After Glioblastoma Strikes, a Family Bonds and Walks Ahead

Photo of Paulette and Rick King by Tony King.

Rick King isn’t one to feel sorry for himself. He can talk about his brain cancer, the frightening symptoms, his uncertain future, and how he was out putting up Christmas lights for his grandchildren a month after his surgery -– all without blinking back a tear. But when he thinks about what his family is doing for him, and the Walk Ahead team they have assembled so determinedly in his honor, that’s when the words catch in his throat. “Things like that put tears in my eyes,” Rick said, haltingly. “It’s so neat what they do. Sometimes they may not speak it, but definitely they always show it.”

The King Family has pulled together for Rick, an operations manager who is just shy of his 56th birthday, and for the larger purpose of defeating the aggressive brain tumor – glioblastoma multiforme – that threatens Rick’s life and the lives of thousands of others each year.

“My family and I are participating in this walk not only to raise funds, but also to raise awareness of this terrible disease,” said Paulette King, Rick’s wife of 36 years. “It’s one of those types of cancer you have no idea about until you’re affected. Then you learn real fast how aggressive it really is.”
 
The Kings, who had raised more than $3,000 as of Thursday, will add to that total with the Rick King Brain Tumor Research Fundraiser on Saturday, Sept. 24, at J. Gumbo’s in Fairfield, Ohio. The event will run from 5 p.m. until closing. Profits from food, drinks, raffles and split-the-pot will be donated to the Walk Ahead event, which benefits research and education at the Brain Tumor Center, a component of the UC Neuroscience Institute.

Paulette and Rick’s Walk Ahead team comprises 43 (and counting) walkers, including their three adult children, Jessica Rodenberg, Tony King and Keith King, and five grandchildren.

“Words can’t express the thoughts and emotions that came over me when we learned of my father’s diagnosis," Tony King said. "After the shock wore off, anger set in. How can this be happening? There’s so much love in this family. Why us?  Days passed, and I came to the realization that this was no way to deal with my emotions.  My dad taught me to play the hand you’re dealt and not complain about it. As I reflect, I only hope that I can make my kids as proud of me as I am of my dad. I choose to walk ahead, by my father’s side.”

Rick’s symptoms began a year ago July. He experienced “flashing off and on” in his left eye and dizziness while on a business trip. A colleague took him to the emergency room, but a physician found nothing wrong with his eye. Then, in early October, Rick began having headaches while on another business trip. “I thought something was wrong,” Rick said. “I was not feeling right, and I knew I needed to see my doctor. I lay down on the hotel bed with my Blackberry on the nightstand, and I pulled the phone over close. Something was coming over me, and I thought I would need to call 911. I couldn’t sleep, and finally I got up at midnight, packed my stuff and drove home. When I arrived in the morning, my wife came out because she was surprised to see me home. She said I was dragging my left leg and limping. I said I didn’t know I was doing it.”

An MRI that day revealed the tumor. Two days later, Rick was wheeled into an operating room, where Christopher McPherson, MD, a neurosurgeon with the UC Brain Tumor Center and Mayfield Clinic, performed Rick’s surgery. “He was able to remove all of the visible tumor,” Paulette said.

“I looked at Dr. McPherson and he was so sincere, so soothing,” Rick said. “I could see it in his eyes that he was hoping for the best. It gave me some extra strength.”

Rick recovered quickly from the surgery, and two weeks later he was back at work.

But as so often happens with glioblastoma, an elusive, diffuse cancer with microscopic filaments, Rick’s tumor has returned. But this time, it has been deemed inoperable. Rick, who continues to work, is undergoing chemotherapy and will soon start radiation treatments. Stoic and grateful, he thanks Dr. McPherson for giving him “an extra 12 months to get things organized and ready to cherish what time I had left on this earth.”

He credits his family as another reason for his survival. “Every time I look in my grand-kids’ eyes, it gives me another day to want to hang on,” Rick said. “And obviously with my wife, from Day 1, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. When it was time to get something in my belly, she almost force-fed me if I didn’t feel like eating.”

“It’s hard to describe how you feel watching someone that you love so dearly go through something so difficult,” Rick’s daughter, Jessica, said. “You feel all you can do is stay strong and positive for them. We have always been a very close family that spends a lot of time with each other. We always spend our summer vacation together, all thirteen of us. Through all of the ups and downs my family has gone through in the last year, since my dad’s diagnosis, he is determined to fight this and he has all of us standing beside him.”

“You could sit back and get mad at the world,” Rick said, “but why? I’ve been blessed with a wife of 36 years, three children and five grandchildren. We all love each other; we get together every weekend. I have nothing to be mad about. I’ve had a great 56 years of my life. I have to make the best of each day I have. Then again, there’s nothing I’ve seen that says I only have so much time. I tell myself I’m going to be around, knowing there’s a good chance that I won’t. But I know that how well I’m going to do is based on how I think.”

The family’s efforts to raise money, he said, are not about him. “It’s about finding a cure for this. That’s the main thing. Maybe that extra dollar or two will give someone that extra few months. There will be others after me. I want every penny to go to helping researchers find a cure.”

-- Cindy Starr