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PATIENT
PROFILES
Meet Francis & Lauren Citizen,
carcinoma survivor and his wife
From the outside, Francis and Lauren Citizen
exude the class and dignity of a couple who have enjoyed
a full-life filled with many blessings … from these
two individuals, love grows. What you don’t see is,
beyond their beaming smiles, a couple who have endured more
than their fair share of tough times, and have faced them
with a selfless determination that has carried them through.
From their love and marriage of 34 years grew a family of
one daughter, and two sons, both of whom are honorably serving
in the military in Iraq. They have four lovely grandchildren,
and they have also been foster parents for 17 years, having
one child for seven years until she graduated from high school.
For many years Francis was a long haul trucker. “I
got to see the country,” recalls Francis. Life had
sent them a minor setback when Francis suffered a stroke
and a light heart attack. It was during the recovery process
that Francis and Lauren used their faith and love to re-grow
Francis’ health. It was also during this recovery process
that something else began to grow. Francis began to experience
some pain in his head. It turns out that a carcinoma that
had begun as a spot on his neck was now a stage 4 tumor located
behind his left nostril.
“My initial feeling was of shock,” recalls Francis. “I
was hurt and very sad,” remembers Lauren. “He
was still recovering from the stroke and heart attack and
then this. It was a lot to happen at one time. We lost a
lot of sleep, and relied on our faith in God to counsel us
during this tough time,” says Lauren.
“They first told me I could lose my jaw,” recalls
Francis. “Since it was in stage 4, the treatment was
going to be aggressive.” Dr. Harwood immediately began
what was to become a rigorous 5-day a week 10-week treatment. “My
teeth started falling out,” remembers Francis. ”but
I did not want to stop the treatments. I had hyperbaric treatments
in order to not stop a radiation treatment. Even though the
tumor was in my head, I did not lose a spec of hair … my
moustache fell out, but not a single hair on my head,” beams
Francis.
“I don’t how we would have come through it all
without our faith in the Lord, our children, foster children,
neighbors, and the folks at OncoLogics,” says Lauren. “The
doctors and nurses at OncoLogics were wonderful. They listened
to everything we had to say, and really understood what we
were going through. We felt as though we were surrounded
by family.”
“To this day we still get emotional thinking about
it,” says Lauren. “We think about what we could
have lost.” 10 years have gone by, Francis is cancer
free and Lauren couldn’t be happier. What has grown
from their love for God, their children and each other has
proven to be far greater than anything that life can throw
at these Citizens.
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