After year of cancer, Kaysville woman getting better every day
Denise Oyler was diagnosed with breast cancer on June 11, 2015. One year later she is cancer free and finishing up the last of her chemotherapy drugs. "You give up a year of your life to get a lot more years back," said Oyler.
Denise Oyler was diagnosed with breast cancer on June 11, 2015. One year later she is cancer free and finishing up the last of her chemotherapy drugs. "You give up a year of your life to get a lot more years back," said Oyler.
Denise Oyler was diagnosed with breast cancer on June 11, 2015. One year later she is cancer free and finishing up the last of her chemotherapy drugs. "You give up a year of your life to get a lot more years back," said Oyler.
OGDEN — At McKay-Dee Hospital, Denise Oyler, 46, of Kaysville, walks briskly toward the cancer center. Slim, with dark hair, the wife and mother of three, who works with SelectHealth as an account manager, looks very healthy.
But it’s been a rough, tough year for Oyler. She contracted an aggressive form of breast cancer, called HER2, and the recovery process has included PET scans, chemotherapy, lumpectomy surgery, and radiation therapy. But there’s good news for Oyler. The tumor has gone, and now she’s on the upside of recovery. She’ll finish the last of her cancer medication next month and next are scheduled mammograms for a couple of years.
“I’m not 100 percent, but I’m getting better every day,” Denise Oyler said. On Friday, June 3, she participated at the Cancer Survivors celebration at McKay-Dee, part of the nationwide activities for National Cancer Survivors Day on Sunday, June 6.
A MISSIONARY SON’S PROMPTING
A year ago, Oyler’s son, Jake, who is serving an LDS mission in the state of Georgia, told his mom he had a bad feeling about her health. “It prompted me to go to my doctor,” she said.
Ironically, the mammogram did not show cancer, but “my doctor found it on an exam,” Oyler said. She started sessions of chemotherapy, every three weeks, in July. It was brutal, and would put Oyler down for 10 days afterwards.
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“The worst part is it gave me horrible burns on my hands. The skin peeled off my hands,” which turned purple, Oyler recalled. It was so bad that the chemotherapy was stopped after four sessions.
Besides the burns, the dizziness and fatigue were very hard on Oyler. “It’s so hard to describe. You’re just not yourself,” she added.
It was frustrating not to be able to do things she was accustomed to. She was determined to keep working and did so, working from home on days she felt up to it. “I feel like we missed all of summer last year,” she said. She wasn’t there to experience her daughter’s summertime activities, for example.
Things would improve after the chemotherapy, but there was still a long treatment ahead.
HAVE TO LEARN TO ACCEPT HELP
Denise Oyler’s husband, Jeff, is a senior planner for the Davis County Planning Department. He says that initially, he felt fear when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He wanted desperately for her to be healthy.
As his wife battled cancer, with the help of her doctor, Vincent Hansen, and other cancer treatment specialists, Jeff Oyler and family members cared for Denise in the home. It was team that included Jeff, Denise’s sister Michelle Pearce, Jeff and Denise’s youngest child, Maddy, 15, and Denise’s dad, Rich Mayfield, and his wife, May, who had nursing experience. They came home from a mission in Honolulu. Also nearby was oldest son, Josh Oyler, who lives in Wellsville with his wife, Kylie.
“You find that you can do things that you didn’t think you could do,” Jeff Oyler said. That included fixing meals, cleaning the home, taking Denise to the hospital, to the various appointments and treatments, helping her through the very rough 10 days after a chemo appointment, and other tasks.
Jeff admits it was hard for him to accept help from others. But that’s changed. “I had to learn to accept help from other people,” he said. He learned that sometimes one can’t do everything. “We had people who would just show up to clean the house and mow the lawn. You had to learn to appreciate other people being able to help,” he said.
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT CRITICAL
Denise’s sister, Michelle, who lives in Syracuse with her husband, Dave, is the older sister. “It’s heartbreaking when you get the diagnosis. She is my best friend,” Pearce said.
Trepidation was an emotion Michelle felt often, particularly when her sister was waiting for results from a PET scan. “You never knew what the next test was going to say,” she added.
Michelle says she provided emotional support to her sister. “I really tried to be positive and talk her through her anxiety,” Pearce said. There were frequent visits to Denise’s bedside, many talks a day, with Michelle there to listen and provide support.
Pearce recalls the emotion she felt after a PET scan result provided good news. “I just started crying. … It was such a relief,” she recalled.
Jeff Oyler has advice for those who will face cancer: Be a positive personality for the cancer patient. “If I was negative about anything, my wife would kind of collapse,” he said. Being with her, listening to her, loving her, and being positive, all helped his wife, he added.
“It takes a village, I’ll say that,” Denise Oyler said. So many persons, from the doctors and medical professionals, and family, neighborhood, LDS wards, all played a part in helping her fight cancer.
A LUMPECTOMY, FOLLOWED BY RADIATION
After chemotherapy, Denise had lumpectomy surgery at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. She credits herself as being lucky to have avoided a mastectomy. “They had to take more of the mass than they thought,” she said, but they got all of it.
Radiation therapy began after the surgery. “It made me tired but it was a piece of cake compared to chemotherapy,” she said. Through seven weeks, there were 35 treatments. Naps were frequent events during that time, Denise added.
Last fall, after a PET scan showed her clean, was the first time Denise felt relief. When the radiology finished early this year, “I just felt progressively better,” she said.
’TO HAVE HOPE'
For those dealing with cancer, Denise wants them “to have hope.” It’s so critical to success to be hopeful. Every day, there’s advances in cancer research, and her doctors and medical professionals, whom she describes as “angels,” have skills and tools that give cancer sufferers hope.
She appreciated her “tumor board,” a group of doctors and other specialists who studied her case and recommended a form of treatment. Denise also gathered strength from the examples of other cancer patients, and their positive personalities.
“She’s still on the tail end of her treatment,” Jeff Oyler says of his wife’s year of battling cancer. He’s aware of the toll the disease takes. “You kind of have to accept that there is a ‘new normal,'” He said. Denise is exercising again, he said, but she can only go so far … for now.
Despite Denise’s challenge the past year, the Oylers know they are still blessed. “As bad as her cancer was, when you look at other people, you don’t have very far to go to find somebody who is in far worse shape,” Jeff Oyler said.
“As hard as the last year has been, it’s just been an amazing blessing seeing the good in people,” Denise Oyler said.
dgibson@standard.net