It was March, 2011. Rusty was 49 years old.  Our daughter Emily was a sophomore at Auburn and our son Will was a sophomore at Hewitt Trussville High School.  Life was good.  Spring break was coming up.  Emily and Will had the same week off.  We decided to take a trip to the Tampa/St Pete Beach area and check out Busch Gardens.

One day we were in a pretty garden area at Busch Gardens.  I wanted to take a picture of Rusty and the kids.  I was getting ready to take the picture when a lady came up to me and told me to get in the picture and she would take the picture.  Little did I know this would be our last family picture.

Shortly after we got home Rusty started feeling nauseous and it would not go away.  The end of March he had an appointment with his general doctor.  The doctor tried taking certain things out of his diet such as dairy.  Prescribed pills for this or that.  He was not feeling any better.  This went on for months with the doctor treating his symptoms but not looking for the root cause.

It is now the end of October, 2011 and Rusty is on a business trip in New Orleans.   Now anyone acquainted with Rusty knew he liked to have a good time.  He called home one night around 9:00 pm.   I was so surprised he was in his hotel room and not out with his co-workers.   Rusty told me that he felt so bad that when he gets home he is going to sit in the doctor’s office until they figure out what is wrong.  And that is what he did.

The doctor started running some test…..blood, MRI, etc.   It was now close to Thanksgiving.  Rusty was told that a spot was on his liver and it could be cirrhosis of the liver.  Yes, Rusty drank from time to time but cirrhosis?  This was mostly known as an alcoholic’s disease, right?  The week after Thanksgiving he had a MRI.  His doctor also scheduled a colonoscopy for Friday, December 1st.

On Thursday, November 30th Rusty received a call from his doctor asking him to be at his office at 5:30 pm and to bring a family member with him.  We knew the news would not be good.  After all, what doctor schedules appointments after hours.

We arrived through the back door of the office right on time.  The doctor starts the conversation by telling us how he had a colonoscopy when he turned 50.  He then proceeded to tell us that Rusty had Stage 4 Colon Cancer.  The cancer was already in his liver.  

By this time I was getting really angry.  I was also 49 and already had 2 colonoscopies myself.  Once I shared a couple of symptoms with my doctor she immediately started running test and I was on 3 year intervals.   However,  I was not aware that nausea was a symptom.  Shouldn’t  Rusty’s doctor know this?  In my opinion since Rusty was 49  it did not occur to his doctor either.  Of course I was mad at myself.  I should have made him an appointment with a Gastroenterologist when he wasn’t getting better.   I had one why didn’t I think about this?

That evening Rusty began his prep for his colonoscopy the following morning.  He was unable to swallow and keep down any of the liquid prep.   Upon arrival for the procedure we sent the Gastroenterologist a note informing him of Rusty’s MRI results.   Of course he later confirmed the diagnosis. 

From recovery we went directly to the surgeon’s office.  Rusty was scheduled for surgery on Monday for an ostomy.  His blood was so low the surgeon almost had to give him blood for the surgery.   Shouldn’t that have been noticed months before?

As Rusty adjusted to his new life with an ostomy bag, port and chemo we celebrated Christmas and the New Year the best we could.  Deep inside I knew this would be his last.  I admit that I took lots of pictures.  In January we celebrated Rusty’s 50th birthday and in February our 22nd wedding anniversary.

During this time our good friend, Kerri, heard about Rumpshaker 5K.  She created our team.  We were and still are team Butt Busters.  Our first race was scheduled for March 31, 2012.  We thought Rusty would be there to cheer us on.  Kerri and I liked that the money stayed local and was used to educate, provide support and even scholarships.  Colorectal cancer is easily curable if caught early.

On March 12, 2012 only 3 ½ months after diagnosis Rusty lost his battle with colon cancer. We would now be walking our first race in his memory. 

Today, team Butt Busters continues to walk in memory of Rusty Dole. This is our 14th year to participate.   Although our team consists mostly of immediate family members now and we don’t win the largest team awards any longer it is important to us to continue the fight.