Lions Club to host Pancake Breakfast benefit in Badger for Scott Carlson
A Pancake Breakfast benefit for Scott Carlson of Badger is scheduled for Sunday, January 12. The event is hosted by the Greenbush-Badger Lions. (photo by Mavis Gonshorowski)
A Pancake Breakfast benefit hosted by the Greenbush-Badger Lions will be held for Scott Carlson on Sunday, January 12, from 9:30 a.m., to 1:00 p.m. at the Badger Community Center.
A Badger resident, Scott is the father of four children: Cody, fourteen; Bella, eight; Wyatt, six; and Levi, four.
Born at the Bethesda hospital in Crookston, Minn., fifty-one year-old Carlson was raised in Beltrami, Minn., and attended school in Fertile, Minn., graduating in 1986.
In 1987 he became an employee of Marvin Windows in Warroad, working there for almost 23 years. Since then he has been employed at Roseau area businesses. From 2010-2014 he worked at Polaris Industries, and from 2014-2018 at Intercept Industries. Now an employee at BB Diversified Services, he is presently on FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act).
“It all started in 2013 when diverticulitis showed up,” Scott said.
Diverticulosis occurs when small, bulging pouches (diverticula) develop in one’s digestive tract. When one or more of these pouches become inflamed or infected, the condition is called diverticulitis.
(www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders)
“In June it got to the point where I was in a lot of pain and went to Roseau (LifeCare Medical Center). They started out by putting me on antibiotics to relieve the infection. CT scans showed dark spots on my left kidney … that’s where they found the cancer. I was diagnosed with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. The cancer affects the veins (small tubuals) that feed into the kidneys for filtration.”
Scott commented that chromophobe cancer is a rare cancer. When the tumors grow to a certain size they seed out and spread throughout the body. The only type of treatment for this cancer is radiation surgery. As of now, no other methods of treatment have been successful.
The day of Scott’s birthday, August 15, 2013, he underwent a surgical procedure in which his left kidney was removed.
“They then found out that my right kidney, which is smaller than my left one, was in stage three renal failure. I was given some medication to help with this issue – it did really well. The doctor asked me what I was doing … I told him I had a beer and cranberry juice every day. He just laughed and said I was flushing myself and polluting myself at the same time!”
Besides attaining an admirable sense of humor he does admit he’s also stubborn. This attitude found him up and about within an hour after the removal of his left kidney.
He shared this advice,“You’ve got to have … number one, faith in God and trust that everything will be okay; number two, fight and drive; and number three, stubborness to succeed. Just having a good sense of humor helps when you’re in a bad situation – it helps take things off your mind.”
To find out about Scott’s complete journey, read the January 8 issue of The Tribune in print or online.
