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David Bieszke of Geneva wasn’t going to give up on asking his girlfriend of 18 years, Jennifer Pedersen, to marry him, and she returned that persistence by insisting doctors treat her would-be husband for his chronic illness even when they were told nothing was wrong.
David’s health slowly deteriorated in recent years, and his family doctor was perplexed about the cause. Meanwhile, David experienced chronic fatigue and pain began growing in his abdomen.
In April, Jennifer’s persistence led doctors to diagnose David with a 10-inch cancerous tumor choking a major blood vessel in his chest.
He underwent a six-hour surgery on April 29 at Loyola Hospital in Maywood.
Fearing she might regret not marrying him if anything happened during surgery, Jennifer finally said “yes” to David and the two were married in front of a Kane County judge three days before the surgery.
At a time when most newly married couples would be celebrating their future together, this pair’s fate was anything but certain as David entered the operating room.
Persistence in treatment
For the past few years, David’s health began declining and initially, no one knew why. He was constantly fatigued as the tumor slowly drained him.
Jennifer said their family doctor couldn’t find anything wrong and in early April, she decided to take him to the emergency room at Central DuPage Hospital. She reasoned that ER medical staff would eventually figure out what was wrong. After blood and urine tests showed nothing abnormal, Jennifer insisted doctors keep looking.
“I basically told the doctor in the ER that I was not leaving,” Jennifer said.
Doctors finally performed a CAT scan, or a visual image test, which located a 10-inch tumor that ran from David’s navel to his diaphragm. The tumor also invaded smaller blood vessels to both kidneys.
“It was pretty much a roller coaster ride at that point,” David said.
However, the couple was told that CDH didn’t have the capability to treat David and he was referred to Dr. Margo Shoup at Loyola Hospital in Maywood.
“It’s a rare tumor,” Shoup said. “It’s not something that most (doctors) think about.”
She said the tumor could only be found with a CAT scan — which is performed by a large donut-shaped machine that takes X-ray images — which is why nothing showed up on blood tests.
Shoup added that symptoms are so vague that doctors could believe the disease could be something else, such as an ulcer disorder or kidney stones. She said David had vague abdominal discomfort for about a year.
David Bieszke of Geneva wasn’t going to give up on asking his girlfriend of 18 years, Jennifer Pedersen, to marry him, and she returned that persistence by insisting doctors treat her would-be husband for his chronic illness even when they were told nothing was wrong.
David’s health slowly deteriorated in recent years, and his family doctor was perplexed about the cause. Meanwhile, David experienced chronic fatigue and pain began growing in his abdomen.
In April, Jennifer’s persistence led doctors to diagnose David with a 10-inch cancerous tumor choking a major blood vessel in his chest.
He underwent a six-hour surgery on April 29 at Loyola Hospital in Maywood.
Fearing she might regret not marrying him if anything happened during surgery, Jennifer finally said “yes” to David and the two were married in front of a Kane County judge three days before the surgery.
At a time when most newly married couples would be celebrating their future together, this pair’s fate was anything but certain as David entered the operating room.
Persistence in treatment
For the past few years, David’s health began declining and initially, no one knew why. He was constantly fatigued as the tumor slowly drained him.
Jennifer said their family doctor couldn’t find anything wrong and in early April, she decided to take him to the emergency room at Central DuPage Hospital. She reasoned that ER medical staff would eventually figure out what was wrong. After blood and urine tests showed nothing abnormal, Jennifer insisted doctors keep looking.
“I basically told the doctor in the ER that I was not leaving,” Jennifer said.
Doctors finally performed a CAT scan, or a visual image test, which located a 10-inch tumor that ran from David’s navel to his diaphragm. The tumor also invaded smaller blood vessels to both kidneys.
“It was pretty much a roller coaster ride at that point,” David said.
However, the couple was told that CDH didn’t have the capability to treat David and he was referred to Dr. Margo Shoup at Loyola Hospital in Maywood.
“It’s a rare tumor,” Shoup said. “It’s not something that most (doctors) think about.”
She said the tumor could only be found with a CAT scan — which is performed by a large donut-shaped machine that takes X-ray images — which is why nothing showed up on blood tests.
Shoup added that symptoms are so vague that doctors could believe the disease could be something else, such as an ulcer disorder or kidney stones. She said David had vague abdominal discomfort for about a year.
Shoup said David was close to the point where the tumor could have no longer been removed and he might have only had months to live.
Persistence in love
During their 18-year relationship, David, 47, asked Jennifer, 42, to marry him several times.
“He asked a lot before,” Jennifer said. “A lot more than a man should have to.”
It wasn’t a lack of love that kept Jennifer from marrying David. The two had previous marriages that fell apart and “marriage” had become a dirty word for Jennifer.
“She always said ‘It’s just a piece of paper’,” David said.
But David felt a major part of the problem for both of their previous marriages was age.
Jennifer got married when she was 18. David was 22 and said his ex-wife also was young.
But David’s impending life-threatening surgery caused Jennifer to put aside her fears about marriage after realizing what was really important in life.
“It was so easy to marry the wrong guy and hard to marry the right one,” Jennifer said.
Watching and waiting
It was an agonizing, worry-ridden day for Jennifer in the waiting room as David underwent a six-hour surgery on April 29 at Loyola Hospital.
But her worry faded as she watched her new husband recover from surgery.
She noticed his color returned — she didn’t realize it had been fading away for the past several months. And Jennifer noticed his eyes were blue again, not the shade of gray they had become.
But after the first surgery in April, the couple learned David needed to undergo another six-hour surgery on June 13 to remove the rest of the tumor. Only about five inches was removed during the first surgery.
David recovered from the second surgery as well and returned to work as an auto mechanic just four weeks later. However, he lost one of his kidneys in the surgeries. Doctors told them this should have no impact on his health.
Today, David has more energy than he’s had in a long time.
But potential danger still lurks.
Although Shoup said all the cancer was removed, these type of tumors have a tendency to show up again, so doctors will keep a close eye on David for the next five to 10 years.
Meanwhile, now that the surgery is behind them, the couple is simply enjoying being married.
They were married on a Tuesday. Now, they celebrate by going out to dinner on Tuesday every week.
