Eye on Health: Cancer Survivor - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Eye on Health: Cancer Survivor

For a person who is told they have cancer, it is quite a blow.

When Myron Feist of Minot was diagnosed in the fall of 2011, it totally caught him off guard.

But as Carla Burbidge tells us in this week's Eye on Health, he will soon reach the one-year mark for being cancer-free.

57-year-old, Myron Feist, along with his family, are the owners of Minot Sash and Door, a company that has been crafting cabinets and wood work for many years.

In October of 2011, Myron thought he may be having a heart attack.

But at the emergency room they found a blood clot in his lungs.

After that, he was diagnosed with lymphoma.

(Myron Feist, Cancer Survivor) "When it sinks in you say, 'Wow. This can't be right.' First it's denial of course. You think that you don't have it. Then you become very angry, almost upset with yourself and upset with the rest of the world because you have cancer. 'Why me,' that type of thing. But they you look beyond that and decide that it's not going to stop me and you fight it."

Myron was at Mayo in Rochester, then back to Minot for rounds of chemo, then back to Mayo for a bone marrow stem cell transplant.

2012 was a long, tough year.

(Myron Feist, Cancer Survivor) "It was a blurr, but you just want to get over it and get healthy, and beat it."

Treatments left him exhausted, but he went through the exercise rehab program to regain his strength, and went to work most days, to keep his mind active.

And in May it will be a year since the doctors declared he was cancer free.

(Myron Feist, Cancer Survivor) "We have a good cancer program in Minot, and of course at Mayo does too when you go to do your follow ups. I had good docs, good friends and good community."

Myron says he feels as good as he has ever felt.

For Eye on Health I'm Carla Burbidge.