From Police Undercover to Retiring due to Cancer Treatment with Glen Kirkpatrick

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In June of 1987, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. That followed a lump appearing in my neck. Labs, diagnostic, surgery, and then received the news that it was cancer.

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Partial golf ball. Kind of protruding, of course. Great concern. I was having fatigue too, yet I had just blamed it on working. Working overtime, working a lot of hours.

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Then the doctor said it was Hodgson's lymphoma. And yet I learned back then, the way they staged it, I had a laparotomy where they cut you open, take out your spleen, they look all around at your lymph nodes. So it was Hodgson's lymphoma, stage three A. 

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I kind of can't believe it now. And I drove myself to a center. Well, what it was like is your skin became painful to the touch. Red sunburn, like a sunburn. And then, symptoms got worse over time, including nausea.

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So you finished the radiation. Was there any other treatment? Did they declare you cancer free? That was the treatment. 

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After 50 radiation treatments. And then, in November of 87, I was deemed to be in remission. 

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I decided I didn't want to be around our house anymore. Nothing wrong with it. But I spent hours and lonely hours of recovering from surgery, and radiation; everything reminded me of what just happened. 

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This time a new one in San Diego. And bone marrow biopsy, and yes, Hodgkin's lymphoma is back. We were just this side of crushed. 

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So as I had more and more treatments, and as my mental health began to be challenged, I grew very depressed, I thought, and it said to myself, this time I will die. 

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The depression was diagnosed as a major depressive episode. It turned out to be drug-resistant, so none of the drugs helped me. And my depression was severe. I had suicidal thoughts. I had one unsuccessful attempt.

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It's a fact, part of my life, yet it's bewildering. When I think about it, chiefly, though, it was effective. 

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I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocyte leukemia, CLL. 

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I wanted to work as long as I could for the police department while I had CLL, and they were open to that. 

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How did you raise the money? We received money through our church and from the police department I worked for.

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As I continued to be just living with this level of fatigue probably my medical insurance changed. So I'm seeing a new oncologist, and he's doing the labs, and we're talking, and he says, you, you don't have chronic lymphocyte leukemia anymore. 

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I was diagnosed with heart valve disease in both the aortic and mitral valves. Really? The radiation fibrosis caused a calcium build-up where the valve opening is the size it's supposed to be. 

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I know you can appreciate this. So along the way, I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome. 

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To learn or appreciate the importance of relationships, family, and friends, you know, and then go share out that burden with them to seek God, which I 

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Accessible to all, perhaps even free, with a system set up where that could happen.

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Thriver Rapid Fire