Like Nowhere Else – Dan’s Story Video Transcript
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[SOFT MUSIC]
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A man wearing an orange jacket and hat is walking in the snow.
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Dan: Hello. I’m Dan Novi. I currently live in Gully, Minnesota. I have spent most of my life as a welder.
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He is sitting next to a woman in the living room.
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This is my wife, Tina. We have a total of four children. There are two. She has two. I like hunting, fishing, and spending most of my time outdoors. When we moved here a little over a year ago, our plan was to buy a farm. 300 Christmases He planted a tree and an acre of strawberries and also raised chickens. I had big plans. We were preparing everything for the future and everything seemed to be going well, but in April we found out that I had lung cancer. Plans have changed significantly. When I coughed at work, something came out and it was blood.
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He walked through the snow to his hunting blind.
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I said, “I have to go in. I need you to check this out.” And we knew in advance that it would be cancer. This is because if you are coughing up blood, there is a good chance that something is happening in your lungs. And checked out. I had a CT scan. They said, “Yes, it’s cancer.” The doctor said our options at the time were probably chemotherapy and radiation. But then I did some more tests and had a PET scan. My doctor in Fargo said maybe he could do the surgery there. So we went to Dr. Marks. he saw it. After several tests, we decided together that surgery was possible, but it would come with many risks. They knew they had to take out the entire right lung. Then I came back after doing a breathing test. His vital capacity was 35%. So he thought I would be on oxygen for the rest of my life. You know, we sat down and talked about it. I decided to have surgery to remove my right lung. Tina: It wasn’t an easy choice to make that decision. However, as the surgery progressed, it was discovered that he would have lived longer if his lungs had been removed. I knew that if he had had chemotherapy and radiation, his life expectancy would have been shorter, so I wanted him to stay longer. Dan: On August 16th, we went to Fargo. we performed the surgery. But in the meantime, 4 hours passed, then 5 hours passed. She was nervous and agitated. She went to the nurse’s station and she said, “Where’s my husband?” Then they called the operating room again and she said Dan would be in another hour and a half. So it was a total of 7 hours of surgery. At that time, she was so upset that she took her daughter back to the hotel, where she broke down in tears.
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Tina and Dan are smiling in the photo.
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They called her back and said Dan was out of surgery. So she rushed back and I think she was pretty excited to see me not on oxygen. And she has been walking around ever since the surgery. She’s 120 yards everywhere to the chickens. I’ve probably walked a little more than that without oxygen. There is no oxygen in my house. Since then, I have been doing very well with just one lung.
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We approach the main entrance of the Essentia Medical Facility. Enter the examination room. Sign, Essentia Health, Fosston.
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So I’m now doing chemotherapy in Fosston, Minnesota, which is only a 20-minute drive from Fargo, two and a half hours away. Essentia in Fosston is also a great place. Great doctors, great nurses. There he will undergo the final three rounds of chemotherapy. What really stood out about my care from Essentia was number one, Amy. She was always on the phone with me. She gave me her phone number. If she has any questions, she can call her. She made sure my needs were met etc and I appreciated that. And Dr. Marks’ surgery was amazing. I can’t thank him enough.
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Essentia Health Cancer Center sign. Her MRI machine in the scan room.
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And I’m up and walking around with one lung, and everyone thought I’d be breathing oxygen. And when I spoke to him at my first appointment after surgery, he was amazed at how well I was recovering. So Essentia took really great care of me.
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Dan and Tina walk in the snow. A text like no other. You will see the Essentia Health logo consisting of her three leaves inside a circle.