Nevada Bob Gordon

Reflecting. Photo: Gary Firstenberg This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of Nevada Bob Gordon's 50 Years with the Wrong Woman . This is a continuation from Part 2 regarding Nevada Bob's "ailment," his euphemism for the C-word. You can read Part 2 Here . With a growing family and the American doctors essentially giving up hope, Bob Gordon decided to give "alternative medicine" a try. What follows is not intended as medical advice; it is simply the path Nevada Bob followed.  * * * I was not informed right away that I could be dead in six months. My  tumor was, in fact, malignant. When Carol had learned that the test  had revealed I had cancer, she met with her girlfriend Darlene Marley.  Darlene told me that Carol was sitting in our car with all of our children,  including the baby, and said to Darlene, “What am I going to do with  all these kids if Bob dies?” Carol was never one to exhibit emotional displays, but in that moment  she looked pretty forlorn. ...

This is a continuation of the story of Nevada Bob's battle to overcome cancer near 50 years ago. If you want to read part one first, here's the beginning of the story . Photo: Gary Firstenberg Bob Gordon's battle with cancer was interrupted by a near fatal accident in the sawmill he was operating at the time. A saw blade at the mill could have gutted him while he was filing its teeth, but only damaged his arm. It still required surgery and the family had to rally while he recovered in the hospital.  This is an excerpt from the chapter My Ailment in 50 Years with the Wrong Woman . In it he tells how he came to the decision he made. Monica returned home to take charge of the household at age 14, although my parents drove down from Seattle to assist the kids the next day. Carol was in for a rough time even still. She had a brand-new child, a husband who could soon die, and four more lively children to care for. We were forced to sell off all our cows because I was in the hospi...

Nevada Bob, telling it like it was. Photo: Gary Firstenberg One of the scariest words in the English language is weighted with so much emotion that we often avoid saying it altogether. Instead we call it the C-word. Chapter six of Nevada Bob's 50 Years with the Wrong Woman details this experience that he went through. The chapter is titled My Ailment. Here is the opening paragraph and then a portion from a several pages later in the book. My Ailment In early summer of 1972, about a year or so into living on the river in our log cabin, I noticed a light brown color in my urine. rough the next couple of years, the light brown turned to blood-red streaks. I felt strong and healthy, but I was naturally concerned. I sought the advice of a urologist, Dr. Fisher, in Medford. He gave me a quick exam and told me the blood could come from a variety of sources and the fact that I appeared healthy and strong suggested to him that  I really had nothing to be alarmed about. Leading up through 1...