Eric Palmer family battling through highs and lows since his diagnosis with rare form of cancer

by Kelli Boylen
freelance writer

Eric Palmer of Waukon has always been the type of person to just keep pushing through when he didn’t feel well. In the last 25 years, he says he has only been sick enough to go to the doctor a handful of times.

But when he started having headaches every day during a week in late of last fall he knew something wasn’t right.  The headaches were severe enough that he would get nauseous and sick while doing farm chores.

Monday, November 21, he went to the clinic in Waukon to get checked out. His appointment was at 1:30 p.m., and by 2 p.m. he had a CAT scan that showed a possible tumor. By 3 p.m. an MRI was completed, which showed a mass in the right temporal area of his brain.

“We are so thankful Waukon has the medical facilities with good care like they do,” Eric said. “That is something we certainly don’t take for granted anymore.”

His wife, Stephanie, quickly made phone calls to find someone to take care of feeding and 4 p.m. milking of their dairy cows that first night. By 5 p.m. they were headed for La Crosse, WI, where he was admitted to Mayo and surgery was scheduled for Wednesday. What Eric and Stephanie thought was just going to be a doctor’s appointment turned into Eric not coming home for just over two weeks.

Their children, Madalyn (age 14), Emma (age 12), Keagan (age 9) and Sophia (age 6), stayed with their grandparents, Greg and Marlene Palmer, who also live on the family farmstead in rural Waukon.

Eric’s dad, Greg Palmer, and their families helped as much as they were able. Greg really stepped in and ran the farm’s day-to-day operations.  Their regular hired milking help was a big help by filling in the milking schedule in Stephanie’s absence. They   were able to hire a neighbor, Lyle Stock, to work for them full time on the farm during the winter. Lyle helped the Palmers while maintaining his own operation, and so, Jim Thesing helped out as needed as well.

The Wednesday surgery seemed to go well, but Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) it was discovered that Eric could not move the left side of his body. Another round of CAT scans and MRIs determined that he had suffered a stroke.
He was in intensive care for two days; Stephanie says he doesn’t remember the worst of it. He then started physical therapy that very first day.

“It was amazing how fast he progressed,” Stephanie said. “Every 12 to 24 hours we could actually see some type of improvement.” Within a week he could walk with a walker and as a left-handed person, he had to relearn some life skills he used his hands for.
“It was very humbling to watch him struggle to walk,” recalls Stephanie. “He was a healthy, 43-year-old man.”

Having recovered enough, Tuesday, November 29 he was transferred to the local swing bed care center in Waukon. Eric remained there for another week, continuing intense therapy. He was finally able to return home December 5.
Pathology reports showed Eric has an uncommon and very aggressive form of cancer.

The medical staff in La Crosse had proposed having Eric in a study for his radiation, which required he be treated in Rochester, MN. They felt that being part of the study would give him the best chance for long-term health. The study means that he received higher levels of radiation in spots, and it will also have medical professionals closely monitor how his treatments are progressing for the next five years and comparing it to other treatments.

Even with health insurance, the Palmers still must pay for their deductibles and co-pays for the treatments and doctor appointments like anyone else receiving medical care. The study only helps with the costs associated with PET scans.

Stephanie stayed with their kids as much as she could during this time so things remained as normal as possible for them. She also resumed her usual duties on the farm; juggling her time between Eric’s needs and appointments, the kids and the farm.
During week five of the chemotherapy and radiation, Eric had an adverse reaction to something. What started as a simple rash erupted into huge red hives head to toe.  He had severe edema, to the point that his ankles swelled so quickly that the skin blistered.

The most severe symptoms lasted more than two weeks; everything itched, then everything peeled. “I kept thinking it would be the last bad day, but the next day would be worse. Finally, it ran its course,” Eric said.

Cancer patients get to ring a bell on their last day of radiation treatments as a celebration. Eric said he had been so looking forward to doing that. “I was going to knock the heck out of it, but when the time came I felt so miserable that it wasn’t the high point I had hoped for.”

They were never able to determine what caused the reaction, either the antibiotics he was taking to prevent pneumonia, or the chemotherapy drug. There is only one chemotherapy drug believed to treat the type of cancer Eric has, so options are limited.
He recently started another round of oral chemotherapy, which he can take at home.  This round of treatments will last for six months. Just before they started the chemo they tried to “desensitize” him to the chemo drug, and thus far things are going well.

The first few weeks of his first round of treatments in Rochester he stayed in a motel, but after that he was able to stay at the Hope Lodge, where up to 60 cancer patients can stay in their own rooms with shared kitchen and living rooms spaces.

It is still unknown if Eric will be able to ever return full time to their family dairy farm, how much he will physically be able to do, or how the cancer and the treatments will affect him into the future.  “The side effects of the treatments can show up for years, it is a big unknown,” says Stephanie.

“We just don’t know what is going to happen,” Eric says. “We are praying and planning for a full recovery and to stand on our own two feet again, but we just really don’t know.”

“The most recent brain scans looked promising,” Stephanie says. “But we are dealing with cancer and there are no guarantees.”

The Palmers stressed that they are so appreciative of all that has been done for them thus far; Stephanie didn’t even have to cook for more than a month. She says, “The community support has been phenomenal, and it has helped us to maintain some normalcy for the kids. Nothing rallies like a small town.”

The family has insurance, but there are co-pays and high deductibles, and there is the costs of extra hired help on the farm. They also have been putting a lot of miles on their vehicles, traveling back and forth to La Crosse and then Rochester. There will also be years of continued follow-up medical care.