Charleston teacher thankful to be alive after colon cancer treatment

If anyone has a lot to be thankful for this fall, it's Bill Foster.

The Charleston Middle School language arts teacher almost died before being diagnosed with stage three colon cancer Feb. 3, but surgery eight days later and 12 rounds of chemotherapy have restored his health and given him a fresh start.

It is an unusual story.

Foster, 49, had tripped over a student's backpack in class and dislocated his shoulder. Only because he was off work the next day as a result, he was visiting his father, James Foster Sr., with his brother at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

"I couldn't take two steps," he said. "I couldn't breathe."

Describing his severe anemia, Foster said, "They ran some tests and found that my level of hemoglobin [molecules in the blood that carry oxygen] was 4.5, when it should have been 13.7.

"The nurses said I was probably a day or two away from massive organ failure. The student felt bad about the backpack when I made it back to school, but I told him it probably saved my life. If I hadn't dislocated my shoulder and torn two rotator cuff tendons, I would have probably collapsed in the classroom."

Dr. James C. Mosley III took 10 inches out of Foster's colon at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau and ordered the chemotherapy, which Foster said was tougher than the surgery. "The fatigue was unreal," he said.

He went back to work March 17 but was only able to work two days a week; however, he has returned full time this fall and is back to normal, crediting his wife, Abbi, a special-education teacher at East Prairie, his son, Eli, and Terra Nova Church in Sikeston, Missouri, as major factors in his recovery.

"I said I was going to be all right on this side of Heaven or the other," said Foster, who has bachelor's and master's degrees from Southeast Missouri State University.

"It was what if, what if, what if ... Seven pastors came to see me, and I wondered, 'Do they know something I don't?' God took the storms of life and turned them into showers of blessings."

The type of colon cancer Foster had, not having spread, has a five-year survival rate of 89 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. His dad succumbed to brain cancer Aug. 29.

Foster said Eli, 10, surprised him after the diagnosis by announcing, "I want to get my head shaved completely bald."

"He said, 'If you're going through it, I want to go through it, too,'" Foster recalled his son saying.

Eli kept him company during the long days at home, helping him in and out of bed, watching St. Louis Cardinals games and collecting baseball cards.

And Foster said Abbi's support was equally strong, adding, "This woman showed me what it meant to be married." They have been married for 13 years.

He was also heartened by the hospital visits of former students Samina Hise and Sylvia Roe. "This has been quite a journey," Foster said.

"It has been tough, but we came through it."