RODNEY, N.S. — Never underestimate the power of prayer or having an unshakable faith.
It has been nearly a year since 20-year-old Rodney resident Curtis McCormick first learned he had cancer and was given the news he probably wouldn’t survive.
“When I found out I had cancer I thought, ‘Holy crap, I’m going to die,’” said McCormick. “It was the hardest news I had ever received.”
He started experiencing pain in his side last year and soon had difficulty breathing. His first trip to the doctor suggested he may have pulled a muscle between his ribs, but it was the second trip to the doctor, this time to the ER at the Aberdeen hospital in New Glasgow where he was a student, that led to the diagnosis of a rare synovial sarcoma that, at first, was behind his left lung before growing to surround the lung.
It was the hardest news I had ever received. ~ Curtis McCormick
“When I was being triaged and the nurse was trying to listen to my breathing with a stethoscope and she couldn’t hear any air coming into my lungs,” Curtis said. “That’s when they sent me for an X-ray. I knew it wasn’t a pulled muscle, but I didn’t know what it was ... I tried to ignore it for as long as I could until I couldn’t anymore.”
Soon after the diagnosis, he began a difficult regimen of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, through which he struggled with symptoms like extreme nausea and a loss of energy. He had his first surgery last fall to remove the tumour but the reality was the tumour could - and would - grow back and it was likely he wouldn’t survive.
“Sarcomas are very aggressive beasts and unless they are completely removed or killed by radiation they will grow back and spread to other areas of the body,” Curtis's mother, Linda McCormick, said. “That’s why the surgery last fall, getting out 95 per cent of the tumour wasn’t enough.”
After being told by doctors in Halifax there wasn’t anything they could do, the family celebrated what would be their last Christmas together while, at the same time, clinging to hope they would get some good news from Toronto. Surgeons and oncologists there looked at Curtis's file and immediately set up an appointment for him to go to Toronto where they confirmed they would treat him.
Earlier this year, he suffered a serious setback when he started coughing up blood and spent several days in hospital in Halifax, but he bounced back before heading to Toronto. There, he underwent radiation treatment on an out-patient basis in Toronto until the second surgery on July 30 removed the tumour - this time hopefully for the final time.
Looking back at his journey, he said his faith in God helped him get through it. That and tremendous support from the community.
“I prayed, a lot and there were a lot of people praying for me,” said Curtis, who is going to re-enter the carpentry program this month - this time at NSCC Springhill. “I didn’t feel like I had the strength to do it.”
We were told so many times he probably wasn’t going to make it. ~ Linda McCormick
Throughout his battle, Linda continued to update the community through a Facebook group and issued prayer requests that were answered by hundreds of people in Springhill, around Nova Scotia, the country and even across the globe.
While his oncologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto told the family it could consider him cancer-free at this time, Curtis is not taking anything for granted.
“I don’t feel as though I’m in the clear yet. There’s always a chance it could come back, but I’m doing my best to be optimistic and act as though everything is going to be good from here on out,” he said. “There’s no tumour there now, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one or two cancer cells still there.”
He will continue to go for a CT-scan every three months to make sure the tumour does not return.
Linda said the past year has been difficult for her son and the entire family.
“We were told so many times he probably wasn’t going to make it,” she said. “We were told so many times that the tumour was growing too aggressively, and they didn’t think it was operable. You just can’t switch that off. We’d like to be able to switch that off, to celebrate, to party but you can’t see your inside and while the surgeon has taken it out and irradiated around it and you’re probably good it’s still really hard.”
Linda said she is amazed at her son’s mental toughness throughout, adding she felt like she was a ‘basket case’ throughout.
“It has been really hard, almost like war. He had this peace about him. I really think it was all the people praying for him,” she said. “It really helped him through that.”
Now, Curtis is preparing for school and looking forward to getting out of isolation on Sept. 6. He still lacks energy and hasn’t regained his appetite as of yet. Linda believes her stress level will fade when he returns to school and begins going out with friends again.
