Chose to smile after cancer shock

– The word cancer was like being slapped. I felt annoyed for a few seconds before thinking, ‘Lise, now watch your good mood. Smile and be positive, cancer won’t break me! ».

Lise Dean (59) shines in the evening sun outside the apartment by Larvik Pier. His smile darkens the sun. It was the same smile Lise showed when cancer cells ravaged her body a year ago.

See and Hear met Lise for the first time then. At that point, he had left a few demanding months of treatment behind, but new rounds awaited him.

– I choose to be positive, smile and enjoy life. I think it is the best medicine for me. I’ve always had a positive attitude, and I wouldn’t let it go, even if my body is under attack, Lise said at the time.

– My husband has breast cancer

Vital visit to the doctor

The first sign that something was wrong with Lise came last spring. Lise noticed that she had some blood in her stool.

– I didn’t think much of that. It could be a hemorrhoid, or it was very swollen, as if my own mother was in adulthood.

Lost wife and daughter

Lise kept her cool and didn’t come close to losing sleep for the night. The 59-year-old thought it would all be over soon.

– I’m not the one who flies to the doctor, and I could barely remember the last time I was there. Also, she was the year before for a routine gynecological exam with a sample from the cervix.

When the problems didn’t go away, he still made a trip to the GP. It turned out to be a vital visit. The doctor quickly suspected that it could be a cancerous tumor in the abdomen. The next stop was the local hospital.

The colonoscopy examination assured the doctor: “He has cancer.” I don’t think I fully understood what he said at the time. The response came so fast and in cash.

Operation

Lise had ovarian cancer, with spread to various organs. Three large tumors had taken up space on his body. The spleen, small intestine, large intestine, and liver were just some of the organs affected by the tumors.

– I’ll never get well

The road to Radiumhospitalet was short. Here the body was examined again, before a treatment plan was made.

– I thought it was just to shake everything that was. The reproductive capacity has long expired so there isn’t much I need to take care of, I thought.

The doctors thought the same. Ovarian cancer is best treated with surgery. That was fine with Lise. But it would be four weeks before he was on the operating table. Lise made good use of that time.

– I thought that now I know exactly what happens to my body, and that forces me to have a happy life. I will not despair, but will strengthen myself in such a way that the body is ready to fight. I put my boxing gloves on!

– Which way?

– The most important thing for me was to take care of my good psyche, eat well and sleep well. Also, I didn’t google anything about ovarian cancer. He would have given me many questions and no good answers.

I had to undergo chemotherapy

Doctors operated on Lise for eight hours. They removed everything they could see and no surprises appeared.

– They almost took out rubles and pieces of organs. It was a relief, but at the same time it made me want to get to know my body again. For example, I have a colostomy, which is an opening in the body that opens from the colon with a bag that collects waste products from the body.

The operation was not the end of cancer treatment. Shortly after the operation, Lise started chemotherapy. He underwent six treatments before Christmas.

The goal was to crack down on possible cancer cells that the operation did not eradicate, so that Lise could recover.

I have my best friend’s baby

Confident

Now, a year later, he is cancer free. There is no trace of the cancer left in your body. And Lise believes that her positive attitude towards life, even after contracting a serious illness, has not ceased to matter.

– I am convinced that my attitude towards life has gone hand in hand with both the operation I underwent and the intensive cures with chemotherapy. My good humor helped kill the cancer, Lise thinks.

– The most important thing for me is to enjoy life. It means that I eat what I want, drink what I want, and do exactly what I want. I have done this throughout the treatment and will continue to do so. Life cannot be stopped.

Lise is used to flying high. She is the Head of B2B Sales and Products at Widerøe Airline. But last year he came down to land, and will be there for a while while in rehab.

– I’m glad I made my way through the disease. I’ve seen when people get very depressed and are very depressed, he says.

– I decided from the beginning to be open to family and friends. But the most important thing was to declare myself a lover of life. Good food and good drinks I have always appreciated, and after I got sick it became a part of everyday life.

Peace for man

Share the good life with Trond Eriksen (65). The couple had been living together for many years when Lise felt she wanted to take the relationship one step further, largely due to illness.

– I got engaged while receiving chemotherapy and on November 1 of last year we got married. He was completely bald and didn’t want to wear a wig, but a big hat worked. Now we can look back on a year as a married couple, says Lise.

– It was easy to say yes. Lise is unique, and I am touched and impressed by her will to live, says Trond.

Just before the pandemic hit Norway in March, Lise and Trond traveled with good friends on their honeymoon to South Africa, the couple’s favorite destination for many years. It was a memorable experience for the newlyweds.

For Lise, it was a celebration of both love and life itself.

– We got dressed, went to the beach on the outskirts of Cape Town and let the bumblebee hiss. This is how an enjoyer of life lives!

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