Thursday, June 3, 2021 • The BuLLeTIn
GO! MAGAZINE • PAGE 7
LOCAL LITERARY HIGHLIGHTS
bendbulletin.com/goread
Bend man navigates a detour in life
BY DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin
T
erry Healey, of Bend, will be among the fortunate celebrating National Cancer Survivors Day this Sunday. He was just 20 when he received a cancer
diagnosis that resulted in major facial disfigurement at 21, followed by some 30 reconstructive surgeries — a detour in life he could not have anticipated.
Today, Healey, 56, is a successful tech sales and marketing strategy consultant. He’s also the author of “At Face Value: My Triumph Over a Disfiguring
Cancer” and a motivational speaker who strives to help others rebuild their confidence after facing adversity.
In high school, Healey was a handsome
don’t know they have it, and they’re wreak-
and popular young man, a basketball player ing havoc underneath the surface. … Where
and track and cross-country runner who
it typically forms is arms, legs, hips, and it
was chosen homecoming prince.
almost never occurs in the head or
“I talk a lot about living life on
neck.”
easy street, getting good grades,
And when sarcomas are
being an athlete, being a
found in the limbs, the solu-
homecoming prince, and
tion is often to amputate,
then suddenly, everything
Healey said.
changed,” he said.
“My doctor, once I got to
The moment his life
know him. He said there is
began to change came at
one way we could treat this,
the University of Califor-
and the best way, which
nia-Berkeley, when he ar-
would be to cut your head
rived at the first bump in the
off. Then we’d know we’d get
road — or rather, a bump in
it, but we can’t do that, and so
his nose. Friends began tell-
we’ll do the next best thing.”
Terry Healey’s memoir, “At
ing him his nostril appeared
Face Value,” was first self-
to be flared.
published
in 2001 and picked DISFIGURING SURGERY
“The fact that it was push-
up
by
a
publisher
in 2006.
He underwent an initial
ing my right nostril out, and
surgery to remove any re-
flaring my nostril, that was
Submitted photo
maining cancerous cells,
kind of the signal from other
which required only sutures.
people — I didn’t notice it
Six months later, the cancer recurred aggres-
myself — but from other people saying,
sively, and Healey’s cheek began to tingle. His
‘Hey, is everything all right? Your nostril’s
doctor prescribed another surgery.
flaring out,’” Healey said.
“My doctor warned that I might lose part
He detected a bump, and when it didn’t go
of my nose, but his main concern was saving
away on its own, Healey visited a doctor, who
my life,” Healey has written about his experi-
assured him it was probably a pimple. But
ence. “I suppose I was too young to contem-
when the “pimple” didn’t go away after three
plate dying, but the notion of disfigurement
weeks, his doctor suggested a biopsy. Most of
the tumor was removed during the biopsy, af- was devastating. I awoke from surgery to find
ter which it took five weeks to get a diagnosis. that he had removed not only half my nose
but also half of my upper lip, muscle and bone
“I was shaking in my boots, wondering
from my right cheek, the shelf of my eye, six
what the heck’s going on,” he said. “Biopsies
teeth, and part of my hard palate.”
take just a matter of days, normally.”
“My doctor told me that they’d get me
Healey learned he had a malignant maxil-
back to who I was before,” Healey said.
lary tumor, a fibrosarcoma, a type of cancer
that can form in bones, muscle and connec- “Whether that was bad information or the
wrong way to handle a patient, I think the
tive tissue.
fact that I had hope kept me in the game.
“They’re really rare,” Healey said. “They’re
… I was ignorant, right? I was young, I was
only about half of 1% of cancers. … They of-
ignorant, and I was invincible, so I thought,
ten form in bones, and because of that, they
‘Everything’s going to be fine. They’ll get me
progress. They’re very aggressive. So people
right back to where I was.’”
They did not. He had his first few recon-
structive procedures at University of Cali-
fornia-San Francisco.
“My doctor said, ‘The most problematic
part of this patient is his nose,’” Healey said.
“That’s where he noticed the disfigurement.
The problem was, I’d lost the whole founda-
tion behind my nose.”
Despite the surgical efforts to fix his nose,
Healey’s lip began to pull up, his eye drooped
and his nose pulled to the right.
“All this additional disfigurement was
happening right underneath our eyes,”
Healey said.
In hindsight, a larger game plan among
specialists would have helped.
Continued on next page