More questions than answers for man fighting colon cancer

Timothy Billy looks out over the Rio Puerco on Wednesday near his father's house in Manuelito, NM. Billy is battling colon cancer for the second time in two years and speculates that his exposure to uranium tainted water in the 1970's could be an explanation for his cancer and his brother and sister also having cancer. [photo by Jeff Jones / Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

MANUELITO — For Timothy Billy, there are few answers surrounding the colon cancer that has struck him twice. But the questions are unending.

Billy wonders why he is dealing with the disease at such a young age — in his mid-30s — when most colon cancer patients are 50 years or older? Why his cancer has come back a second time? Why his brother — just a few years older — also has colon cancer? Why several of his other siblings have other forms of cancer or serious illnesses? Why his mother died of cancer? Why it seems that so many relatives and neighbors who live along the Rio Puerco also have cancer?

Billy shares a home with his father and talked about his on-going struggle with the disease that has turned his life upside down. According to Billy, a 37-year-old carpenter, he was first diagnosed with colon cancer in the summer of 2006. His brother, just a few years older, had been diagnosed about a year before, and Billy was feeling similarly weak and ill.

Symptoms of colon cancer vary, depending on the cancer’s size and location. Colon cancer is a cancer of the large intestine, the lower part of the digestive system. Most cases of colon cancer begin as small, non-cancerous clumps of cells called adenomatous polyps, and over time some of these polyps become colon cancers. Although many people experience no symptoms during the early stages, symptoms can include a change in bowel habits, including diarrhea or constipation; rectal bleeding or blood in the stool; persistent abdominal discomfort; abdominal pain with a bowel movement; a feeling that the bowel doesn’t empty completely; weakness or fatigue; and unexplained weight loss.

For Billy, a colonoscopy at the Gallup Indian Medical Center confirmed the presence of colon cancer. His treatment consisted of surgery that cut out about 6 inches of his large intestine.

However, during last year’s Christmas season, Billy suspected the cancer had returned. He had gained weight but then experienced a sudden drop in weight. He again felt discomfort in his stomach again and weakness in his body.

“I can feel it in my stomach,” he said of the familiar symptom he experienced. “I know my body.”

Another colonoscopy was soon followed by surgery in Albuquerque and now chemotherapy in Gallup. The chemo leaves him very tired, dizzy, and nauseated, he said, with a strange tingling sensation in his hands and feet. If this latest round of treatment doesn’t permanently eradicate the cancer, Billy said, other treatment options aren’t subjects he likes to consider.

“It’s kind of scary,” he admitted. “I don’t want to think about it.”

One subject he does find himself thinking about a lot is the possible connection between environmental toxins — particularly uranium contamination — and the cancers that have affected his family and community.

Billy, who was born in 1970, remembers the uranium spill of July 1979 when the United Nuclear Corporation’s dam broke in Churchrock, and tons of radioactive mill waste spilled into the Rio Puerco and traveled downstream near his home in the Manuelito Chapter.

He was just a child, but his family watered their livestock at the Rio Puerco, and that’s where he spent a lot of time playing with his siblings. After the spill, the water had a blackish color and a terrible odor, recalled Billy and his father. In the next few years, they explained, some of their livestock developed rashes and died, and stray dogs in the community turned up ill and covered with rashes and sores and very little hair.

“We keep out of there now,” said Billy of the river, explaining his family gets their water from a pump at the chapter now. He calls the Rio Puerco “the river of life that went to waste.”

Although he doesn’t have proof there’s a link between the uranium spill and the serious illnesses in his family, Billy believes there’s a connection. He’s against anymore uranium mining in the region until more testing is done on both residents and the environment. He would particularly like to see more screening for cancer in communities along the Rio Puerco.

“The chapter presidents along this whole area need to know about this,” he said, gesturing to the river valley. Although Billy believes Navajo people in rural communities have suffered the brunt of the exposure, he thinks people in Gallup should also be concerned and interested in getting screened for cancer.

The father of three daughters and a son, Billy said he wants his children to be tested for colon cancer when they turn 18. “I just pray that you don’t get it,” is the message Billy said he has shared with his older children.

Colon Cancer Information: National Cancer Institute: 1-800-422-6237 or www.cancer.gov; American Cancer Society: 1-800-227-2345 or www.cancer.org