Cancer fight gives Lagoon champion a new perspective

Being blessed with remission after 13 months battling Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Dr. Duane DeFreese, champion of the Indian River Lagoon, is thinking about the future – and the present challenges for both him and the river – in a much different way.

Throughout a brutal round of chemotherapy side effects, often struggling not to pass out during presentations, DeFreese kept going as executive director of the IRL Council of the National Estuary Program.

DeFreese, a longtime Indialantic resident, was being treated at both Health First Cancer Center and the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Now, instead of planning for a second round of chemo, doctors at Moffitt recently declared his cancer in remission, but with the caution that about 30 percent of cases relapse within a couple of years.

“You hear so many of the other stories where it doesn’t go your way. I’ve had several people die of cancer around me just in the last six months, younger than me with a decent prognosis opportunity and they just couldn’t get out in front of it. I feel blessed and very lucky,” he said.

Local doctors had seen some contraction (of the cancer) during chemo treatments, but also some expansion, so, knowing that Moffitt would be doing a full workup to treat him, decided to hold off on additional treatments pending further testing. “That wait-and-see has gotten me where I am now. All of those spots that I had previously had resolved themselves. It was not something I was anticipating. The doctor I think was both surprised and pleased, as I was,” he said.

Good news, of course, is great to hear, but DeFreese remains cautious about calling himself cancer-free. Still only about 50 percent, he has issues with balance, strength, numbness in fingers and toes, and is suffering from what he calls chemo brain, or lack of focus.

“I had a lot of friends really supporting me and for many of them it’s a high-five/let’s celebrate moment. For me it’s not really that. There’s a chance that this cancer is going to come back,’’ he said.

Looking back on the last year is a blur of treatments and side effects while fighting for the health of the Indian River, none of which DeFreese wanted to mention to his co-workers, friends and supporters.

“There worse I felt, the better I felt, because if I felt bad, the cancer is feeling even worse. You’re fighting your own body. I had to embrace the pain. The ability of your brain to control your body I think is substantial to the quality of life that you have. I had a lot of days I was sick as a dog. I just didn’t want people to know it. Some of that is just stubbornness or stupidity; I didn’t want to call it denial – but I just did not want to have my life dictated by how bad I felt,’’ he said.

Through the pain he found a parallel of his medical journey to the Indian River woes. “I look at the ailing lagoon now with clarity. We’re going to have to look at it like it’s a sick patient. It’s going to be expensive and politically uncomfortable, but if we don’t take those interventions to the level that makes a difference then we’re not going to get through this,’’ he said.

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