Living life to the fullest
by Abbi Swanson · October 25, 2007

It looked like a pretty normal day at the Mount Vernon home of Chris and Christine Rodman and their family, which includes son Carter, 10, and daughters Quinn, 6, Emma, 4, and Skyler, 1. Except that recently life hasn’t been quite as normal as it was for the Rodmans in the past.

Christine was diagnosed with breast cancer Sept. 7, after some incorrect diagnoses over a period of several months. She now has stage four breast cancer that has

metasticized into the bones in her upper back, thigh and breast bone, and she is undergoing four courses of chemotherapy, with plans to follow up with a double mastectomy, not yet scheduled.

Christine, 37, was busy picking up one small child off the floor of her home, feeding another one, and also her husband, Chris, 38, last week, as she prepared for the first birthday celebration of their youngest of four children, daughter Skyler. Her husband Chris is employed by the City of Mount Vernon in public works, and was home for his lunch break.

“My oncologist, Dr. Ghosh, said, ‘Live life to the fullest if you feel up to it. You don’t want to miss out,’” Christine said.

Some of her well-meaning friends had suggested she stop attending functions where there might be a lot of people spreading germs. It’s another example, she added, of continuing her life as normally as possible, following a very tough diagnosis. She has been nursing her daughter, Skyler, and thought last April that she had clogged milk ducts, then later, when pain worsened, an infection called mastitis.

After seeing two doctors at a local clinic in Mount Vernon, she experienced a lot of pain the week school started in August and she was referred to Cedar Rapids for a mammogram. She said no shadows showed up on the picture, and an abscess was what she and others assumed was the problem. She had been prescribed antibiotics. By this time, Christine was experiencing redness, soreness, swelling and lots of difficulty breastfeeding.

She then saw a surgeon, and a biopsy of one of two problem areas was performed. That’s when a phone call to her home, from a nurse, confirmed a diagnosis of cancer.

“I couldn’t really wrap my brain around that,” Christine said, due in part to the long process for a correct diagnosis and the assumption the problem was caused by abscesses. She was home, alone, holding Skyler when she listened to the nurse’s news. Chris came home

immediately, and Christine said, “Actually, I was relieved. We could cry, then plan ahead.”

After a CT scan showed where the cancer had spread into her bones, Christine began seeing an oncologist, and the first course of chemo started. This way, her husband Chris said, the cancer in the bone can be attacked first, to eradicate it, followed by removal of the breasts. The other way around, he said, would force his wife’s body to build immunities and antibodies at the sites of the breast tumors, and it’s the bone cancers that need the most

aggressive healing initially.

The help from friends, Christine said, especially Marsha Light, who also has had breast cancer and has been “like a mentor,” has been overwhelming. The support that comes from a small town, she said, is

wonderful. Light said later that Christine was such a positive person; they were scheduled to participate in the Breast Cancer Awareness run/walk on a recent Sunday, when rain cancelled the event.

“We’ll just run it next year,” Rodman told Light.

Christine said the Washington Elementary school counselor Jeff Risk was organizing a support group to include other children whose parents or family members have cancer. The Rodmans are being honest and open with their children about her illness, Christine said. Chris

shaved his head in support of his wife when her hair fell out from chemotherapy.

Light, who said she “just wanted to give back, after all the community had done for me when I was sick,” planned a surprise for the Rodmans, a benefit soup/chili supper and silent auction to be held this Friday at the Mount Vernon fire station, from 4 to 7 p.m., right before the last Mount Vernon home football game for this season.

The Rodmans found out about the benefit after they learned one of their daughters, Emma, had let Light borrow a family portrait. Next thing they knew, there was the picture on a flyer for the benefit. Funds raised will help pay incidental and other costs, Chris Rodman said. “You plan for the big ones, like an MRI, but it’s all the co-

pays, the extras that add up, that can be hard to have ready funds available for, he said, adding his benefits as a city employee are very helpful. Light said she started helping by creating a meal calendar for friends of the Rodman family to sign up and bring food. That was very successful, so she approached Adam Flockhart, a co-worker of Chris Rodman’s on the city payroll, and also a firefighter.

He agreed that a fundraiser would be a great idea, and using the fire station was put into action.

As she played with the children at home on Skyler’s birthday, Christine said, “There are good days and bad days. You just keep going.” This day, the celebration of the birth one year ago of their daughter would be underway in earnest soon and it looked like the Rodman family would be enjoying her birthday, and life, to the fullest.