By Gayle VanVooren

Mascot Editor

Dane Nordquist is feeling very lucky right now. He is sore, but is recovering from surgery that removed his right kidney.
“I went in for a bladder/prostate infection, and cancer was found purely by accident,” he said on Saturday during Boxelder Bug Days.
In a voice that was infused with emotion, Nordquist explained the ordeal that he has been through and how totally thankful he is for the diagnosis that he now has — NO CANCER!
Nordquist was not feeling well, and had a fever that would not go down. “He had such a high temperature,” added his wife, Nancy. He went to the doctor and had a CAT scan for his lower extremities.
After the test, the couple waited in the doctor’s office, ready to get a prescription and head home.
“When the doctor came in and shut the door,” said Nordquist, “I knew there was something wrong.”

The doctor told him he had a tumor on his kidney and he needed to see a specialist. “He set up an appointment immediately and I saw on oncologist on August 4,” said Nordquist.
It was decided that his right kidney would be removed and further treatment would then be decided.
Nordquist underwent surgery on September 1 at the Sanford Towers in Sioux Falls, SD, in a surgery that was done laproscopically. An incision lower in the abdomen also was made, which averted some of the muscle tissue.
“I laid on my left side on a beanbag that was heated,” he said. The table moved and he was informed of what would happen as he lay there, waiting for everything to begin.
The surgery took a couple hours and then recovery was still longer.

(More story and another photo in The Mascot, 9-15-2010)