By Phil Bartusek, Guest Column

It&8217;ll never happen to me. I don&8217;t smoke, not exposed to secondhand smoke, don&8217;t work around asbestos or radon.

But it did. A common phrase in our vocabulary now is &8220;squamous cell carcinoma of the lung&8221; &8212; better known as lung cancer.

Hey, I&8217;m young, pretty good shape, play a lot of racquetball and work out at the Y, right? I can&8217;t get cancer, but I did. And not just cancer, but Stage 4, the worst. Doctors told Mary and me that I have six months to live without treatment, two additional months with treatment.

Yeah, right! Hey, we have life by the tail. Our daughters recently graduated from college, we&8217;re empty-nesters, and I am going to day shift after working 25 years on the afternoon and late-night shift for the Albert Lea Police Department. I&8217;m looking forward to getting back to a &8220;normal&8221; social life with friends and relatives.

That was what we were planning. Not trips to the Mayo Clinic for CT scans, MRIs, blood work and chemotherapy treatments. What do you mean six months to live? Forget about it. Cancer isn&8217;t prejudiced. It doesn&8217;t matter what color your skin is, financial capacity or your age. Cancer effects everyone.

My wife, Mary, is a registered nurse. When she worked as an oncology nurse at Albert Lea Medical Center, she always said that cancer only affects good people. She had a special bond with her patients &8212; that same bond I have with my cancer team at the Mayo Clinic. We are truly blessed with a fine cancer facility here at Albert Lea Medical Center and at the Mayo Clinic.

So what&8217;s it like? Well, you lose your hair, which is great for guys but tough on the gals. You get nauseous from the chemo and you lose your appetite. There are a lot of people a lot worse than me, so I am not complaining. I have my appetite, and I don&8217;t have pain. My only problem is three and four days after my chemo treatments I get &8220;happy feet.&8221; I am restless and can&8217;t get comfortable for 36 hours. It&8217;s like you tie ankle weights around your legs and walk the lake. Your ankles and knees are sore and restless, but it only lasts for two days. So I know I&8217;m fortunate and I thank God and pray to St. Peregrine, the patron saint for cancer patients, every day for my experience so far.

The experimental drug that I am on so far is working. Nonsmokers my age have a 58 percent response to this drug, and I&8217;m looking forward to my CT scan &8212; computed tomography scan &8212; to see how things are shaping up inside.

The Freeborn County Relay for Life is Saturday, Aug. 10, at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds.

Please support the many teams such as our Cops Kicking Cancer Team, which is out there raising money for the event. There are new drug treatments on the horizon to help current and future cancer victims. Make a difference and make a donation.

As for me, I&8217;m a competitor and I don&8217;t like to lose. I know this thing is going to win some battles, but I am going to win the war! Giving me six months to live is unacceptable. Period.

So with all your support, I plan on kicking this thing in the rear and moving on to a ripe old age. God bless.

Phil Bartusek is a lieutenant with the Albert Lea Police Department.