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• Jose Hernandez scheduled to go on his first space mission in August

• Vinewood Community Church hosts bikers at unusual service

• I-5 closed after car crashes into big rig

• Diagnosed with cancer, Lodi man eventually discovers blessings he never imagined

• Man reportedlyassaulted, kidnapped

• Regional Roundup

• Public Meetings

November 2nd, 2009

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

November 6th, 2009

• Short sales make up nearly half of Lodi market

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi man accused of smuggling drugs, weapons for inmates at state prison

• 'I-5 Strangler' sentenced to 6 terms of life

• Jury convicts Acampo man of torture, assault of his girlfriend

• Young girl is 200,000th person to assemble AIDS, HIV care kit

• Woman in wheelchair struck by car

November 5th, 2009

• San Joaquin County considers moratorium on new Williamson Act contracts

• Speakers address Lodi Unified School District budget shortfalls, plea to keep programs

• Armed robbers still targeting Lodi shops

• Regional Roundup

• California voters have final say over $11 billion water bond

• Paul Tebbel shines spotlight on sandhill cranes

• Your complete guide to Sandhill Crane Festival

• David Diskin is first to give an invocation under new city of Lodi policy

• Man wanted in Acampo homicide gives up to San Joaquin County Sheriff's detectives

• Weekend bus service to continue until Lodi City Council makes decision

• A lower Lodi Lake

• Streetside scarecrows

November 4th, 2009

• San Joaquin County sues state over prison hospital planned for Stockton

• California sends Democratic loyalist John Garamendi to Congress

• Candle fire

• Rep. Jerry McNerney sets telephone town hall for Thursday

• Jason Behrmann is unanimously named Galt's city manager

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi City Council weighs raising fares to restore some bus service

• Bicycling father raising awareness of teen suicide

• Galt City Council argues over ordinance hiring residents

• Big win for Allen Baroni in reclamation election

November 3rd, 2009

• Clarification

• Correction

• Galt considers ordinance that would require city contractors to hire locally

• Regional Roundup

• Have you seen a missing guide dog puppy in Lodi?

• Jason Behrmann is top candidate for Galt city manager

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

• 500 attend service for Kyle Coumas

• Galt man dies after weekend Highway 12 crash

November 2nd, 2009

• 27-year-old man shot to death Saturday night in front of Acampo home

• Public Meetings

• Correction

• Kyle Coumas funeral today

• Regional Roundup

• Group investigates reports of haunting

• Sandhill Cranes Festival comes to Lodi next weekend

• Lamborghini lovers gather for show, fine wine, luncheon in Woodbridge

• Lodi's 'Biggest Loser' Christy Richesin runs 5K Halloween race

• Downtown Lodi trick or treat

October 31st, 2009

• Izzy Laviola and Seth Siddle-Mitchell crowned Tokay homecoming queen and king

• Tokay High evacuation

• Finishing touches on Hill House replica

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi-area Halloween events

• Lodi a reflection of Halloween's retail emergence

• Area schools have no plans of closing due to H1N1 virus

• In remembrance of Kyle Coumas

• Gated communities in Lodi

• City of Lodi settles case of mistaken identity

October 30th, 2009

• Officials hope new Highway 12 stoplight will make road safer

• Red Ribbon Week

• Logbook

• Roundup of Lodi-area Halloween events

• Lockeford soldier Kyle Coumas' funeral set for Monday

• Lodi sales tax revenue less than expected

• Regional Roundup

• Local reaction to economic growth

• Get an early start trick-or-treating in Downtown Lodi

• When there's something strange ...

• Stockton breaks ground on Delta Water Supply Project

• Possible extention of first-time homebuyer tax credit?

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• Bible is entwined with American civic life (135)
• Gated communities in Lodi (112)
• I predict: A conservative tide will rise in 2010 (90)
• The Treaty of Tripoli hoax (76)
• David Diskin is first to give an invocation under new city of Lodi policy (57)
• Here's what my father knew about the assassination of JFK (55)
• Universal health care solves big problems (30)
• Words from our forefathers (26)
• With resolve and imagination, Downtown Lodi can surge once again (24)
• 27-year-old man shot to death Saturday night in front of Acampo home (18)

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Diagnosed with cancer, Lodi man eventually discovers blessings he never imagined

As I laid on the gurney on March 26, 2009, waiting for yet another trip into artificial slumber, I was reminded — again — by my well-intentioned surgical nurse that once someone has had cancer, no one is really "cured" of this scourge on mankind despite the somewhat mythical five-year threshold to which most of us anxiously look forward.

Jerome Kinderman

Of course, after living with Stage Four Squamous Cell Carcinoma for nearly three years, I understood this fact quite well. Yet it took quite a bit of time and various events to force me to accept that my life would never again be the same. But what I did not expect was that the majority of the changes that would occur would be good things — no, actually, great things. The journey that commenced in February of 2006 would lead me to such joy and sense of purpose that if anyone other than I would be telling this story, there's no way that I would believe or accept it. But it's true, and I want to share it with anyone who will listen.

Where had my life gone?

Without going into the gory details regarding my life before cancer ("BC"), I can state with certainty that my life had very little direction. In fact, at 48, I truly believed that my best days were behind me and I was destined to live the remainder of my life in abject misery. Having been deemed to be disabled by the good folks at the Social Security Administration due to a long-term problem with my lower back, it was made abundantly clear by my employer that I wasn't earning my pay; they needed and were rightfully deserving of someone who could handle the physical and mental challenges required of a one-man Information Technology Department for a mid-size transportation company in Lodi, California. To their credit, I should have been called on the carpet two years prior — but for their sense of goodness and fairness, it wasn't until I had been employed nearly five years that they had had enough. Still, my employers were able to make my transition into disabled retirement as painless as possible.

Where had my life gone? Why should I be subject to so many "hits" within such a short period of time? Prior to losing my job, my marriage had deteriorated to the point that divorce seemed the only solution, and I once again found myself single and sad. And while I was unable to give 100 percent, my job was all that I believed I had left — along with my children, of course. Having no source of income, there was no choice but to sell my home. At least here, I had a little luck — with the guidance of one of the most ethical and honorable real estate agents in the city. It also didn't hurt that I put my home on the market just as the housing bubble reached its apex.

Without having to put a "For Sale" sign on the front lawn — and after one Open House that garnered no less than 12 offers well above my asking price, following the advice of my learned agent's many years in the real estate market — the transaction closed with absolutely no problems whatsoever. I was left with an obscene amount of money (at least, as it pertained to the original purchase price of my humble little abode) with which I happily handed over my former wife's share of the equity and used the balance to begin my new life in a two-bedroom apartment on the northeast side of Lodi. I even took to the road with my beloved dachshund, Dottie, to visit with two of my six children and four grandchildren in Houston, Texas that certainly brought me closer to them.

Of course, the money wouldn't last forever, and even though I knew I would live my life with chronic pain, dampened by various prescription cocktails that helped, I pondered: What to do with the enormous amount of time on my hands? My youngest child, at that time 14, was already showing the familiar signs of adolescence. Nearly gone were the days that I was the focus of her life. Perhaps returning to church in earnest would give me the direction that I so desperately needed. Well, it did — and it didn't. Clearly, something more profound than the combined events of divorce, pain, job loss and the premature sale of my home would be needed for me to come around, and I prayed for precisely that. All kidding aside, when God comes up with an answer, there is no limitation to what He will do to get our attention, as I was soon to find out.

A change in shaving habits — and a troubling discovery

In 2006, I noticed a small lump in my neck. The manner in which I noticed this little problem is not too interesting, yet I wonder how much longer it might have taken to discover it had I not decided to change my method of shaving. Not since I was in my teens had I desired to shave my beard with anything other than a straight-edge razor. I always believed that an electric razor would never be able to get close enough to my skin to satisfy my requirements for a baby-soft face. But since one was on sale at Wal-Mart in January of 2006 at a ridiculous price, I thought, "What the heck — why not?" After a few times with this machine, I noticed a distinct difference in the way it rolled over each side of my neck. Upon further examination, I couldn't help but see this little hill that had emerged on the left side. It was soft to the touch, but it didn't move around too much. With a mental shrug, I decided to not worry too much about it, although I did find myself "handling" it on a regular basis, I suppose, because I didn't have much else to do. After a few weeks it was still there, so I called the appointment line at the VA and scheduled my appointment. (As an Air Force vet, I had discovered in previous months that I did indeed qualify for VA health coverage.)

My VA-appointed doctor asked me the obvious questions — smoking and drinking habits, history of disease in my family (including cancer), injuries — every question one would expect a doctor to ask under the circumstances. Based upon my history, she said, it must be some sort of infection or a cyst. After prescribing a common antibiotic and three weeks or so of no reduction in the size of this curious lump, my doctor referred me to the doctors at the VA Medical Center at Mather (Sacramento), and the process began all over again. The same questions ended with the same results — it was probably a cyst. Not until a Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) procedure was ordered and performed was there any real concern on the part of the doctors or me. After waiting a weekend for the results of the FNA, I was called in for yet another consultation. And while my newly introduced "surgeon" advised me that we were probably still dealing with a cyst, he recommended that it be removed and tested — just to be on the safe side.

I often wonder if there is a course that these guys and gals take in medical school that has them so adept at lying — with nothing but the best of intentions, of course. If it was just a cyst, why the warnings about something called Squamous Cell Carcinoma? Why talk about a radical neck dissection? Why discuss how my wounds would likely heal along the natural lines in my neck and face? And most confusing of all, why was my surgeon anxious to actually wager that he would find nothing more than a benign cyst that would take less than an hour to remove and end this soon-to-be short chapter of medical intrusion into my exceedingly boring life? In hindsight, I should have bet someone else's money that he was wrong, as I truly believed him to be prior to being put to sleep on that April 17, 2006, morning.

God was about to get my attention — I just never imagined just how terrible and wonderful His methods would be.

Editor's note: This is the first in a periodic series of stories written by Jerome Kinderman, a Lodi resident who is battling cancer.