Cancer warriors: A family's strength

Editor's note: This is the final story in a four-part series which examines the struggles, hopes and daily battles of several individuals in our community who are living with cancer and fighting back.

Five days after Colin Allen became a daddy for the fourth time, at age 27, he became a cancer patient for the first time.

He was experiencing sensitivity in his teeth, and while his wife, Amy, was just a few days from giving birth, he was visiting dentists and doctors to figure out what was wrong.

"I'd eat something hot, cold, and, 'Oh man that really hurts,'" he said.

He went to a dentist who told him his teeth were fine and maybe to use something topical for the sensitivity.

"He had a funny spot on the roof of his mouth and he asked the dentist about it, and he's like, 'I don't know what that is,' and didn't send him anywhere," Amy said.

Then one day, Colin woke up with loose teeth and swollen gums, but no pain. It was baffling, until the cause was revealed.

"I found out that my teeth were loose because there was no bone up there anymore," Colin said. "Cancer had eaten it away. I was incredibly naive, asking the dentist, you know, 'Will it grow back?'"

Doctors discovered Colin had a rare cancer, adenoid cystic carcinoma, which only affects about 1,500 of the 500,000 diagnosed with cancer each year.

"Here's poor Amy, she's got three little kids, a brand new baby and a husband with cancer," said Colin, who is now 38 and lives in Hayden.

The cancer began in a salivary gland and ate its way through his palate. He had to undergo surgery where half of his hard palate, the bottom of his sinus and all the teeth on that side were removed.

"I had a really talented doctor, I was really fortunate to have him do it," Colin said. "I had a really talented dentist that made my prosthetic palate so I can talk. With it out, it's just a big hole up there, and I can't talk intelligibly."

This initial cancer diagnosis came as a shock to Colin, who had been healthy his entire life up to that point. He received radiation treatments for three months and was back to work six months after the bad news.

"For six years, I carried on. I was done with it," he said. "In my mind, I wasn't doing cancer anymore, then I started having some weird pains in my right side. And a cough that wouldn't go away."

His doctor had told him the cancer, which is slow-growing, had a 50/50 chance of coming back.

"I was thinking it would be like 15 years, and it was 6 years after and it came back," said Amy, 36. "He had a pain in his side."

The couple faced another onslaught of the disease, which had metastasized into Colin's lung.

"His whole right lung was white with a plaque-like tumor and the whole inside of his right ribcage was white," she said. "They said it was all throughout the right lung, like marbled fat on a roast, but the left side had little round nodules."

It is difficult to see on scans and wasn't confirmed until November 2010 it was definitely cancer. Because it is slow-growing, targeting it with traditional chemotherapy is a challenge. And, because it is so rare, information and research are hard to find.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not hopeful that something will happen, or, you know, that God will just heal me," Colin said. "I'm a Christian, I firmly believe that my life is in his hands and he has a plan for me. I don't know what that plan is, but I'm OK with that. His will is perfect."

The Allens' children, Chase, 16; Devan, 14; Michael, 12; and Kailea, 10, are well-behaved and understanding of their father's condition. They help out around the house and know that their lives differ from their friends' because they have important roles to play in supporting their mom as a caregiver and being there for their dad, who loves spending time with them. There is a lot of love and strength in the Allen home.

"To me it kind of feels like it's normal, it's just a little bit more work," Chase said. "Sometimes we don't get to do as much stuff anymore, and he's trying to be the way it used to be, and he's doing amazing."

Through the summer, Colin went on a camping trip to a remote lake, just the kids and him, "and just had a great time," he said. "It's just about having those moments."

As a caregiver, Amy also receives strength and courage from her faith and her love of her family.

"It's your perspective," she said. "I told Colin, 'Do you want to go to the lake with our friends?' He said, 'Well, I don't know if I feel up to it.' I said, 'You never feel up to it, you're going to do it or you're not.'"

Colin has not been able to work for two years, and the cancer in his chest has paralyzed a lung and caused him to slow down quite a bit. But the Allens remain solid, brave in the face of a serious disease that has changed their lives forever.

"My family is everything," Colin said. "It's about getting as much time with them as I can."

An Evening of Hope, a community cancer support group for cancer warriors and their loved ones, will be held at 5 p.m. the first Sunday of every month at the Heart of the City Church, 521 W. Emma Avenue in Coeur d'Alene.

Info: 818-2266 or email toseeanothersunrise@gmail.com.