Lion Of A Man Takes Battle To Cancer

Lion Of A Man Takes Battle To Cancer

Self-described Manly Man Fights Children’s Cancer Strain

Newark, Del. – Bill Potter completed his first four-day block of chemotherapy treatment Sunday morning at Christiana Hospital at about 10 a.m. The block was the first step in what will eventually be a six to eight month slog for Mr. Potter to battle back from Burkitt’s Lymphoma, diagnosed about a month ago.

Even so, the first four-day block is significant, he said.

“This puts everything in motion,” Potter said. “It kind of sets the stage. The initial treatment – I’m told – kills both good cells and bad cells and that will likely make me feel lousy for a while, maybe seven to fourteen days.

“After that I should rebound and get feeling a bit better. At some point the process will start again.”

Generally speaking each block of chemo, feeling lousing, and recovering is part of a 21-day alternating cycle designed to aggressively knock the cancer on its heels.

The leaning forward approach to battling Burkitt’s, an extremely rare cancer in the United States, is needed because of the aggressive nature of the disease and how early it was found in Potter.

“Lucky, lucky, lucky,” he said. “This thing was discovered in stage two, it is usually discovered much later. We kick this thing in the tail now, while it is still young; this could all just be an unpleasant bump in the road.”

Potter is somewhat anxious about the feeling lousy, which is traditionally the next step.

“Simply put, I’m a cry baby,” He said. “My hair might fall out – which is no big deal really – and I’ll do some puking, and feel run down and be susceptible to other people’s germs.

“I’m not looking forward to that. The only thing that makes that better is I may lose all those patches of hair that show up in odd places when you turn 50.”

Bill Potter can be reached at 302-733-6229 or Lettice123@yahoo.com