Fergus cancer victim focuses on living

By Susan Larson | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, March 1, 2008

Photo by Susan Larson

Bill and Jolene Halena and their daughter Sheyenne, 10, and son Riley, 7, at home. Cancer has affected the family’s life, but it has also pulled them closer together.

Despite being diagnosed with breast cancer, it is living, not death, that is foremost on Bill Halena’s mind.

“As a family,” the 33-year-old Fergus Falls man said, “we can mope around. But we can be thankful I’m still alive. The treatments take a lot out of me, but it’s still better than the alternative.”

Ironically, Bill was diagnosed in October — Breast Cancer Awareness Month. When told of his cancer, most of his friends “looked on in dismay. A lot of them didn’t have a clue men could even get breast cancer. I knew it was possible, but I didn’t think it was probable.”

Even his doctors had some doubts. When Bill discovered a lump about the size of a pea in his left breast, a lumpectomy was performed; doctors, were skeptical it was cancer. On the surface, so was Bill. But he knew better, as both his mother and grandmother had breast cancer. He almost lost his dad to rectal cancer two years ago.

“I told myself it wasn’t cancer,” Bill said. “But I prepared myself for the possibility that it was. In between time (before the diagnosis), I did educated myself. That’s the best thing you can do.”

Tests revealed a stage two invasive ductal carstenoma.

“It’s called that because it starts in the milk ducts,” Bill said. “When it busts through the duct, it attacks fat tissue,”

A complete mastectomy was performed. Two lymph nodes were removed in a second surgery because cancer cells were discovered; 16 more were later removed. Six weeks later, the day after Thanksgiving, chemotherapy began.

“Black Friday,” his wife, Jolene said with a laugh.

“I went Christmas shopping with Jolene,” he said, “then I went in for (the first) treatment.”

While Bill undergoes only one treatment every three weeks, it is an intensive six-hour process, which includes three different chemicals. Before receiving the chemicals, he is given Pepcid for nausea; Benadryl, to prevent a reaction to the drugs; and saline to prevent dehydration. It takes him about a week and a half to reach the point where her is no longer nauseous.

“I go in for treatments on a Friday,” Bill said. “Saturday, I don’t feel so bad, but I’m still tired. On Sunday I start getting sick.”

During these times, he loses his sense of taste, hot and cold.

“Everything tastes like wax. It’s eight or nine days before I get my taste back.”

His last session will be March, “God willing,” he said.

The cancer experience has affected every aspect of the Halenas’ lives.

“Everything has been on hold this winter,” Bill said. “The remodeling (of their house) is on hold. We didn’t get to do a lot of the things we planned this winter. We love to hunt and fish. That took a hit too. It makes functioning as a family hard. Our kids (daughter Sheyenne, 10, and son Riley, 7) are in Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and I want to participate, but sometimes I just can’t because of the nausea and extreme fatigue.”

When his sense of taste is lagging, Bill’s sense of smell is heightened.

“Just about any smell is intolerable then. I tried to eat lunch at school with my daughter. I walked in and the smell of the food — I just couldn’t do it. I gave her a hug and told her I was sorry.”

Her father’s illness scared Sheyenne initially, but she has come to accept it.

We’re just kids,” she said. “We don’t know that much about it.”

Cancer scares Bill and Jolene, also.

“It scares me that it could come back in any form,” he said. “Just because you’ve had it doesn’t mean it won’t come back.”

Having lost her mother, Lynn Allen, to cancer in 2006, made Bill’s diagnosis especially devastating for Jolene.

“But you go on,” she said. “You don’t have a choice.”

There are lessons to be learned in adversity, however.

“You find being grateful a lot more easier,” Bill said. “I tend to slow down more now and tend ‘not to worry about that now.’ It’s easier to make time for the kids now.”

Bill is on leave from his carpentry job with Woessner Construction. To help defray medical expenses, friends and family are hosting a meatball dinner and silent auction benefit for the Halenas on Monday, March 10, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Fergus Falls VFW. Matching funds will be provided by Thrivent Financial. Donation can also be dropped off at Bremer Bank, c/o Bill Halena, 2330 College Way, Fergus Falls, Minn., 56537.