My newspaper article

One year ago today found me not at my desk at the Ashland Times-Gazette but in another universe; in a Linear Accelerator receiving the first of my 35 radiation treatments. I was battling Stage 4 tongue cancer.

After a summer of not feeling well, I was diagnosed by my local ENT who advised me to have treatment at the Ohio State University's Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, where my kind of cancer is treated daily. I also had seven chemos during my seven weeks there and a PEG tube inserted.

I learned a lot on this journey. Listening to my body was the first step. Finding doctors I felt safe with also was paramount. I took a friend for my consultations as I knew my mind was reeling from the bad news. After treatments started, I scribbled notes during appointments. Sometimes I have trouble remembering all that happened, but I still go back to read what I wrote at the time in my online journal.

I found out quickly that the Internet can be a great source of information, but also a dangerous place to try and play doctor. I learned to only go to legit sites.

After the shock of hearing the dreaded words "you have cancer" subsided, I got busy and made sure all my financial and personal affairs were in order. Ashland County Cancer Association also was a great help financially. As an only child with parents long deceased, I reached out to friends who came through for me in ways that still amaze me. Money, helping with errands, chores, phone calls, letters, emails, visits and a place to reside in Columbus while I had my treatments. All these allowed me to concentrate on just getting through the ordeal and to heal. I know I can never repay all of those things; I can only pay it forward.

I was told that having a positive attitude was important to heal and found my inherited warped sense of humor helped, too. On my first day of radiation, no one told me you should bring along your favorite music to play, so one of the techs popped in a Bon Jovi CD. Here, I am bolted to the table in a Hannibal Lector type mask and the first song I heard was "Bad Medicine." The techs and I had a great laugh over that one. I gravitated toward those nurses and technicians who had a sense of humor and kindness and they helped to turn my journey from one of fear to one of learning and comfort. I never feared the dreaded mask like some cancer patients do as I looked at it as my protector. My mantra for that and other procedures became, "This is where I am supposed to be." I found a support group online and signed up and found a lot of help there, too (and still do).

I also tried to have some normalcy in my life during and after my treatment. Walking my friend's dog, doing laundry, helping with the dishes all made me feel still human.

After my treatments ended, the radiation was still ravaging my body, which was the hardest for me. I came home right before the holidays and Christmas plain sucked. My lowest point was shortly after when I choked on soup. That was when I realized I am tough and asked for help and went to Samaritan Rehabilitation Center for two months worth of therapy. I also had two esophagus stretches done locally. After getting over that hump and I started enjoying eating again, life began to get normal again, or as we in the cancer world call it, "the new normal."

My new normal sees me almost back to where I was before cancer. I was recently told by my ENT that the day he found the mass on my tongue, he thought I was a goner. I can't say that what I went through was a day at the beach, but I can say that cancer can be beat. I am living proof of it. I wake up each day grateful to have another day. There are "no bad days."

n Nancy Wasen is a receptionist/customer-service employee at the Ashland Times-Gazette. To hear more of Wasen's story, visit online at www.caringbridge.org/visit/toughcookie.


This was my article, published last week. It doesn't show the header to the story or my photo. I was going to use one of me in my radiation mask but chose instead, a good photo taken of me from about 2 weeks ago. I swear I could have written a full page. Was very very hard to make it this short!