By JAMES BROWN
Glasgow News 1
Roger Rutledge likes to be the light in the room, no matter what circumstance life tosses his way.
“Always have a smile on your face,” he said. “I’m the kind of person if today’s cloudy, carry your sunshine inside.”
That attitude helped Roger work his way through a cancer diagnosis that hit in late-2018. It helped him carry the load of his loved ones’ concerns through doctors’ visits, treatments, side-effects, and their fear of losing him.
His daughter Hannah Taylor, 25, was barely out of high school, and his son Nathan, 22, was still there when a spot was found on Roger’s lung.
“I was nervous he wasn’t going to get to see me get married or have grandkids,” Hannah said. “It stressed me out so bad. But he has a grandkid on the way, a step-grandkid, I got married and so did my brother.”
Roger has spent his working life as a mechanic repairing farm machinery, trucks and the like. That’s what he was doing when a rib injury led to a doctor’s visit and a cancer diagnosis.
“I was twerking head bolts on a tractor-trailer truck, which it takes 200 or 300 pounds of torque, and I popped my ribs on the right side, and I thought, maybe, I broke a rib,” Roger explained. “So I go to the hospital and they x-rayed them and everything and said they were inflamed. They said go home and take an Ibuprofen and you’ll be alright.”
The pain intensified instead of abated, and that led Roger to do something he does not like — go back to the doctor.
“It got to hurtin’ so bad I had my son, Nathan, take me to the hospital. They set me up an MRI, or something, and they saw that spot on my lung,” he said. “Then they sent me to Dr. (Carlos) Kummerfeldt, my lung doctor. He said my lymph nodes looked suspicious.”
Roger Rutledge is pictured with his wife, Melissa, and children, Hannah and Nathan. Photo courtesy of Hannah Taylor
The journey to determine if the spot was cancerous began on October 3, 2018, according to medical information provided by Roger’s daughter. He had a CT of his chest that showed a lower lobe spiculated nodule. A follow up biopsy was indicative for adenocarcinoma. Then another biopsy revealed that the cancer was malignant.
“I always had this fear of having cancer. My dad died of cancer. After he told me I had cancer, I started praying and I felt a relief come over me,” Roger said.
In January of 2019, he began treatment for the cancer that was in his lung and his prostate.
Despite the side effects of the treatments, Roger said he decided he was going to work his way through it; not as a mechanic, but remodeling his house. “It was pretty rough. I had to toughen up.”
“You see this house, I redid all of this. It was just going to be the kitchen….”
“It turned out to be the whole house,” Hannah interrupted.
“I think they thought I need to lay down and rest. You hear a lot of people giving up. I understand it’s a bad thing, but don’t give up, fight the fight,” Roger responded.
He said his family that was there through the fight helped. Hannah and Nathan, his wife, Melissa, and his sisters, Judy Owens and Marie Burd.
“We’re in sync with everything. We’re there for each other,” Roger said.
He also said the staff at T.J. Samson Health Pavilion Oncology Department was terrific.
“Dr. (Yashpal) Modi and all of those people there are great,” he said.
Roger still returns for check ups since his cancer went into remission in December 2021, and enjoys seeing the staff.
“I go in and say, ‘here I am again.’ I try to light up their life. I go around and even speak to some of the patients,” Roger said. “I’m the kind of person, no matter what your situation is, smile, be happy. That smile does good for somebody else, too.”
