<p>Cancer wasn’t his toughest battle.</p>
<p>Neil Dixon watched his parents deteriorate then his father die in the aftermath of a heinous crime he still can’t believe happened in Franklin, his hometown. He lost two other family members and a best friend friend to murder.</p>
<p>His life was a series of unfortunate events.</p>
<p>The local architect wanted to share his story so others who are diagnosed with cancer understand the importance of getting a second opinion and staying positive, but also so they realize it is not the worst thing that could happen.</p>
<p>Life is about making the most of the time you’ve got, he said. Cancer isn’t the only thing that can take it all away.</p>
<p><strong>The cancer: It all</strong></p>
<p><strong>happened so fast</strong></p>
<p>He beat it — the cancer. Last year, the 64-year-old passed the five-year mark, the point when doctors tell cancer patients their chances of the disease reoccurring are much lower.</p>
<p>He’s not worried.</p>
<p>He was, when he was first diagnosed, but not about the cancer. He was worried about how it might affect his family who had already been through so much.</p>
<p>Nearly six years ago, Dixon learned he had rectal cancer. He reacted quickly, and so did his doctors. After spotting blood in his stool, he went to the doctor where he immediately underwent testing. The doctors sent him to a gastroenterologist, who scheduled a colonoscopy, he said.</p>
<p>It all happened so fast, he recalled.</p>
<p>“After the procedure, I almost expected to have the doctor tell me I had ‘irritable bowel syndrome’ or some other such condition,” Dixon said. “’No,’ he said “Mr. Dixon, you just saved your life’ … He said, ‘You have rectal cancer.’”</p>
<p>He didn’t know how to react at first, he said.</p>
<p>“For whatever reason, I didn’t panic and was more concerned about how this could affect my family than me. I just knew there wasn’t anything I could do but keep thinking on my feet and listen to and trust the doctors,” he said.</p>
<p>Two days later, he had a battery of scans and blood work done. The gastroenterologist scheduled another minor operation, a biopsy, and he was assigned to a colorectal surgeon who would be in charge of his treatment moving forward, he said.</p>
<p>At that point, his doctors disagreed about whether the tumor was stage 1 or stage 3 cancer.</p>
<p>Initially, the surgeon recommended a series of chemotherapy treatments along with radiation therapy, and completely removing his rectum several months later and giving him a colostomy bag, which he would have had for the rest of his life, the doctor told him. The surgeon agreed to wait until the results of the biopsy and blood work came back, but there was still a disagreement between doctors about whether it was stage 1 or stage 3 cancer.</p>
<p>So the surgeon referred him to an oncologist, he said.</p>
<p>“After seeing the blood run out of my wife’s face and fear come over her, I thought maybe I should do something else,” Dixon said. “My sister-in-law was suffering through the terminal cancer of her own mom and recommended that I get a second opinion.”</p>
<p>It couldn’t hurt, he remembered thinking.</p>
<p>“If the radical approach was what I needed to stay alive, fine. But I wanted to know more,” Dixon said.</p>
<p>After talking to his sister-in-law and doing a little more research, he called Indiana University Health and scheduled a meeting with another highly ranked colorectal surgeon to get his opinion. That surgeon agreed with Dixon’s two gastroenterologists that the tumor was stage 1, not stage 3. But the only way to know for sure was to have the tumor removed, the surgeon told him.</p>
<p>“The radical approach was still on the plate, but there was hope,” Dixon said.</p>
<p>The next month was the hardest part, he said. He was diagnosed in late November, but his surgery wasn’t until January.</p>
<p>“Of course, when you know you have cancer, nothing is soon enough. So you wait and go over in your mind all the scenarios that could come about. You try to stick to your normal schedule and go to work and get ready for Christmas and just wait,” Dixon said.</p>
<p>By the time the date for the surgery came around, a large snow storm was heading toward Indianapolis. Dixon and his wife booked a hotel downtown to make sure they wouldn’t have any problems getting to the hospital.</p>
<p>“It did snow a lot, and if we had waited, we probably would have had a tough time getting there, but being close, we only had a matter of blocks — not miles — to go,” he said. “The doctor called early to see if I was going to be there. I said I was, and he fought his way downtown.”</p>
<p>Dixon had the surgery and learned later that it was a stage 1 tumor, not stage 3.</p>
<p>As the next days then weeks passed, it became more and more apparent Dixon had dodged a bullet, he said. The tumor had not spread into the lining of the rectum or any part of the colon. Doctors had warned Dixon that once this type of cancer gets started and spreads through the colon or rectum, it can spread almost everywhere, he said.</p>
<p>He knows he is one of the lucky ones, he said.</p>
<p>“After feeling so depressed and worried about having such an unfortunate thing happen, I now felt like I had won the lottery,” Dixon said.</p>
<p><strong>Life and time and patience</strong></p>
<p>Still, it was another five years of constant monitoring and blood work and regular colonoscopies to make sure the cancer didn’t come back.</p>
<p>During that time, something scarier happened.</p>
<p>His elderly parents were tied up and held hostage in their Franklin home two years ago when a locally convicted felon broke in and stole the couple’s money, guns and car. His dad, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Dementia, faded fast, Dixon said. He never recovered from the traumatic experience.</p>
<p>His dad died in April, and his mom, although still “sharp as a tack,” he said, has declining health.</p>
<p>More recently, Dixon has suffered from repeated kidney stones, and honestly, they hurt worse than the cancer or surgery did, he said.</p>
<p>All of those misfortunes combined have taught Dixon to appreciate life and time and patience, he said. He hasn’t let any of it change him. He takes it easier, sure, but he still gets up and goes to work everyday, designing buildings locally and throughout central Indiana. He still enjoys having a beer — just one — at Greek’s or Jefferson Street Pub.</p>
<p>“You can’t change anything once it happens,” Dixon said. “If you don’t learn to accept life’s misfortunes, if you stew in it, you’ll just end up losing your mind. You just have to keep a positive attitude.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="At a glance" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p><strong>What has cancer taught you?</strong></p>
<p>It has taught me, more than anything, to appreciate life and time and patience. I don’t want anyone to get cancer, but sometimes I think that’s what it takes to make you appreciate those things.</p>
<p><strong>How has cancer changed you?</strong></p>
<p>It’s simply made me more aware of what goes on in my body, what kind of foods I eat and how much sleep I get. Certainly, I don’t go overboard. But obviously, I can still drink a beer or do a few things. But I don’t push myself physically like I used to.</p>
<p><strong>What would you tell someone just diagnosed?</strong></p>
<p>Don’t be afraid. Don’t get overexcited. Trust your doctors, listen very carefully and take their advice. They will be the most calming influence. Some people will say they battled cancer. Well, you’re not doing the battling, your doctors are doing the battling. But your attitude is part of the fight, and that’s how you overcome it. If you get depressed, I think that has a really negative effect on the whole thing.</p>
<p>Listen to faith-centered music. I listened to things I listened to growing up in the church. Certain songs can calm you and keep you centered on, not yourself, but life. Those kinds of things can give you a positive outlook.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Dixon File" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Neil Dixon</p>
<p>Age: 64</p>
<p>Diagnosis: Stage 1 rectal cancer</p>
<p>Treatment: Surgery to remove the tumor</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
