By GREG JORDAN
BLUEFIELD — Even while battling a rare variety of cancer, Lisa keeps finding signs of hope.
Lisa Poole, 41, once lived in Pocahontas, Va., but now resides in a Bluefield apartment building with a name that helps keeps her spirits up — Hope. It’s a word that has kept appearing ever since she was diagnosed with cancer in 2004.
Since that time, the cancer — adenoid cystic carcinoma or ACE for short — has injured her face and claimed her ability to speak. Despite this, Poole keeps communicating by writing and texting. Sometimes people who are familiar with her story, such as her cousin Courtney Lewis of Bluefield and her mother Patsy Deel, help her tell it.
Using the written word and texting intermingled speech from family, Poole gradually told her story.
“There are very few people who have it,” Lewis said of the cancer while Poole listened. “Her doctor said this was the second or third...”
Poole held up three fingers.
“..third he had seen in 25 years,” Lewis continued.
Poole offered some handwritten pages. Her experience with cancer began two years before the diagnosis. Three months after a tooth was pulled, a painful knot appeared under her tongue.
“I told my doctor it hurt and after months sent me to a jaw specialist. I went to him for over a year. He got tired of listening to me cry over the pain, (and) sent me to an ENT doctor.”
This doctor performed a biopsy, taking a sample of the knot for diagnosis. The tests showed it was cancerous.
“First time (I) was diagnosed with cancer was March 19, 2004. A week later, I was in an eight-hour surgery. I spent nine days in intensive care and eight days in a regular room, two weeks in all. They pulled my teeth, cut out half my gum, and the tumor underneath my tongue was so big, they had to cut out half my tongue and moved it a little to cover the hole. When they cut it in half, my tongue became paralyzed.”
Multiple surgeries included reconstructive work with metal and three weeks of radiation treatment, she wrote. Bone from her right leg and skins grafts were used to rebuild her jaw. And she had to endure the news many cancer patients hear; despite treatments, the cancer had returned.
Despite all the setbacks and treatments, Poole said she continues to find hope.
“When I moved into the apartment...the apartment is called Hope Apartments. I bought a watch. Just as soon as I got it home and looked at the heart it, it said ‘Hope,’” she said. “I got a present from a stranger (a bracelet). It has ‘Hope’ on it.”
Hope kept coming from unexpected places.
“Also before I had surgery the second time, I was looking up my cancer on the Internet. I found out that Peter Tork of The Monkees had surgery in March for ACE on his tongue. I wrote to him in December 2009.”
Tork, part of the rock band that had a television show in the 1960s, sent Poole a signed postcard, a signed compact disc and a bracelet. The word “hope” is on it.
Poole said that such encouragement, plus the support of her family and friends, has helped her cope, so she wants to encourage others battling cancer and help raise funds for research. First, don’t give up after getting the diagnosis of cancer.
“She doesn’t want to people to give up. Scream, shout, then calm down, take a deep breath, and prepare for the battle of your life,” Lewis said. “I know everybody asks why this had to happen, but it couldn’t have happened to a stronger person. I couldn’t deal with half the stuff she’s been going through.”
“Aunts, uncles, cousins, everybody’s been right here for her,” said Poole’s mother, Patsy.
Poole said she and her family had formed “Team Hope” to march with American Cancer Society fundraisers, and that she hoped others would join in the effort to raise funds for research and care.
“I would rather I go through this than any member of my family or my kids or any kids,” she wrote. “If me getting cancer helps keep a little baby from getting cancer, I would go through it ten times more.”
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
