Fontanetta family continues battle against disease

A warrior for God, a great husband, a super father.

That’s how Christina Fontanetta describes her husband, Ed Dooley Fontanetta.

On Valentine’s Day, Christina, their three children, and their family and friends attended Ed’s “celebration service.”

 Ed lost his three-and-a-half year battle with esophageal cancer on Feb. 10.

Christina has known her husband Ed since he was 10 years old and living in Chicago, Ill.

The 45-year-old father of her three children — 21-year-old Vincent, 16-year-old Veronica and 4-year-old Dominic — is her best friend.

He’s a “Christ-centered person, very family-oriented, hard worker and a really good person,” Christina said.

But as Veronica told her mother, “bad things happen to good people.”

Ed, a project manager for an electrical company, was diagnosed with Stage IVb esophageal cancer — Stage IVb means the cancer is in the bone — in September 2006.

A PET scan showed a tumor on Ed’s rib that had eroded the bone, a tumor the size of a lemon in his esophagus, and several lymph nodes full of cancer.

Christina knew that Stage IV was the last stage, and according to the Internet, Ed had four months, a year tops, to live.

Christina said the “never-ending roller coaster ride” began.

But Ed beat the odds thanks to chemotherapy cocktails, daily radiation and a supplemental treatment.

By May 2007, after “eight months of battling this beast,”  Ed’s cancer was in remission.

In February 2008 the scans continued to show no cancer. But by September 2008, the cancer had returned, this time with a tumor on the brain and several in the liver.

Ed began in-home hospice care on Jan. 12.

Typically, hospice patients only last a few days after ending all curative treatment and accepting the program’s palliative care.

But Christina said, “What were we thinking? Ed is so strong and such a fighter we should have known he would be a great warrior in battle to the death. I love him and am amazed by him daily. But I’m also having such a hard time watching my husband and best friend die slowly before my very eyes.  I would like to say again, I hate cancer.  Not only does it kill viciously... it wounds many.”

The entire family has fought from day one.

Christina, a researcher by nature, went straight to the American Cancer Society Web site, www.cancer.org, for more information.

The next stop was the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, where the Ed and Christina received more information.

“We are all really active people so being in a fight was really good for us,” she said. “It’s easy to be active in cancer when you are battling it. Ed never said, ‘Why me?’ He wouldn’t say that. There were plenty of times I would scream to God, ‘What are you thinking?’ But we are a very close-knit family, and we are very Christ-centered people.”

Fighting back was the adrenaline they needed for those 3½ years.

Once the in-home hospice care started, Christina said the care-giving grew harder.

“It is very emotional to watch. It’s easier when you are fighting. When the fight is over, and you know there are no more treatments  ... when they told us there was nothing more we can do,” Christina said. “I am a strong advocate, so when Ed was battling, I was on the Internet, on the phone, advocating. Ed calls me his administrative manager. The kids got by during those first few years because Ed always beat the odds. He was in remission for 16 months. We really pulled together. There was a lot of hope. The American Cancer Society always talks about hope.”

Before cancer, Ed was a quiet man.

But for three years he stood out on the track at Kerr Middle School because he had something special.

In 2007 Ed walked the survivor lap, and he pulled a little red wagon carrying his son Dominic.

He walked and Dominic rode again in 2008 and 2009.

The sign on the wagon in April 2009 said “My Dad, My Hero ... surviving Stage IVb esophageal cancer.”

“Dominic brings attention to Ed,” Christina said. “We didn’t know why, when our daughter was 12 and our son was 17, we had Dominic, and when Ed got sick, we really wondered. But this little person has been Ed’s driving force. And he draws attention to his Dad on the track.”

The family believes in Relay For Life and the American Cancer Society.

“Even if you know nobody who has cancer, once you go to Relay, you will go back again. It is truly doing good,” Christina said.

Ed’s presence will still be felt at the American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Burleson 2010 on April 16-17 at Kerr Middle School.

This year Ed’s family and their friends have two teams — Ed’s Entourage 1 and 2. And Dominic will be there with his Dad’s little red wagon.



 

Popularity: 4% [?]