PEORIA MAGAZINE August 2023
IN MANY WAYS, JAKE RUFF D.P.M., was at the beginning of the next stage in his life. After completing medical school and coming back to central Illinois to work alongside his father, Jake and his wife Tory had two young daughters spaced a few years apart. Like many young professionals, he was balancing family time with a demanding career, looking forward to busy summers…and tired, really tired. The extreme fatigue followed by a chronic cough and regular chest pain eventually led Jake to a diagnosis of stage 4 lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system. DAY AT A TIME… JAKE At my first visit to Illinois CancerCare, I remember exactly where we sat in the waiting room next to a fish tank. We met Dr. Gerstner, who came highly regarded, and discussed survivor rates and treatments. It was stage 4 and I had some other factors that made the diagnosis unfavorable. Yet, there is a lot of clinical research and treatments that have made the disease almost curable. Still, I was concerned if I could be one of the 20% who did not do well. That’s when I started thinking that I’m kind of mad at the way I’ve chosen to live my life to that point. I’ve sacrificed to get to where I was professionally, but I wasn’t where I wanted to be personally. TORY I was taking it one day at a time. Now that we had the official diagnosis, I knew we would have to get through the emotions of telling people. That part was really hard. You ultimately have all this information but now you have to share it. JAKE I had to tell my staff and I was particularly close with one of them who had worked with my dad for 16 years before me. TORY The most memorable person I remember telling was my mom. She lost her dad when she was a teenager, and she started crying, which made me cry. I know she was thinking about our daughters. JAKE It was about a week later when we told the staff at my office and the next thing I know they brought in a big basket full of things to help me get through treatment…blankets, massagers. I didn’t cry, but another hug and I could have. I was scheduled for treatments on Thursday afternoons. You think, “What does this mean for my kids, family, dinner…” things like that. That is one of the things Tory did so well during all of this. I did not have to worry about anything. She was there for all those moments.
Illinois CancerCare sat down with Jake and Tory to talk about how they made it through this time as a family — ensuring cancer was only a season of their life together.
TORY I don’t think there was ever any question that we were going to stop life because you don’t just stop, you try to figure out what you are going to do next with the information that you have now. I said every day that we would take it one day at a time and live in the moments. There is nothing better than what you have right here at this moment. One day at a time.
JAKE Something interesting about the timing of all this is that my cousin, Zach McAllister, is a professional baseball player and he was dealing with two serious injuries that were career threatening to him. He was going though this adversity and now I’m facing adversity, so he made it a point
to have lunch with me every Thursday before chemotherapy. We took a picture each time with our fingers holding up the treatment number. I knew the limitations I would feel during treatment would be hard. I was grateful to have Dr. Gerstner who had the knowledge to say, “these are our options and two of these options might have a higher risk of neuropathy as a side effect.” That stood out to me. He was thinking about me not just as another patient, but as someone who has a life outside of cancer treatment that we needed to plan for. TORY We were very comfortable going to Illinois CancerCare and they were great to him. JAKE It can sound cliché to hear about how life-threatening events can change a person, but I don’t care that it is cliché, because that is exactly how I felt and how I still feel. I am living a much better life because of my journey and Illinois CancerCare. Jake Ruff is a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine at Graham Health System in
Canton, IL. His family resides in the Hanna City area. WATCH JAKE’S PATIENT TESTIMONIAL AT: ILCCSTORIES.COM
8940 N Wood Sage Rd, Peoria, IL I 309.243.3000 I illinoiscancercare.com EXPERTS IN CANCER RESEARCH
JULY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE 49
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