Doubly Blessed
It's been Kathy Burgau's dream since fifth grade: get married, have babies, raise a family. But in November 1996, the dream took on complexities she never could have imagined.
"When I discovered the lump doing a breast self-exam, it was about the size of a pea," she says. "By the time the breast cancer was diagnosed, it had already spread through six out of 11 lymph nodes." She received the diagnosis on Nov. 20, 1996 – her 26th birthday.
This wasn't just any kind of breast cancer – it was particularly aggressive. "When you're young and you have breast cancer, your hormones drive it, and mine were just going like wildfire," says Kathy. A mastectomy and chemotherapy would follow, but before the chemotherapy began, Kathy received even more devastating news. Read more about the Burgaus.
"It would have been easy to give up..."
Linda Rostad had dealt with many headaches over the years, but the headache on Thanksgiving morning last year was different.
Providing comfort at a difficult time
The four grown children weren't surprised when the doctor quietly talked with them about the gravity of their mother's condition. Hospitalized in the Oncology Unit at MeritCare Hospital for two weeks, she showed increasing weakness, inability to eat and slowness in healing from her last surgery.
Retired college football coach wins big
"You're just trying to survive the moment." That's how retired Minnesota State University Moorhead football coach Ross Fortier describes the hours immediately following his severe heart attack.
Healthy ways to deal with and prevent bullying
Bullying can be pushing, hitting, chasing or mean-spirited teasing. But it can also be name-calling, rumor-spreading, excluding or friend "stealing." No matter how it's done, is bullying just part of growing up? Something we have to accept?
Good days can continue for people with Alzheimer's
To sit down and visit with Bernie Meyer of Moorhead, you'd have no idea there was a problem. Eyes sparkling, he easily answers questions, laughs at the right times, and shares interesting and insightful comments. But the next day, even the next hour, he may not be able to remember any of the conversation.
Rare form of dementia causes personality changes
How could a successful high school math teacher of 35 years lose his ability to interact with students, but still be able to teach a lesson, correct tests and perform calculations perfectly? How could a man known for a gentle, giving nature become self-centered, even rude, to the point of embarrassment?
Transplant saves diabetic patient's life
Dy Fladland of Fargo would be the first to admit she tends to look at life through rose-colored glasses, but even through the rosiest of glasses, she can now see her life with diabetes was never easy.
Game on
Inside the lane and cutting for the ball, Taz Foley slipped and felt a strange pop in her left knee. "The pain was immediate, and I knew right away I'd done something to it," says the North Dakota State University senior from Abercrombie, N.D., and an avid intramural athlete.
Specialized rooms designed for pediatric cancer patients
What's it like to be a hospitalized teen fighting cancer? Just ask Abbie Lott, 15-year-old from Moorhead. Since she was first diagnosed with bone cancer in her left leg at the age of 11, she's been hospitalized at MeritCare more times than she can count.