The University of Idaho Argonaut

Four University of Idaho students fought cancer and survived to tell their stories

Tim lost 35 pounds in two weeks. Carlie had her left kidney removed. A.J. spent two years of his life in the hospital. Carla lost all of her hair. Four different people with four different stories, lives and goals. But all of their lives were changed drastically by the same thing — cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 1,437,180 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2008. While the cause of many types of cancer remain unknown, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the people affected by it are everywhere. Four students from the University of Idaho chose to share their stories, hoping to put a face to the illness.

Tim’s story

Timothy Kunz, photo by Roger D. Rowles/Argonaut

“They basically tell you you’re going to die,” Kunz said.
In the blink of an eye, Kunz’s life went from soccer games and homework to hospital visits and chemotherapy.

It started as a lump at the base of his neck and as a highly involved, energetic teen, Kunz said he wasn’t really concerned.
“I was really active in high school. I played on a club soccer team and practiced three times a week,” he said. “Plus I never did anything that would have been detrimental to my body. I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink. I wasn’t worried.”

But the bulge didn’t go away — it got bigger. Kunz told his mother and they had it checked out. The doctor performed a number of tests and decided there was nothing alarming about the swelling.

“The funny thing is, he said the last thing it could possibly be was cancer,” Kunz said.
He was given an antibiotic and sent on his way but Kunz suffered from constant dizzy spells and feelings of light headedness. After numerous tests, CAT scans and MRI’s, doctors finally decided to remove the mass. It was only then that they realized the lump was cancer.

Kunz started chemotherapy a week later, he said. The treatment uses chemical agents to stop cancer cells from growing and is usually paired with radiation to successfully rid the body of cancerous cells. The chemicals used during chemotherapy cannot decipher between cancerous cells and healthy cells and this is why many suffer severe side effects from the treatment, he said.

“About three weeks into chemo, my hair started falling out. My mom didn’t want me to shave it but it falls out in clumps and in really weird ways,” Kunz said. “I looked like a 16-year-old balding man, so I finally shaved it.”

He continued the treatments, each session resulting in days of nausea and fatigue. He began radiation therapy that November, just three months after his initial diagnoses.

While chemotherapy targets the entire body, radiation works as a localized treatment, meaning it only affects the area being treated, he said. In this case, Kunz’s neck and throat.
The first sign of side effects hit two weeks later. Kunz realized the back of his neck started looking tan and things began to taste funny.
“Eventually the back of my neck was burnt raw and the skin was peeling off. It oozed puss like a sore,” Kunz said. “The only thing I could eat was dry cereal and water. Actually Cheerios, that was the only cereal I could handle.”

Kunz began losing weight rapidly, dropping 35 pounds in two weeks, and his health plummeted but he continued to attend treatments.
May 25, 2007 was his last day of high school. It was also his final day of chemotherapy. A week later he received his diploma at graduation.

“It was the first time that I could walk in front of everyone and say ‘I’m a survivor,’” Kunz said. “It was an amazing experience.”
Less than a year later, Kunz is cancer free but still returns to the hospital for MRI’s and CAT scans to make sure he stays that way. Cancer destroyed the nerves in his feet, affected the hearing in his left ear and equilibrium, but Kunz said he doesn’t spend much time feeling sorry for himself.

“When you’re living on the edge of life and death for 10 months, you just have to learn how to deal with it,” he said.
Kunz is an active participant in Relay for Life and believes in the power of telling his story to others. He hopes that people will realize cancer is everywhere and everyone should do what they can to help find a cure.

“Cancer doesn’t just happen to a certain type of person,” Kunz said. “Cancer picks whoever it wants.”

Carlie’s story

AJ Oster, photo by Roger D. Rowles/Argonaut

“They found a tumor on my left kidney the size of a softball,” Depres said. “I had this my whole childhood. If someone would have checked earlier it wouldn’t have been so bad.”

Her cancer was diagnosed at stage 4, the worst and final stage of cancer and the hardest to treat. Her entire left kidney was removed but the cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes.

She was told by doctors that chemotherapy and radiation did not work in the treatment of most kidney cancers, especially those in stage 4 of development. Her only option was immunotherapy, a treatment that stimulates the immune system to work harder and faster to fight cancerous cells, according to the American Cancer Society.

Depres had to travel to the University of Utah for treatment because it wasn’t yet available in her hometown of Boise.
She spent most of the eighth grade in and out of the hospital receiving treatment. Sometimes she was well enough to return home but there were many weeks that Depres stayed in Utah.

“Being newly diagnosed, I wasn’t comfortable talking about it,” Depres said. “When I came back to school I didn’t want to say where I had been and was always trying to make up excuses for missing school.”
With the help of her teachers, Depres was able to complete the eighth grade while in treatment but had a hard time adjusting socially with her peers when she finally returned to school.

“Many of the kids didn’t know what cancer was and when I’d come back they would ask to be moved, right in front of me, because they didn’t want to get sick,” Depres said. “Middle school is a difficult time anyway but it made it even harder to fit in.”

Depres suffered many of the same ailments as patients who undergo chemotherapy and radiation and said she had to come to terms with death, even at the age of 13.
“I think I was more OK with dying than my family was,” she said. “The person going through it has to come to terms with death so much faster than their families do. They have to see it as an option.”

Now, six years after her surgery, Depres’s cancer is in remission. She said she is fearful it might return someday but is more concerned about other aspects of her future. She worries about getting life insurance and having children, for fear they could also be affected, but said she tries to stay positive.
Aside from a scar on her stomach, Depres has no other physical reminders of her illness but said she wishes more people would realize that cancer survivors are still struggling, even if they are cancer free.

“Just because we’re not all bald or sick doesn’t mean we’re not still affected by it every day,” Depres said. “I still think about it in some way almost every day.”
But she said she is not going to let cancer stand in the way of her dreams. Depres is studying political science with hopes to one day attend law school. She’s taking 17 credits and spending as much time as she can volunteering. She is on the Relay for Life committee at UI and hopes to help spread the word about cancer.

“I want people to be more conscious about it,” Depres said. “You always hear about older people having cancer so I think it has a different impact for students to hear about younger people going through it because they are young themselves. It really proves it can happen to anyone.”

A.J.’s story

Carla Alo-Cabalquinto, photo by Roger Rowles/Argonaut

“It was my first year at a new school but no one knew who I was because I was sick,” Oster said. “Afterward, everyone knew who I was because I was sick.”
Painful urination landed him at the doctor’s office, where he was first told he was suffering from a common bladder infection. Once medication failed to cure his symptoms, Oster underwent a biopsy that revealed a cancerous tumor.

Oster started chemotherapy and endured two bladder surgeries to remove the tumor.
“They had to do two surgeries because if they would have taken it all out at one time, it would have pretty much destroyed my bladder,” he said.
Cycles of chemotherapy accompanied the surgeries continued for eight months, he said. The whole ordeal caused him to miss his entire eighth grade year but the cancer had been successfully removed and Oster was cancer free.

“My tumor was malignant but it wasn’t really bad,” he said. “I guess they’re all bad — but mine was one of the more treatable types.”
However, this wasn’t the end of his experience.

Doctors had warned Oster and his family that 2 percent of all patients who went through chemotherapy developed myelodysplastic syndrome. According to the American Cancer Society, the syndrome occurs when a person’s bone marrow cannot produce blood cells effectively. Oster was part of the 2 percent.
If left untreated, the syndrome could lead to leukemia, another form of cancer. In order to avoid leukemia, Oster had to undergo a bone marrow transplant. The transplant would provide him with new bone marrow that would be free from the abnormal cells that make up myelodysplastic syndrome.

A final round of chemotherapy was administered to destroy any existing bone marrow in Oster’s body and make room for the new marrow he would receive during the transplant.

Oster had only been out of the hospital and cancer free for a year before he was placed back in the hospital. This time he had to travel from his home in Athol, Idaho to Seattle to receive the best treatment.

“The transplant made me so immune deficient,” Oster said. “I missed my whole 10th grade year because I couldn’t afford to be around too many people.”
While in Seattle, Oster contracted pneumonia and a hip infection that resulted in another surgery.
“I don’t know if the syndrome caused these things,” he said. “But I’m sure if I didn’t have it I would have been able to fight off those conditions.”
Although the bone marrow transplant was difficult, Oster said it was easier to deal with than the cancer itself.

“During the transplant I didn’t get as sick as I was with chemo,” Oster said. “I was in the hospital for three weeks less than they said I would be.”
Despite missing two years of school, he tried his best to remain optimistic, he said and believes that is what helped him through the traumatic experience.
“My prognosis was always really good,” Oster said. “I was always sure it would work out for me.”

Now, Oster is approaching his 22nd birthday. He is studying political science at UI and hopes to graduate next year. He doesn’t worry about his cancer anymore, he said.
“I have no fear,” Oster said. “My cancer is not in remission, it’s just gone.”

He plans to participate in Relay for Life for the first time this year because it seems like the right thing to do, he said. He thinks that helping to find a cure for cancer is just as important as helping out for any cause.
“Doing whatever you can to help people is always good,” he said.

Carla’s story
Sophomore Carla Alo-Cabalquinto said a car accident saved her life. After suffering from whip lash and dizzy spells after the crash, she went to the doctor and found out she had a cancerous brain tumor on the right side of her frontal lobe.
“If the car accident hadn’t happened, it would have taken a lot longer for them to find it,” Alo-Cabalquinto said. “It was like God was saying ‘Carla it’s there. Please do something,’ and I was lucky I did.”

The accident was in April 2007. Soon after, she began feeling dizzy. Her mother insisted she visit the Student Health Center and Alo-Cabalquinto went without hesitation.
“They told me I had positional vertigo. That has to do with your ears,” she said. “Luckily my mom is a nurse because she told me that was B.S. and made me get an MRI.”

The MRI revealed the unthinkable — a tumor was blocking the natural flow of her brain.
“The doctor showed me a picture of it. I saw this cauliflower looking thing on my brain,” she said. “I was told I could die at any time.”
Her mother, who was in the Philippines visiting her grandparents at the time, flew home immediately and Alo-Cabalquinto prepared for the first of four extensive brain surgeries in three months.

Her first surgery on June 7, 2007 successfully removed 40 percent of the tumor.
Alo-Cabalquinto had to endure three more surgeries and spend a month in the hospital. Like many others with cancer, she said she had to prepare herself for the worst. She was able to find comfort in her faith and said she knew it was out of her hands.

“You know how before a trip, you pack all your stuff so you are ready to go? That’s how it felt,” she said. “At the hospital it was like I had packed all my stuff and I was ready if it was my time to go.”
Her final surgery was on August 7 and since then Alo-Cabalquinto said she is doing well. Her cancer made her rethink her life and her future and forced her to slow down and appreciate life every day, she said.

Before her diagnosis, Alo-Cabalquinto wanted to go into the Air Force but has changed her mind. She came back to UI in time for the 2007-08 school year, just weeks after her last operation, because she wanted to return to her normal life as soon as possible, she said.

Because the frontal lobe is the part of the brain that controls a person’s emotions, Alo-Cabalquinto said she suffered from depression after the evasive surgery.
“People always say ‘I love you with all my heart,’ but they should really be saying ‘I love you with all my frontal lobe,’” she said. “I was really depressed for months after but I’ve been talking about it to people. In order to heal you have to talk.”

While her body suffered from the operations, Alo-Cabalquinto said it was her appearance after the cancer was gone that is her biggest struggle. In preparation for the surgeries, doctors had to shave off Alo-Cabalquinto’s chest-length hair. It was the hardest part of the ordeal, she said.
“Hair makes you who you are,” she said. “It’s who we as women are, not deep inside but that’s how society sees us. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror until it grew back.”

Her hair loss resulted in a loss of self-confidence and self-esteem, something she said she is still working to regain.
She moved back into her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, and said her sorority sisters have played a huge role in her recovery, alongside her faith in God.
“People always tell me I’m so strong,” Alo-Cabalquinto said. “Don’t tell me I’m strong. My strength came from my faith, from my family.”
Alo-Cabalquinto has been given a 15-20 year survival rate. Her operations removed all of the tumor but she was told the cancer could come back. Because it’s slow growing, she hopes to catch it quickly if it ever does.

“If I make it up to 40 I’ll be the happiest woman alive,” she said.
Because cancer affects so many people, everyone should be willing to get involved with finding a cure, whether it’s donating money or time at events like Relay for Life, she said.

“Relay for Life should be for life. You should fight for this every day,” Alo-Cabalquinto said. “Not just by giving your money but by being educated and being sensitive to people who have cancer, just by listening to someone’s story.”