OMRO, WI (WTAQ)- It was a World Cancer Day that Tom Kopacz will remember.
Since 2003, Tom Kopacz has been battling prostate cancer and Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, but experimental medications and a good attitude has led to a checkup that should show a clean bill of health this week.
“That will further corroborate the last scan which says we can’t see anything in Tom anymore” Kopacz said.
In 2003, Tom, a senior research scientist at Kimberly Clark, starting receiving pain.
“It felt like I was sitting on a walnut.”
Tom vistied multiple doctors, and eventually found out he had prostate cancer.
Tom thought is troubles were over, but in 2007 he started receiving pain in his chest, and after multiple doctor visits and tests, it was later discovered he had a baseball sized tumor underneeth his sternum.
Tom found out he had Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
“I asked the doctor if there was a stage 5, and he said no .”
Tom visited multiple doctors and was willing to try anything to control the cancer. He refused to believe that he was going to lose the battle, and said having a positive attitude was just as important as the medical treatment he received.
“Having a good support team and making sure that your glass is always partly full and the skies are always partly sunny.
That was not always easy for Tom, especially after multiple failed attempts to control the cancer.
The pain eventually led to the inability for Tom to use his right arm, and was eventually told he had cancer in his sholder and it was the same one that was in his neck.
Tom was asked if wanted to try a expermential medication that would get rid of the tumor, but was told it would not give him use of his right arm back.
The medicine that Tom agreed to was not approved at the time, but has since been approved for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
In the Fall of 2012, Tom’s test results showed that the cancer spread.
Doctor Timothy Goggins of Fox Valley Hematology and Oncology put Tom on another expermental mediciation that was not approved for Hodgkins Lymphoma, but was on the market for other forms of cancer.
Tom said eventually, the medication and radiation combination showed postive results.
“There is no detectable Hodgkins Lymphoma in my body” Tom said.
Doctor Goggins says many cancer patients are finding ways to prolong, or even beat cancer.
“There has been a huge change in how we approach cancer. Many patients that reach Stage 4 or still living for years.”
Dr. Goggins says the treatments have become advanced, and quality of life has approved. He says a huge factor is the patients outlook and attitude.
He says if you think you won’t beat it, there is no way you will.
