COMMUNITY: The luckiest man on earth

Editor's note: Rick Hollis of rural North Liberty is past president and newsletter editor for the Iowa City Bird Club.

By Rick Hollis, community contributor

'I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”

Lou Gehrig made that famous statement during his retirement speech before I was born. In my lifetime growing up in Baltimore, it was rare to people hear anyone speak well of the Yankees, except for the Babe. Babe Ruth grew up on the streets of Baltimore. Everyone also admired Gehrig and the brutal honesty in his retirement speech.

After the way my health has turned the past 18 months, I can say those lines myself.

At 60, looking back, it's easy to say I've had a good life thus far. Comparing my life to so many others in this country and around the world, I realize how lucky I am.

For a number of years, however, I had periodic 'gut episodes.” The symptoms that would strike together would make me pretty uncomfortable for a night - often leaving me totally exhausted.

Several times I fainted.

Once I fell against something and cut myself deep enough to require stitches. One night, too exhausted to leave the bathroom, I laid down and slept there. A few hours later, I was fine, but tired.

I went to numerous doctors in numerous clinics. No one could tell me what was wrong. I was hospitalized twice, immediately after an attack. But instead of searching for a cause, they treated the symptoms, which I understand.

My normally high blood pressure was very low after these episodes. my heart has some minor abnormalities, but pretty good for a guy in his 60s.

Years went by, but I still had no answer. Then, during a lab Christmas dinner at the University of Iowa in 2013, I fainted. Fortunately, my friends and colleagues surrounded me and were able to give me pretty detailed descriptions of what happened.

There is an advantage to working in science. I was lucky.

Blood tests revealed my iron was low. The doctors increased my iron and although I temporarily felt better, I remained weak throughout the spring. In May, I fainted again and was hospitalized. I received a couple of units of blood because my iron and blood pressure was so low the doctors wondered how I walked.

I was subjected to more tests. A CT scan showed the source of my problems - some small tumors.

A day or two later, I was sitting in the UIHC Hematology-Oncology clinic. I was stunned when I heard the word cancer. The doctor told us my non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma was pretty treatable. He went on to say if the first drug regime failed, there were a number of others they would try. Two days later, I was receiving the first of six chemotherapy treatments, which were spaced three weeks apart.

Thanks to my wife, Janet, and my daughter, Jenny, I was able to keep my mind out of the dark places. I felt I was going to beat this. I am so lucky to be surrounded by caring, positive people.

A bit into chemotherapy, my hair started to fall out and, not wanting to keep finding clumps lying around, I contacted my stylist. Janet looked at me with that 'who is that strange man” look in her eyes. I have never had short hair in our time together and my beard was 40 years old. I saved my mustache for a while. That fell out a few weeks later and Janet saw my upper lip for the first time.

Throughout the chemo, Dr. Donald McFarlane and his nurse were upbeat about beating this. The folks in the chemotherapy unit are the nicest people I have ever had treating me. The nurses, aides, pharmacists, etc., were very kind and did everything they could to keep me comfortable. And since I came in with a tribe, they were very kind to Janet and Jenny.

I learned to appreciate Facebook. Every treatment, I let my friends know of my progress and included pictures. Numerous people, including folks I had lost contact with, and people I knew through bird-watching, contacted me with messages of support.

Some may think that's nice, but it's not such a big deal. It was a big deal.

All in all, my six treatments were not nearly as nasty as I feared.

Halfway through the chemo, I had some tests that showed everything was moving in the right direction. The tumors were shrinking, my blood tests were better.

Everything looks fine today.

During the time of my illness, Jenny met a wonderful young man and, a few weeks ago I walked my daughter into a wooded amphitheater in Indiana and watched her marry him.

Yes, I consider myself the luckiest man on earth.