RIVER RYAN, N.S. — Tommy DeGiobbi never had time to worry about loss through his life, only about living.
Over the years, the River Ryan man has lost an arm, most of a lung and a kidney.
“It’s all about doing what I have to do, wanting to live,” he said.
Along with an inspirational outlook on everything, he never lost the sense of humour he’s noted for.
“God can’t handle me all at once, he’s taking me in pieces,” he joked.
IT ALL STARTED WITH A FALL
Everything started with a simple accident that DeGiobbi credits to saving his life.
DeGiobbi worked in the coal mines for 22 years beginning on June 4, 1979, at age 18 at Lingan mine. In 2000, he was 40 years old and working at Prince Mine, when he slipped and fell in the pit, banging his elbow. DeGiobbi went to Dr. Joseph Roach, who ordered an x-ray at the New Waterford Hospital.
“He asked me to bring it back,” he said. “In those days you would bring them back down to outpatients.”
Roach looked at the x-rays and said, “No, there’s more than an injury here Tommy.”
DeGiobbi was sent to orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Collicutt at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital for a scan of his arm. Diagnosing it most likely as cancer, DeGiobbi was sent to the
QE2 Health Sciences Centre in Halifax for a biopsy.
Three weeks later, DeGiobbi still hadn’t heard from the hospital, so he called.
“The doctor said, ‘I want you up in the office right away.”
DeGiobbi and his wife Sharon drove to Halifax for what they thought would be a consultation. However, after arriving, DeGiobbi was told he was being admitted.
“We were in shock,” Sharon said.
They didn’t know what was going on until the doctor appeared at about 8:30 a.m. the next day.
“He came in and said, “The arm has got to go,” DeGiobbi said. “He said, ‘It’s cancer.'”
Sharon was staying nearby with a friend and will never forget that phone call.
“Tommy said, 'They are taking my arm at 12 o’clock,'” Sharon remembered. “I just lost it.”
DeGiobbi's arm was amputated three and a half hours later.
Following the operation, he wasn’t concerned about only having one arm and didn’t even know it was gone until he looked.
“I was just concerned that they got all the cancer,” he said.
The next day, the doctor came in asking how he was feeling having just lost an arm.
“I told him, “I’d rather live with one arm than die with two,” DeGiobbi said.
Sharon said her husband’s attitude was amazing. She remembers while being discharged three weeks later, the nurse asking her to go in the bathroom to help her husband get dressed.
“Tommy said, ‘No,'” Sharon said. “And he did it all by himself. It took time but he did it.”
When they returned home everything remained the same. It just took patience and Sharon said her husband had it.
“I was working so he was on his own for eight hours of the day,” she said. “He had to learn to do it all himself.”
DeGiobbi said the only change was learning to do things with one arm, instead of two.
“It might have taken me an hour to shovel the driveway at one time and it takes me eight hours now,” he said.
DeGiobbi knew he couldn’t go back in the pit. However, it was around the time the mines all began closing.
“I loved it,” he said reminiscing about his years in the mines. “If I had my health I’d be there tomorrow.”
THE LUNG
DeGiobbi went under six months of intense chemotherapy. Doctors also began taking scans every six months.
Then in 2004, doctors found some spots on his lungs. They unsuccessfully had tried a needle biopsy at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital, but the spots were in too deep. In 2005, he underwent a second lung operation to remove some spots and a big mass was discovered on one lung. However, he was sedated on the operating table and the doctors couldn’t take his lung without his permission. So in 2007, he underwent a third operation.
“He took the mass off and it was all silicosis,” DeGiobbi said. “Thank God for that but I lost the whole upper lobe of my lung.”
It was supposed to be a four-hour surgery and it ended up being 14 hours.
“That was a bad one for me,” Sharon said. “No one came to talk to me to let me know what was going on.”
DeGiobbi remained in an induced coma for over a week.
THE KIDNEY
After this point, doctors told DeGiobbi he didn’t need CT scans anymore but he insisted on continuing them. Never having pain, the only reason cancer was detected was through the scans.
That’s a decision he’ll always be grateful for. In 2010, doctors found a mass on one of his kidneys.
“I said, ‘See?’" said DeGiobbi. “Without the test, I never would have never known.”
Another loss and another operation was the furthest worry on his mind.
“I’m just glad it was found,” he said.
DeGiobbi's only concern was wanting it out right away. The following week one of his kidneys was removed.
Sharon said urologist Dr. Dale Miller told her the tumour in her husband’s kidney was massive, as big as his fist.
Waking up without one of his kidneys wasn’t a concern for DeGiobbi.
“I told (the doctor), 'I hope you got the last cell,'” he said. “I never think of what they are taking. I think of what I have to do to live.”
DeGiobbi said the good part was every time he lost part of his body, it was something he had two of anyway.
“I can live with one arm, I can live with one lung and with one kidney,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it. It’s something I’ve always had two of.”
DeGiobbi now has a consultation with the doctor every six months, continues to insist on annual CT.
“There’s no way of knowing he has cancer in him as he doesn’t have pain from it and it doesn’t show up in the blood work,” Sharon said. “So it has to be a scan.”
THE FALL, THE DOCTOR, AND THE ROCK
DeGiobbi said even though he credits the fall in the mine for saving his life, it was also the late Dr. Joseph Roach who studied the x-ray and caught the first cancer in his arm.
Roach, well respected and loved in the town, died in 2005.
“I wish I could have helped him with his illness like he did with mine,” DeGiobbi added quietly.
In the meantime, DeGiobbi enjoys his great loves of being outside, visiting the guys at a nearby horse barn, walking and going for drives, but especially spending time with his four children, nine grandchildren and his wife.
DeGiobbi has been joined every step of the way by Sharon, who he calls ‘his rock.'
“If I need help she’s there for me,” he said. “She has been there, been excellent. She’s my left arm.”
