My husband’s cancer was a week away from taking his life

By Amber Meisel, American Family Insurance Underwriting Operations Services Technician

2018 was one of the hardest years I’ve ever had.

I had a newborn son who was sick for six months. After norovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, bronchiolitis after bronchiolitis, ear infection after ear infection, and multiple allergic reactions to anti-bacterial medications, June started looking up.

Until my husband, Dustin, called me at midnight from the ER with what he’d thought was kidney stones.

But, it wasn’t. It was cancer.

When I got to the hospital the next morning, I was hoping he was over-tired and not hearing correctly. That the news was going to be different. He was only 31 years old, after all.

But, instead, I was greeted with Dustin saying, “Amber, I don’t think I ever submitted my life insurance through work.”

That’s when I lost it — I knew it was bad. From there, everything went in one ear and out the other. All I heard was, “I am so sorry, but we need to hurry.”

Without treatment, Dustin’s cancer was a week away from taking his life. There were tumors throughout his entire digestive system. Every lymph node was swollen, and the cancer had spread into his central nervous system. He started chemo for his lymphoma before even being fully diagnosed.

Three weeks a month, for three months, he would set up a room in his “new home” for chemo and lumbar punctures while I held down the fort at home, an hour away from the hospital.

I took the kids to daycare, worked (fortunately, I was able to work remotely), walked the dog during lunch, drove the commute to the hospital so we could eat dinner together, drove home and hoped I had enough time to do laundry, dishes, baths … you get the gist. I also work another job that I had to fit in on Saturdays.

It was tough.

After three months of chemo and seven months of recovery, I’m happy to say Dustin is feeling much better and back at work.

It took me years to get approved for my own life insurance outside of work, due to a birth defect that required heart surgery when I was two months old. So when Dustin, who would’ve been easily approved for life insurance, told me he wasn’t sure he had any … needless to say I wasn’t happy. It’s so important to financially protect your loved ones.

Your health doesn’t discriminate based on your age. As Dustin’s oncologist said, “It’s just a matter of bad luck.” We are so fortunate Dustin had one of the most treatable form of cancers. Because our children — Ruby (6), Kylee (4) and Quinn (2) — depend on us to support them, whether we’re living or not.

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