SEQUIM — It was a massage therapist who first noticed the lump behind Rod Dirks’ left knee.
Odd, but probably nothing to worry about, right? After all, Dirks was in his mid-30s – a young, active husband, father, real estate agent and entrepreneur. He and his wife Megan own Essence Coffee Roasters, 461 W. Washington St. in Sequim.
But it turns out there was something to worry about. Within a couple of months, the lump doubled in size. Then it doubled again.
In August, Dirks made an appointment with a doctor. The diagnosis was a rare form of cancer called myxoid liposarcoma, which affects about 2,000 people a year in the United States, Dirks was told.
For months, he and Megan lived with the shock of his diagnosis, helpless to do anything about it.
“My first doctor visit was in August, and it took from August to January to start treatment for it,” said Dirks, 36.
The reason it took so long, he said, was because there is only one doctor in Seattle who specializes in sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that develops in the body’s connective tissues, such as bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels and fat.
Doctors told Dirks that it often develops behind the knees, which was exactly where his lump had formed.
There was another problem that threatened Dirks’ ability to start treatment: money. Cancer is an expensive disease.
Thanks to people from Sequim, though, Dirks has been able to start radiation treatments. He will receive radiation five days a week throughout January but will not have to undergo chemotherapy.
For most of this month, he, Megan and their daughter, Maeli, will stay in an Airbnb, returning to Sequim on the weekends, where Dirks will roast coffee beans for their coffee house business. Three baristas are keeping the business going in the Dirkses’ absence, which is good since there are debts to pay off related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bulk of the family’s income is from Dirks’ real estate job, and that has been tougher to keep up with, he said.
The more than $45,000 raised through a GoFundMe campaign (www.gofundme.com/f/brrkt6-support-rods-fight-against-cancer) is helping to pay the family’s living expenses. The money also has paid the Dirkses’ deductible so health insurance will kick in.
“It’s been amazing,” Dirks said. “We never expected that level of support. It’s been truly a blessing.”
So far, things have been going surprisingly well. How well will become clear when Dirks undergoes surgery in Seattle on Feb. 26.
The stakes
On the GoFundMe page, organizer Rosella McCreary, one of Dirks’ colleagues on the Brody Broker Team at IDEAL Real Estate, wrote: “While the cancer itself is not particularly aggressive, the location of the tumor poses significant challenges, including a chance that Rod could lose his left leg as part of the surgical procedure he will undergo following radiation therapy.”
Dirks acknowledged that loss of his leg is a possibility but noted there was a positive development along the way, thanks to a supplement called soursop graviola, an extract of a South American fruit that he began taking in November.
“I’m from Brazil, and they use this fruit for cancer treatment pretty widely in South America,” he said. “Literally, within five days, I was feeling much better. The lump was smaller, the swelling was reduced and the discoloration had gone away almost completely. I could hardly walk, and within 30 days, I was walking with no pain.
“I was super hopeful that it would resolve itself without any actual medical treatments, but that’s not the case,” he continued. “We kind of hit a point where the tumor was no longer shrinking, and we just felt that it was time to move forward with radiation and surgery.”
How will he handle it if he wakes up after surgery to find that his leg has been removed?
“That’s fine,” he said. “I’d rather lose my leg than my life. It’ll be what it’ll be.”
The blessings
Earlier this month, he had undergone days of radiation treatment without experiencing any of the side effects doctors had warned him about.
“It’s working,” he said. “I mean, it’s not a great situation for the long-term. It’s a lot, but it’s working as good as can be expected.”
He has Megan and little Maeli by his side every day, and that’s a gift.
“She’s a very strong and supportive person,” Dirks said of his wife of 12 1/2 years. As for Maeli, she’s only 2, but she expresses confidence that doctors at the hospital they visit every day while in Seattle will make her dad well again.
Coping with heartbreak is not new to Dirks and his wife. Maeli’s big sister Mavery Elyn is “in Heaven,” Dirks said. He and Megan lost her on March 10, 2021, shortly after her birth. She was born without a heartbeat and although the medical team was able to get her heart beating, it took 38 minutes to do so. During that time, her body was oxygen deprived and the damage could not be overcome.
But seemingly with every heartache comes reason for hope.
Megan is pregnant. She’s due in August, Dirks said, a year after his fateful trip to a doctor’s office.
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Kathy Cruz is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. She can be reached by email at kathy.cruz@sequimgazette.com.
