Health

Joey Wyngaert chemotherapy completed

By Phillip E. Honstein

Four days after undergoing the final tests that will indicate an 80 percent likelihood that he has fully recovered from the T-cell lymphoma, Joey Wyngaert will walk in the Relay for Life, Bellingham's annual American Cancer Society fund-raiser.

In May of 1998, Joey was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, a fast-growing cancer that attacks the bloodstream. After a year of treatments, he has completed all of his chemotherapy.

Family members expect that tests administered on Tuesday, July 13, will indicate that Joey's lymphoma is still in clinical remission, giving an 80 percent chance that it will never return; he will be considered cured once the cancer has been in remission for five years.

An 18-member team of family and friends will represent Joey in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life to be held this weekend, July 16 and 17. Joey is scheduled to begin walking 6 p.m. Friday. The event generates funding for cancer research.

Last November, Ferndale held its own fund-raiser to help cover the costs of Joey's treatments. Renee Arko, Joey's aunt and one of the organizers of the event, estimated that about 700 people attended the banquet, auction, and dance.

"We sold everything that was in the auction," Arko said.

Joe Wyngaert, Joey's father, confirmed that almost $17,000 was raised at the event. He said that he was surprised that a group of people could get together and generate that amount of money.

Those funds are going toward medical bills which can only be estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even after insurance.

"We've paid the hospitals right along," Joe said, but there is confusion with separate bills for doctors, x-rays, and labs.

"I've called down to get a bill, and they send one but it has the wrong date on it," he said. "I call back to get it straightened out, and they promise to, but they don't."

Moreover, the medical bills will continue to grow because of ongoing testing and treatment. Now that the chemotherapy is finished, the family plans to focus on sorting out the bills.

According to his father, Joey "was really happy to be done with chemotherapy." T o celebrate, the family took a trip to the Oregon coast last weekend.

"We've not been able to do anything the last 13 months, so he was pretty excited," Joe said of his son.

Published July 1999 in the Record Journal Newspaper.