Posted: 3/22/05
ëHermaní still upbeat despite cancer
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Heís lost about 60 pounds and most of his hair, but Kenny ìHermanî Schmitz hasnít lost hope.
Schmitz, 52, discovered some terrible news on November 8 of last year: he has stomach cancer.
Since then he has gone through an ordeal that is all too familiar to cancer victims and their loved ones. There has been intense chemotherapy, with its side effects of weight loss, hair loss, constipation, mouth sores, pneumonia.
He has a feeding tube inserted into his small intestine that feeds him for eight hours every night. He needs it because he has lost his appetite for certain foods, and he canít eat some foods such as peanuts because his stomach canít digest them.
Schmitz also wears a medicine pump that automatically injects drugs into a port that goes directly into his blood stream.
But Schmitz has put the grim illness into a good perspective. He shared some of those thoughts on March 11.
We sat at the kitchen table of his beautiful home on Esch Road in section 29 of Mayville township. His wife, Bonnie, 45, joined us, which was only right. They have been married for six years. She has been an equal partner in dealing with the cancer. Their five-year-old son, Willy, flew in and out of the kitchen as we talked.
Kenny said he knew something was wrong last fall. He went in for a physical exam on October 29, then got the news about his cancer 10 days later.
ìItís a freaky deal,î Kenny said. ìWe never dreamed it was cancer.î He said he had always passed his physicals.
His doctor told them that it was in the fourth of four stages, and an operation would not work. ìThat wasnít a good day,î Bonnie said.
He and Bonnie kept the news to themselves for the next 17 days, until Thanksgiving. Kenny didnít want to spoil the fun of deer hunting season with his relatives. Bonnie said that was hard for her. She works as a medicine assistant in the Alzheimers unit of Tweeten Health Services in Spring Grove.
Chemotherapy started on December 28 at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Treatments are done in nine-week-long programs. He is on his second round of those. Kenny also goes in every three weeks for a big chemotherapy treatment, and he has his pump refilled with medicine every two weeks.
Kenny said his last cat scan showed that the cancer was thinning out in his stomach, and the spots on his liver were getting smaller. He expects these improvements to continue, and thinks he will have a ìmop-upî operation in the fall.
A good attitude
Kenny wants to make sure that everything is in order for Bonnie and Willie. He said he is looking ahead, not behind. ìIím not going to go back and say, ëWhy me?íî he said. ìMy first main goal is to mow lawn in the spring of the year.
Bonnie laughed when he said that. She has a good sense of humor that came out many times during our visit.
Watching cancer patients at Gundersen Lutheran has given Kenny some other equally positive perspectives. He is amazed at how content some people appear despite knowing that they will be going through painful treatments. ìTheyíre the nicest people in the world,î he said. ìItís amazing, the whole cancer system is one big family.î
He paused, then added, ìYou donít see too many people sitting in that hallway crying.î Including Kenny.
Bonnie agreed. ìItís amazing the good that comes out of that,î she said. Kennyís doctors and nurses have been very good, she said.
Has there been a lot of kindness and support shown? ìBig time,î Bonnie answered quickly.
Kenny said itís unbelievable the things that have been done. ëWe donít know by whom but we know itís been done.î
An example of that came when I arrived at the Schmitz home. Just a few seconds after Ken welcomed me in, Delores Link knocked on the door and handed Kenny a bundle of daffodils. Delores said the flowers were from an anonymous donor who bought them for Kenny through the American Cancer Societyís annual daffodil project. Then Deloris wished Kenny good luck.
Friends and family have been a great help, Kenny said. So have Sister Michailine and Father Leif from St. Maryís Church.
Their employers have been wonderful too in giving them time off from their jobs, often on short notice. No questions asked. Kenny has worked at Staggemeyer Stave in Caledonia for the last 12 years. He mostly edges boards there. (How tough is Kenny? He told me matter-of factly that he had just put in a 40 hour week at the mill.)
ìYou canít say enough about our two employers,î Bonnie said.
The disease is hard on Willie, Bonnie said, because Kenny canít play with him like he used to.
ìYouíve got to think ahead,î Kenny said again as our conversation wound down. Heís thinking about that, about mowing the lawn, and planting a garden. He loves being outside, coming home from the mill, working in the garden, being in the sun.
That raises another question, Kenny said, about how he will handle the sun, because he is not supposed to be in it now.
I had to ask Kenny something that Iíve wondered about since we played football together under good old Felix Percuoco. (Felix must be proud of the courage that Kenny is still showing.) Where did he get the nickname Herman?
Hermanís a good German name for a German boy, Kenny explained. He got the nickname as a kid and it stuck.
And how does he feel about the benefit that is being held for him at St. Maryís Elementary School on Sunday, April 3? Kenny, with his looking-ahead attitude in mind, said it wasnít for him, but rather for Bonnie and Willie.
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