Nick Tolan first noticed something was wrong in early November.
The 2001 Brandon High School graduate noticed a gargling in his throat when he swallowed, but says he blew it off and just didn’t think about it.
Less than two weeks later he went hunting up north and became very sick, with feverish-type symptoms and tightness in his chest. Coupled with the gargling, it seemed like a classic case of pneumonia. Tolan was so sick he couldn’t sleep and returned home on Nov.17. A few days later, unable to swallow food, he recalled that this was one of the first symptoms that his grandfather had. Tolan’s grandfather later died of esophageal cancer.
‘It put the fear of God in me,? says Tolan, 23, who made an emergency appointment with his doctor.
The former football player and track athlete would learn he had a grapefruit-sized mass in his chest and less than three weeks later, a biopsy would give him the dreaded diagnosis of an aggressive cancer? T precursor lymphoblastic lymphoma.
But, speaking from his hospital bed at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Tolan believes many things were in his favor from the beginning.
When he had called for the initial appointment with his doctor, they couldn’t get him in, but he sweet-talked them into the last appointment of the day and they later called and said there had been a cancellation and they could get him in earlier. If he hadn’t gotten that earlier appointment, the doctor would not have been able to get a CT scan for his patient that day, as he did after his shock at the chest X-ray. The next day, Tolan would see saw a heart, chest and lung specialist and after strings were pulled by his future father-in-law, was getting in to see doctors at U-M.
‘Miracles were happening to get me in to see these doctors,? says Tolan. ‘We were fighting against Thanksgiving and doctors who were busy. Every appointment I had got pushed forward because someone cancelled. I got to U-M and saw this great doctor who was very confident as to what my problems were.?
His biopsy was Dec. 5 and he was admitted into the hospital to begin treatment on the aggressive cancer, which was in the first stage.
Neither Tolan nor any of his family that had been by his side, including his parents, Brian and Myra Tolan, his fiancee Nicole Villiere, or his younger brother, Joe, expected the cancer diagnosis and everyone was scared.
Tolan has never been overweight, is a non-smoker, runs a few miles per week and watches what he eats.
?’Why me?? I wondered,? says Tolan. ‘The other big thing was, how does one get this? The greatest minds at U-M told me, ‘Dumb luck.? It wasn’t like I was hanging around asbestos or ate lead paint when I was a kid.?
Tolan established a positive mindset early on.
‘I told my fiancee, it’s been awhile since I’ve been in a good fight and I was ready for this one,? he said.
Tolan also believes sickness is 90 percent mental and if he can beat it mentally, he can beat it physically. With this philosophy, he began what will ultimately be a 2-year chemotherapy regimen. When he was first admitted in December, he was told he would be in the hospital for a month because of the intensity of the chemotherapy. But he did so well, they sent him home in time for Christmas.
Tolan, who has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Michigan University, returned part-time to his job in Auburn Hills as an account representative with Fastenal, a national company that sells industrial and construction supplies. He calls going back to work therapy, but the chemotherapy has made it very difficult and two weeks ago, he had to be readmitted to the hospital after he had a reaction to a platelet transfusion and had to wait for his compromised immune system to recover.
Before he was in the hospital, his goal was just to get out of bed and go to work, no matter how bad it was. In the hospital, Tolan walks at least one lap around the hospital wing once a day, or else he would just be sitting, feeling sorry for himself.
Tolan likens chemotherapy to the worst hangover a person could have.
‘Your whole body aches, your fingertips are numb, it tastes like you’ve been sucking on bullets,? says Tolan, who shaved his head after his hair began falling out, and has found he can’t think as fast.
But he is determined to beat it and is, with the support of family and friends.
Some of those friends include the All-Sports Brandon Boosters, an organization Brian and Myra Tolan were involved in when their sons were at Brandon High School, and a group that will host a spaghetti dinner and silent auction fundraiser from 6-10 p.m., March 23 in the BHS cafeteria, 1025 S. Ortonville Road.
‘We did our part for the sports, but we’ve been away for the past three years,? said Myra Tolan, noting that husband Brian used to announce all the football games. ‘Especially being that Nick graduated so long ago, we were surprised and amazed that they still remembered us… It’s really beautiful to see all this. We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.?
A recent CT scan showed that the tumor, which Myra Tolan said initially was massive, winding around the vessels of her son’s heart and extending to his adam’s apple? has literally disappeared, with the exception of two spots. Nick Tolan’s chemotherapy will continue, however, to guarantee remission. The intense chemo goes on for another three months, and then a lighter 18-month regimen of chemo will begin.
But Tolan has already set his next goal: getting married to Villiere on Sept. 8.
‘It’s part of the way I’m dealing with this,? he said. ‘I have no idea what my condition will be in September, but I know it will be good enough to be in my own wedding, and it’s all part of that mental aspect. I don’t want to be deterred by anything.?
Villiere says she is looking forward to the wedding and spending time with her husband-to-be as a newly married couple, and outside of the hospital.
‘Overall, I think that if he needs strength, he looks to me for it, and I do the same with him,? she said. ‘It is so nice to know there are so many people rooting for him. We couldn’t do it without all that support.?
Tickets for the spaghetti dinner fundraiser and silent auction are $5 and should be purchased in advance. A raffle will also be held with a grand prize of $1,500; $200 for second place and $100 for third place. Raffle tickets are $10 and participants need not be present to win.
For more information on tickets for the fundraiser or for raffle tickets, contact Melissa Whitaker at (248) 240-2776; Renelle Tolan at (248) 627-8240; or Debbie Brady at (248) 628-3049.