A Road Less Traveled
Dennie Denhalter had the perfect cookie-cutter life. Growing up in a large, loving family, he led an active life in Southern California. Those activities helped him become an Eagle Scout and he later fulfilled a two-year LDS mission to Hamburg, Germany. At age 23, Dennie married a beautiful, young woman and couldn’t have been happier. Then two months after his wedding, Dennie’s life took a most unexpected turn. He was diagnosed with cancer. As bumpy of a road as this turn brought him, it was truly just the beginning of a road less traveled.
When Dennie was first seen by a doctor in August of 1998, his tumor under his arm was the size of a golf ball. Within three weeks, it had grown to the size of a grapefruit. Doctors aggressively treated his cancer with chemotherapy. During his fifth month with cancer, Dennie, his wife, and large family moved to Layton, Utah where he continued his treatment at the University of Utah. At six months, doctors pronounced Dennie cancer-free.
Three weeks later Dennie began having extreme back pain down the length of his spine. An MRI scan calmed their fears of returned cancer, but his pain exponentially grew. Over the next week, Dennie met with his oncologist, but they couldn’t determine the source of his pain. At the end of the week Dennie slipped on the stairs, fell, and slid on his back increasing the pain he was already in.
The following morning, he noticed his legs were becoming wobbly, and he was losing some sensation. Over the course of the day the loss of sensation and wobbliness in his legs had worsened. After a doctor appointment, and in the stronghold of his brothers’ arms, Dennie took the last walk of his life. Little did he know that over the next several hours, Dennie would lose the rest of his feeling and all the functionality of his body below his upper chest.
In the early morning hours, Dennie was transported to the U of U emergency room. Uncertainty rose with the quickly increasing level of paralysis. Finally at 7 a.m., Dennie’s oncologist was apprised of the situation and immediately ordered another MRI scan on his spine. The results were shocking. A sixteen-inch tumor has spiraled around his spine and was crushing the spine into his spinal cord. The maximum dose of radiation was ordered on his spine. These drastic measures brought Dennie down another unexpected road—burning his esophagus. Over the next 9-10 months Dennie was unable to eat, and lived from a feeding tube.
Dennie remained at the U of U Hospital for almost a year. During that time, many other unexpected turns occurred. As he lay in bed recovering from his chemotherapy, he developed severe bed sores. A major skin flap surgery attempted to correct this, but failed due to the lack of protein in his blood. This placed Dennie in the Burn Unit for three months of critical around the clock care. Additionally Dennie was in Intensive Care four times, intubated two times, and was on the brink of death from his radiation, chemotherapy, and cancer. Dennie acquired several complications from the chemotherapy and radiation including: diabetes, congestive heart failure, acid reflux, a colostomy, and a super pubic catheter.
Through it all, Dennie maintained a resilient and positive attitude. On Halloween of 1999, Dennie returned home from the hospital to begin his new life as a cancer free paraplegic. A difficult road lie before him filled with more unexpected turns. After all the hardships, his wife—the woman who helped Dennie live through it all—became addicted to Dennie’s pain killers. She became a different person, and divorced Dennie a month shy of their sixth anniversary in 2005.
Now in 2011, Dennie is confined to his home and has no means of transportation. His freedom to travel is limited to his monthly emergency visit to the hospital in an ambulance.
We all must travel the road of life and face whatever lies before us. Dennie’s life has been the road less traveled with many unexpected turns. We are definitely fortunate when our lives parallel, merge, and intersect. Sometimes we can help others on their way. Together we can make a difference for Dennie. Together we can help Dennie’s get a better way to face the road ahead of him. Please join us as we help Dennie obtain a new wheelchair accessible van.
