by KIM HILSENBECK
Glynda DeLong of Kyle has been living with cancer since 1997. After doctors found a 1.7 cm tumor during a baseline mammogram when she was 39, she had surgery to remove it. But it had spread into her lymphatic system – which can be a sneaky place for cancer to hide.
For a time, her breast cancer went into remission thanks to chemotherapy and radiation treatments, as well as a stem cell transplant. She was able to donate her own stem cells for the procedure.
She and her husband were living in Dallas at the time and had two young sons.
“I really wanted to raise those boys,” DeLong said.
And she has. Her sons, Joseph and Josh, are now 27 and 18, respectively.
“They are the absolute joy of my life,” DeLong said.
The pride in her voice is obvious. But DeLong, 54, knows those young men are now facing a future without their mom.
In late November 2011, prolonged back pain sent DeLong to the emergency room. She thought she was having a heart attack. Tests confirmed her cancer returned, this time in her bones, lungs, spine, ribs and brain. It is stage 4.
DeLong wasn’t shocked; she knew it was always a possibility.
“They say, oh, you’re cancer free! But you’re really not,” she said.
She was on medication during all those years in between. DeLong also got regular check-ups and tests.
In 2011, DeLong started cancer treatment again, including two Stereotactic radiosurgery procedures that focused beams of radiation directly into the affected area of her brain.
Her medical team at Texas Oncology in Austin let DeLong know that the cancer is now too far along to do anything, so she is in what’s called palliative care.
“There is no cure. They’re just trying to keep the cancer at bay,” she said.
She is still taking a daily chemotherapy drug as well as pain medication because the cancer in her bones hurts.
She said it’s been tough. Her husband was angry in the beginning of this latest ordeal. He’s better now and able to talk more about it, but she knows how hard it must be on her family.
“It’s always harder on those left behind,” she said.
She knows what she is talking about – from personal experience. DeLong’s father died of colorectal cancer that spread to his liver.
Yet DeLong is facing this new challenge head on. No one knows if she has six months or two years.
“I’m still fighting,” DeLong said. “But it is terminal,” she said. “I would love to think they’re close to a cure. They are learning so much. I feel like they’re on the edge of discovering the one key that will open up all the answers.”
DeLong said her personal slogan these days is, “I don’t have to live forever – just long enough to find a cure.”
The hope of finding a cure is one reason DeLong got involved with the Buda/Kyle Relay for Life, an overnight event from the American Cancer Society that raises money for cancer research.
Two years ago, DeLong created her own team, “Glynda’s Big Hope.” She now has about 25 people members.
“We are second largest in terms of donations,” DeLong said.
Her team raised $1,345 of its $1,500 goal so far.
Meanwhile, DeLong has been planning for when she reaches the end of her journey. DeLong’s mother, who is 88, will likely outlive her daughter.
It’s difficult for her to talk with her mother, who thinks it’s morbid to talk about her eventual demise.
“I tell her, Mom, it’s not morbid, it’s reality,” she said.
DeLong has some specific ideas about how she wants things to go after she passes.
“It’s not going to be a crying thing,” she said.
Yet she still wishes she could live many more years. She was fortunate enough to outlive cancer the first time and see her boys grow up to be men. But she will miss all the things that come later, such as grandchildren.
“I would have been a great grandmother,” DeLong said.
To donate to “Glynda’s Big Hope,” visit www.relayforlife.org and search for her team name.
