the people who are active and happy just don’t get sick as much. And I never want to be pitied. I was in Florida with my best friend and his brother playing a round of golf. I had lost about 20 pounds from the chemo, had one or two more rounds yet to go, it was on my birthday, and I asked, “So, are you going to give me a stroke?” And he said, “No way!” (ha ha) And that’s the way I wanted it… I wanted people to treat me as they normally would treat me.

I wasn’t afraid to die!

Twice while I was on chemo I had an episode with my heart. My pulse went up to 300 and everybody was pretty worried about me. They even had to shock my heart to get a regular rhythm. I remember while they were putting the electrodes on me to shock my heart, I had a peace about everything! I wasn’t afraid to die! I know I’m not going to live forever… none of us are! I think I’m taking better care of myself now for my family. We have four kids and four grandkids. That’s what keeps me going!

I don’t think the chemo was related to my heart problem but Dr. Bettag told me that if I had another heart episode he didn’t think he could give me any more chemo. So, instead of worrying about if I’d have another episode or not, I decided to focus on what I could control. I decided to eat better and continue with my exercise and I stopped drinking all alcohol. I had 57 years of life where I could eat and drink pretty much anything I wanted to. Maybe I’m just getting a little wiser and doing the things that a guy should be doing anyway.

I am the luckiest man in the world!

If I look back at my life I have been lucky in so many ways! I wouldn’t trade what I have for anything! Lou Gehrig set it best when, after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), he said, “I am the luckiest man in the world!” I have a wonderful wife, a great family, a job that I enjoy, and a lot to be thankful for. Maybe that’s why I am more of an optimist? Or maybe it’s because I’m an optimist that I have been so lucky? I don’t know! I guess it’s one of those which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg things!

I figure everyone has a choice. You can complain about whatever hand you’ve been dealt or you can take the hand you’ve been dealt and play it as well as you can! I like sports but I have always been small so athletics came a little tougher for me. I had to work harder to get better and make the basketball team and I had to focus on the strengths that I have. I have good memory and I can learn quickly. That helped me to become tougher mentally, which has prepared me for other things in life, like cancer. Both attitude and ability may be genetic but even with the right genes you still need to choose to use what you are given.

I have cancer… that doesn’t mean I’m sick!

I am a firm believer in the power of the mind. When they first told me I had cancer and they mentioned the side effects of treatment I tried not to worry about it. This may sound like a stupid way of putting it but I would tell them, “Hey, I have cancer… that doesn’t mean I’m sick!” I really didn’t feel like sick!

I really don’t worry about cancer! I kind of leave the worrying to my doctor and the nurses here and when I walk out of here I just leave it behind and focus on the things that I can actually do something about. For example, I can eat better, stay active, and all the other things that a guy should be doing anyway.

We’ve probably run and walked 30,000 miles together!

I think you have to stay active. I enjoy playing golf. I used to run until my knee blew out but now I walk quite regularly. Even the doctor suggested that I stay active! I didn’t want to just sit around and just dwell on the cancer. Life is too precious for that! I walk regularly with a friend of mine, Dan Rivers. We go out about four times a week. One day one of us may have a meeting over the lunch hour and can’t do it… otherwise we get our four miles or so in pretty regularly. We’ve probably run and walked about 30,000 miles together over the last 30 years! So between walking, golfing, and just staying busy around the house I kept pretty active.

What I have could be gone in a heartbeat!

I certainly enjoy my family and my friends a lot more. It’s made me realize that what I have today could be gone in a heartbeat! And it’s made me appreciate so much more. People have come up to me and said, “Frank, we think about you all of the time and you’re in our prayers!” That can be very humbling. When you go through something like this you realize how much people care… and you experience the value of those things. When I had friends that were ill I certainly hoped that they would get better but I don’t think I would have ever just come up to someone and express my concern in that way. But when you are on the receiving end of those comments, it really means a lot… and a couple of times it brought a tear to my eye. So maybe that’s another way this has made me a better person.

I certainly believe in God and I go to church every Sunday. I don’t look at it as though God is punishing me with cancer or that God has given me some special strength to get through cancer. Don’t get me wrong… I feel very blessed and I am very thankful for all that I have and getting cancer has given me an ever greater appreciation for life. Even chemo, in a left-handed way, may be a blessing. I figure maybe if my kids ever get sick or have to go through something like it I may be able to give them a little more moral support. So in that way, cancer was a spiritual experience because it made me a better person… and isn’t being a better person what life is all about?

I’m really not nervous about the future!

One of the last times I saw the doctor I had to ask him, “What do I tell people? Do I tell them I ‘had’ cancer? Or do I tell them that I ‘have’ cancer?” He said, “Just tell them that you were treated or cancer and now the cancer is in remission.” I know it could come back… but I also know it might not come back. I’m really not nervous about the future! In fact, I bet a guy ten dollars that I would die of something else other than cancer. But now I have to figure out how to collect those ten dollars! (ha ha). So I told him, “Just pay my wife!”

I am reminded of cancer every time I come in here and see the waiting room and the treatment chairs were full. That’s the bad news… that all of these people have cancer. But the good news is that they are being treated and that they are living with their cancer!

There is so much more hope today!

My advice to others would be to be well-informed about your disease. Listen to the doctors and the nurses. Bring another set of ears along when you have an appointment to help you both understand and remember what was said. And talk to someone else who has been through it. It still may be a frightening experience… but don’t forget that there is so much more hope today than even 10 years ago!

Note from Tim: Frank was very gracious in sharing his story! I was excited to learn that Frank was a runner and a marathoner and that he tributes exercise as a key ingredient in his recovery. But what I find most intriguing about this man is the wonderful way he seems to let the events of the past go! He spoke, for example, of his “cardiac episode” in which they had to shock his heart back to a regular rhythm. At first I was set aback at how lightly he spoke of such a serious event. But as I heard more I came to understand a man who simply doesn’t look back. Don’t get me wrong, I think Frank appreciates all that the past has taught him and given him but, more importantly and as it should be, Frank is focused on the here and now!

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