“You have cancer.”

The doctor may as well have told me I needed to pick up a loaf of bread on the way home. It was 4 a.m. I had gone into the emergency room to get a kidney stone checked, and now I was receiving life-changing news and seemed unable to process it. My only thought was that I had to reach my wife as soon as possible.

I have no doubt that God was in the emergency room that night, prodding the doctor to take scans of my kidney stone. I arrived home in total darkness to give my wife the grave news. Windstorms had knocked out our power for days, and now cancer was going to test our resolve as well.

After a battery of tests the results were confirmed: stage 4 colon cancer. Within seven days of discovery I was receiving chemo therapy.

My wife and I were about to be introduced to the Kootenai Cancer Center and meet a world of compassion that would be more than a match for this awful disease.

It started with the friendly greeting and guidance of Lisa from the front desk. It continued with our social worker, Maggi, who would be our shield and could solve any problem from an impatient employer needing the proper forms and paperwork to assistance with an electric bill. It continued with nurses like Erin, our hope machine, and Mary, the prayer warrior. My cancer was being fought under the steady hand of Dr. Kim, who worked alongside the strong and compassionate N.P. Bruning. Just when I would feel beaten, I would get hugs from Dana in radiation. A shoulder to cry on was no farther away than the cancer center’s counselor, Laurie.

There are no cancer victims at Kootenai Cancer Center, only fighters. I have met the most amazing group of people. I am a better person for it; I feel I am right where God wants me to be.

My heartfelt thanks go out to the entire staff and all the volunteers at Kootenai Cancer Clinic Services.

On the first day my wife and I asked the nurse why she chose the cancer center as her career’s focus. Without hesitation she replied, “Because hope lives here!”

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Chad Solsvik is a Coeur d’Alene resident.