Source: www.modbee.com
Author: Sue Nowicki

This Thanksgiving, when Wenona “Wendy” Campbell sits down to a turkey dinner with all the fixin’s, she will relish every bite. Last year, she couldn’t eat a thing. A feeding tube prevented that.

Campbell, 65, had been diagnosed with lymph node mouth cancer in September 2007. Doctors gave her only a 50-50 chance to live. Between October and the end of December, the Modesto resident had the most aggressive kind of chemotherapy combined with radiation treatments from her mouth down to her upper chest. Last Thanksgiving, she was in the midst of all of that.

“Most people, 99 percent, who get mouth cancer have used some type of tobacco,” Campbell said. “I’m the 1 percent. I never smoked, never chewed, never lived with a smoker. My doctor couldn’t believe that I had mouth cancer.”

The first sign that something was wrong was a small lump on the side of her neck.

“My family said it was probably just a swollen lymph node and that I’d be OK. Normally, I’d go to the doctor, but I was taking care of two parents with Alzheimer’s. I hadn’t placed them in (care) facilities at the time. My brother and I were trying to keep these sweet people in their home.

“I was very foolish. After about a month, it had swollen to about the size of a pingpong ball. I did go to the doctor about halfway through that time. He said, ‘This could be just an infection,’ so he gave me some antibiotics.”

Doctors later biopsied the lymph node and determined it was cancerous, but couldn’t pinpoint where the cancer was. After scans of Campbell’s brain came back normal, a mouth biopsy was done.

“They knew it was in my head somewhere,” she said. “They found it under my tongue.”

She was alone — her two adult children and their families live elsewhere — when the specialist told her she had mouth cancer in an advanced stage.

“After he told me, I went out and sat down at the fountain (at the medical facility). Being a woman of faith, I asked God, ‘How are you going to bless me in this? This is going to be so interesting.’

As a result of the chemo and radiation treatments, her taste buds don’t function well and her saliva is gone.

“When you don’t have saliva, it’s like your mouth is all shriveled up inside and your tongue is stuck to the top of your mouth,” Campbell said. “I use a spray that gives temporary relief.

“People take moisture for granted. You don’t realize how important it is to have saliva. It helps keep a healthy mouth and keeps bacteria from forming. And every time I take a bite of food, I have to drink something to get it down. You get sores in your mouth and on your lips because of dryness. I always tell people to appreciate their spit.”

Campbell, who was an infant when her parents moved to Modesto from Oklahoma in 1944 to work in the fruit and canning industry, said she has felt exhausted at times, but mostly stays positive.

“I’m not on the pity pot. I’ve used Scriptures to strengthen and encourage me. I stood on Phillipians 4:13 — ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ Psalms 27 says my mom and my dad have deserted me — and I related to that because of my parents’ Alzheimer’s — but God’s plans for me were to be among the living. I am among the living.”

Mostly, Campbell said, she is relishing life, even though doctors have told her she has a 50 percent chance of having the cancer return. If it does, she can’t have more treatments because the aggressive treatment she had last year left her vulnerable. She can’t even have X-rays for dental purposes, she said.

Despite that, she said, “I’m surviving. At night, I wake up gagging because of the scar tissue in my throat. But I feel like it’s no big thing. I was at first overwhelmed, but it’s like people who learn to live with artificial limbs. There are so many people who have to live with much more serious things. I keep telling myself, it’s only a dry mouth.”

And she’s happy to have that mouth to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal that she’ll help her aunt prepare, one that she will share with her father, aunt and cousins. Later in the day, she’ll visit her mother in a skilled nursing facility.

But first will come the meal.

“I won’t be able to eat much turkey; meat is hard to eat,” she said. “But just to eat the trimmings — the dressing, the cranberries, the mashed potatoes and the pumpkin pie. I couldn’t eat anything last year. I’m thankful I can this year.

“I’m thankful for my faith, number one. I didn’t become a Christian until I was 51, so it’s a precious gift to have. My faith is in Jesus because he’s a living savior. His spirit was so with me through all of (the cancer ordeal). I’m so grateful.”