When cancer strikes
25-year-old told this may be his last year

March 17, 2009

BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 919-419-6563

DURHAM -- David Turner is lying on his futon couch in his living room at Croasdaile Apartments. The television is turned to the Food Network. As Turner talks to a late afternoon visitor, Emeril appears on screen.

"I think I watched this same show earlier today," Turner said. He had been up since dawn for two weeks of daily 7 a.m. radiation treatments, which ended Monday. Turner has cancer -- Stage IV diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

"The doctors told me I'm probably looking at the last year of my life, to be blunt," he said.

Turner is 25 years old. A little more than a year ago, he seemed to be a healthy 24-year-old. He worked at 17th Street Surf Shop in Newport News, Va., and was planning to start taking classes again at Christopher Newport University. But he had been fatigued for a few weeks, to the point he took naps in the back room at work. Still, he wasn't overly concerned about it.

Then in February 2008, his dad came to visit and they went out to dinner. Turner had a seizure.

A 6-foot-10-inch former basketball player, Turner was told later that when he got the news he fell back onto the table behind him. He just remembers waking up in the ambulance. He was released later that night, only to have another seizure at home.

His best friend and roommate, Nick Little, was there. Turner had come home from the hospital around 11 a.m., wearing hospital bracelets, and told Little what happened. Then Little walked upstairs to go to bed. Less than a minute later, Turner called out for him -- he was having another seizure.

Little called 911, or maybe it was another roommate, he doesn't remember. It was scary and surreal, Little said. He straddled his buddy, "telling him it was going to be all right. Even though his body was consumed by the seizure, I knew he could hear me."

Turner spent three weeks in the hospital. He had more seizures as well as night sweats, vomiting and trouble breathing and talking. He thought he was going to die. During a battery of tests, he was told it could be one of three things: a disease from a tick bite, AIDS or cancer.

He learned who his friends were -- a phone list of 100 became eight. Little was one of the eight who visited him regularly in the hospital. Last year they got similar tattoos that say "America's 2 Most Wanted," a take off of a 2Pac song they used to listen to when they went out at night.

"Dave and I are straightforward with one another. He never sugarcoats," Little said. "The whole time he was being diagnosed, we had no idea it was cancer, or Stage IV. We were both like, 'No way.' But sure enough." Stage IV means the cancer is widespread.

"He understands and is very at terms with everything going on. I'm obviously very upset and beside myself about the whole situation. Dave is very 'No fear,' " Little said. "He's got this amazing outlook, even with the diagnosis."

Soon after Turner's diagnosis, he moved to Durham for treatment at the Morris Cancer Clinic with the Duke University Health System.

His mom, Suzanne Turner, is a fifth-grade teacher at Easley Elementary School in Durham. His dad lives in Charlotte. The afternoon Turner was watching the Food Network, his dad was visiting and left to return to Charlotte with a casual goodbye. "We're dudes," Turner explained. That means there's not a lot of showy displays of emotion between them. But he and his family do attend a cancer support group together at Duke.

Turner didn't have insurance coverage at first, but was declared disabled and is now on Medicaid. He has undergone three regimens of chemotherapy. At one point he was in remission, but the cancer returned.

This past fall, Turner had hoped to undergo a stem cell transplant. His brother, who lives in their hometown of Martinsville, Va., was going to be the donor. Their mother's school was campaigning to raise money for the transplant, with progress recorded on Turner's Web site, raisefordave.nexo.com. Easley Elementary's "Team Turner" even has wristbands in support of him.

But with the latest tumors, the transplant is on hold. Turner would have to be in full remission first.

Anne Beaven, Turner's oncologist at Duke, began treating him this past April.

The radiation Turner is scheduled to complete today is aimed at alleviating some pain from a tumor in his back. The pain is preventing him from sleeping. He also can't drive and it is difficult to walk. He has 16 different prescription pill bottles for "pain, nerve pain, anti-seizure, constipation, pain, more pain, nausea, day anxiety, night anxiety, more pain," he said.

Radiation, Beaven said, won't cure the lymphoma but will help with symptom control by shrinking the tumor. "It may cure a little area, but lymphoma is an all over the body disease," she said. Turner's lymphoma is aggressive. It likely wasn't sitting around for months before diagnosis, she said. It came on fast.

Last week, another tumor showed up, this time on Turner's eye. He is in a lot of pain. Beaven said that results of a biopsy this week will determine Turner's future treatment plan.

In the meantime, Turner has been watching his favorite basketball team, Duke, play on television and spending time with friends and family by phone or in person. His cell phone buzzes intermittently with calls and e-mails. Turner and Little talk a few times a week.

"We BS talk about sports, old friends. It's not technically a conversation to put his mind off things, but it kind of is," Little said. "I say the typical friend things -- 'It'll be fine.' He sees through it but knows ... We're not trying to mask or evade the situation, but he already deals with it 23 hours a day."

© Copyright 2009 by The Durham Herald Company