Superman

“From the heart shows us we are not alone,” said Nick Larson and as most good couples do, his wife Niki completed his sentence. “Hearing the other people’s stories and struggles and knowing we are not the only ones going through this,” she said. “And the outpouring of support from the Owatonna community is amazing.”
The ninth annual “From The Heart Run/Walk” is officially in the history books, but the families that were honored this past weekend continue to run their marathons. They are weary and beaten down from the battle, but they are still running their race.
“I had gotten a phone call from Beth Svenby, who is the creator of the event,” Niki Larson said. “We had always heard about the event and our kids would come home from school with information about it. We bought T-shirts in the past, although we had never participated in the race.”
When Niki responded to a voicemail left by Svenby, she found out that Nick was one of four local people fighting cancer, nominated to be honored by “From The Heart.” 
“At that point, I didn’t know how the process worked or that we were even nominated,” said Niki. 
Later that week, Svenby actually met with the Larsons at their kitchen table and after hearing about the nomination, they still didn’t know if it was something they wanted to do.
“Nick’s a very private person,” she said. “At first he said, ‘absolutely not, I don’t want to do it.’” 
At the “Svenby summit,” Niki said that they were just going to listen to what she was proposing, but had pretty much figured that Nick was going to say “no.”
“I was OK with whatever he decided,” she said.
“I didn’t want any recognition for something I’m not proud of,” Nick added.
“After talking with Beth for about an hour and hearing her whole story,” Niki said, “Nick said he’d have to think about it.” The Larsons commented that Svenby confided in them that Nick was her hardest sell and she had never had to sell it that hard to anyone else before him.
But then again, he was “Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!” At least, that’s what his family thinks of him and most others who have ever crossed his path. 
“My dad is Superman,” said the Larson’s youngest daughter Ellie.
He is a quiet, unsung hero who has always outrun adversity, was powerful enough to tackle any job given him and had the ability to leap through life carrying his family on his shoulders and anyone else that needed help.
Until a cancerous Kryptonite came and withstood him.
“The thing that got us was when Beth said, ‘somebody bigger than any of us understands put me here at your kitchen table today.’” Niki said with tears. “She said some stuff that we needed to hear.”
“That was the hard part, I guess (asking for help),” said Nick. “cause I normally just do it on my own, and don’t want help, but it’s nice to see your family and friends support you. It’s what you need.”
As Nick accepted the help and the responsibility, somewhere deep inside he knew that as a chosen warrior for From The Heart, he would be a support and an encouragement to all those who would come after him. With his journey, he would lead many other embattled souls upon his back and take them through the grueling process with his “never give up” attitude.
Some would call it the ultimate sacrifice of laying down everything including his own conceptions on help for those he has yet to meet. For others like Ellie, he’s just… Superman.
2015. Ten days before Christmas. A pain almost leveled Nick Larson. It was serious enough that he left the jobsite where he was pouring concrete in Mankato and began driving to the Owatonna emergency room. Apprehensive about letting him drive himself, Niki Larson felt a dark intuition in her spirit.
Nick isn’t a man who enlists help. Especially in driving himself to a hospital. His family sees him as a superhero because of his nature to work alone to get things done and because he does – get things done with his tremendous body strength, his mental attitude and his heart to go that extra mile to bless others.
But this giant of a man was in trouble that day and Niki tracked him on her iPhone to make sure he arrived safely. Something in his tone registered alarms in the heart of his wife.
He called when he arrived at the Owatonna ER to let her know that he had made it safely. 
Normally that would have been sufficient, knowing her husband, but she hadn’t heard from him, and that inner voice spoke loud and clear, admonishing her to go to the hospital to find out what was going on. Her timing was spot on as she got there 10 minutes before the doctor came in and met with them.
It wasn’t the Christmas present they had anticipated.
“I’ve got bad news,” the doctor said. “You have what we call renal cell carcinoma. You have a huge mass on your kidney and we need to take you over to Rochester by ambulance right now.”
A doctor telling you there is bad news is one thing, but those in southeast Minnesota know that an ambulance ride to Rochester is quite serious. 
“We both kind of just looked at each other,” she said. 
As Niki was speaking, Nick was already finishing her sentence. Again. “At that point we weren’t clear on exactly what it was. It was more shocking when we got to Rochester and the next day, and they finally told us what it was.”
It’s gut-wrenching when you hear it from the doctor, but Niki then took another step into the darkness and called her employer and told them that she wouldn’t be able to come in that week because “Nick has cancer.” Those words, published from your own lips the first time, brings a sinking and terrifying confirmation that the reality of being drafted into this war is set in stone.
And the battle began.
Within 15 minutes, the ambulance was there, taking her husband away. A kryptonite that put that big man down. And in moments, he was gone.
It’s hard to explain what the moments are like to someone who is left behind. Suddenly the agendas change. The schedule written on the calendar in the family kitchen is literally tossed aside and her mind scrambled to organize, strategize and recover from the reeling blow of this ill-fated, cruel storm.
Once in Rochester, there were a lot of tests and what Niki described as “a whole lot of waiting.”
“We sat around and waited and waited,” she said. “The doctor came in at about 2:00 in the morning.”
Of the three scenarios given to the family before the testing began, the doctor told them that it was the worst-case scenario. Although they didn’t give the exact progression or stage of the cancer, they found out that it was, in fact, kidney cancer. Tucked away in the quiet, early morning hours, they couldn’t speak. It started to sink in that a long winter conflict was upon them.
“The oncologist and urologist who came in kept saying, we just want to prolong his life,” she said. “We were like, what do you mean prolong his life?” As the winter equinox was focused on stealing light from another December day, a chill had settled into their souls, intent on stealing years.
The doctors didn’t divulge much information in those early morning hours and left the young couple to face the morning surgery. The surgery itself took six hours and they removed his right kidney, his right adrenal gland, and 17 lymph nodes that they thought looked suspicious.
“The lymph nodes all came back clean,” she said. “They were perfectly fine. The adrenal gland came back clean, but the tumor itself was 12 x 12 x 12 centimeters. When the doctors came in to speak to us, they said that he had some suspicious spots on his lungs.”
The surgery was followed by eight weeks of monitoring the lungs, hoping that the elimination of the main cancer source would be enough to enable the body to fight and eradicate the smaller cancerous spots. By the end of February, the family decided to take some time to relax and vacation, taking the kids and Nick’s parents to visit his grandparents in Arizona.
While out west, Nick developed some abdominal spasms that progressed in intensity and after the second day of the spasms, he began to develop some depth perception problems. 
The next morning after returning from a trip to the Grand Canyon, the symptoms turned into a nightmare. “About 7:00 in the morning I woke up to him screaming my name,” she said, “and he began having a seizure.”
Another ambulance. Again, Superman was in peril. He had a grand mal seizure and in an instant, didn’t even recognize his wife when he came out of it. The ambulance ride was a half-hour to Mayo in Phoenix. As the ambulance was pulling up to the emergency entrance, he began having another seizure.
“They did a CT scan,” she said, “and we found out that he had a one centimeter tumor on his brain.”
“It was on the left side of the brain,” Nick said. “It controlled the right side of my body.”
The medical staff then put him on seizure medication and a high dose of steroids to reduce the swelling in his brain. The seizures didn’t not return while on the trip and Nick commented that he went out and golfed the next day. With a 3-wood in his hand and a big smile on his face, that big “S” was shining brightly on his chest in the Arizona sun as he conquered another foe.
Gotham City, for the time being was safe from harm. 
In the hospital one night and on the golf course the next day. “Why not,” said Nick with his patented wry smile.
Of the options for removal of the tumor on his brain, they got back to Minnesota and he underwent a treatment called the Gamma Knife which is an alternative to traditional brain surgery. He was put into a “halo” to hold his head steady and then he was dosed with a high-powered chemo laser. The tumor was “zapped” as Nick recalled the ordeal.
Going forward, the doctors have tried three different medications and procedures to eradicate the cancer in the lungs, but to no avail. Last Thursday the family found out that the third medication, Votrient, has not been effective and the tumors have continued to grow. Other options are now being considered.
The battle continues.
Nick claims that he is doing OK, but Niki says that he is in denial. “His body is a lot weaker than it used to be,” she said, to which Nick made a quick comeback and said, “I’ll be in denial forever.” 
Somewhere in the background, his daughter, Ellie blurts out proudly, “He’s our Superman.”
The positivity of a 10-year old who will never stop believing is echoed by the Larson’s other two children, Braydn, 16 and Kiya, 11.
Obstacle after obstacle this man and his family have faced together.
“It’s shocking at first,” Nick said. “You just have to stay positive and adopt the cliché one day at a time, but yeah, everybody is different and no case is the same. I try not to think about it, but then I look in the mirror and my hair is white.”
To others that may be facing this or a similar battle, Nick Larson offers some wisdom as a man who has faced every battle with courage and tenacity and the mindset of a real-life superhero. “There’s always one more day,” he said. “I would never give up. Look at all the good stories out there and don’t listen to the bad ones.
“At first I did a lot of research and that is the worst thing I could ever do. You see odds, but just because the book says this, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”
Niki adds, “I had to ban him from the internet.” Nick smiles, knowing only a wife has carte blanche to suppress some of his super powers.
It’s normal to want to understand and to try to figure out where you are and how to get through it, but the negativity of much of the information out there can be devastating. The Larsons have dug in as a family, staying positive and they have not given up on their superhero dad. 
And Nick, in spite of still facing the monster, retains his sense of humor in the midst of it. The Larsons have been married for over 17 years and they both admit that this new normal has changed them, matured them and caused them to be more conscious of each other.
“It was an easy transition for us,” Nick said with a smile. “She was always my care giver anyways.”
Niki said, “Our lives were moving at such a fast pace that you take things for granted. This has kind of forced us to slow down even though our life is nothing but slow. We appreciate the little things more.”
From The Heart needs a champion to step up from this year’s class. One success story that will boast the miracle as a victory over cancer and hope for all others. “One?” Nick asked. “How about four.”
Nick concluded with a statement toward a very persistent enemy as he proclaims with his quiet confidence and determination, “I’ll never give up.”

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