{"id":1469,"date":"2013-11-29T20:47:53","date_gmt":"2013-11-30T00:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2018-05-13T18:43:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T22:43:13","slug":"team-doolin-looks-to-defy-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/team-doolin-looks-to-defy-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Doolin looks to defy diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joyce Wagner
\nIn Motion Staff Writer<\/p>\n

\"Rick<\/a>
Rick Doolin, chats with Debbie Porter, middle, and another fundraiser attendee at the Thor fundraiser at the Paragaon Theater last month.
Photo By: Joyce Wagner\/In Motion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Optimism and hope might seem elusive after receiving the diagnosis of a rare cancer, but Rick Doolin shows it is possible.<\/p>\n

Family and friends consider Doolin a superhero for his valiant fight despite his disease. At a recent event in November, Doolin and his wife, Stacey, arrived at the Paragon Theaters in Daytona for a showing of \u201cThor\u201d, They were greeted by a crowd of enthusiastic well-wishers, several sporting t-shirts with with popular superheroes on them.<\/p>\n

In keeping with the theme, Kristin Mixell, a DSC adjunct professor and former student of Doolin\u2019s, heads up Team Doolin Superhero Alliance. In addition to fundraisers, Mixell and the Alliance try to find ways to meet the needs of the entire Doolin family. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about raising money, but uplifting the Team in every way,\u201d said Mixell. \u201cOne (way) is giving them great experiences to celebrate and look forward to in their uncertain reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

That night was a good night for Doolin who has been going through chemotherapy. \u201cI feel pretty good. I have chemo every three weeks. I don\u2019t have chemo again until next week, so I\u2019m two and a half weeks out. That\u2019s why I feel pretty good,\u201d said Doolin. But after chemo? \u201cI sleep for about eight days. It\u2019s nasty. Mean stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot being able to teach has been hard on him,\u201d said Stacey. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to be really creative to figure our how to still connect, because he\u2019s still got a lot of stuff to do, he just can\u2019t do it necessarily standing up every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doolin, a Daytona State College biology and anatomy professor, has been ill since fall 2012 when he began having difficulty breathing. Suspecting the problem to be pneumonia, he took medical leave. Treatment however, did nothing to improve his condition.<\/p>\n

In June, doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville scheduled Doolin for surgery to remove his damaged pericardial sac, the fibrous membrane which surrounds the heart, once they determined where the problem was. It was during surgery that the cancer, pericardial mesothelioma, was discovered. He woke from surgery to hear the devastating news. \u201cIt\u2019s a bad day when you wake up from open-heart surgery and it gets worse,\u201d Doolin said. \u201cIt was a surprise to get cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pericardial mesothelioma is a rare cancer affecting the lining around the heart muscle. It represents about 5 percent of all mesotheliomas which can be associated with asbestos. There have been only 200 cases reported worldwide. Doolin has no known exposure to asbestos, but research has shown that it is possible for mesothelioma to develop up to 50 years after a person has been exposed to asbestos.<\/p>\n

Doolin, 48, has already survived Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma, cancer of the immune system, which he was diagnosed with at the age of 17. \u201cHaving cancer at a young age hit me pretty hard,\u201d Doolin said. \u201cIt made me think about what I really wanted to do with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time, the prognosis isn\u2019t as promising. \u201cMy doctors told me that all I could really do was pray,\u201d Doolin said. \u201cWe try to stay positive, but we have our moments.\u201d He and Stacey made the choice to celebrate life instead of grieving the diagnosis. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t think of a lot of things that we would have done differently,\u201d Stacey said. \u201cWe have had an amazing life together and done everything we wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stacy<\/a>
Stacy and Rick Doolin greet supporters at the fundraiser.
Photo by: Joyce Wagner\/In Motion
<\/figcaption><\/figure>Family, friends and community, including DSC students, faculty and staff, have surrounded the couple and their two sons, Jesse, 9 and Noah, 6, with physical and emotional support. Their Facebook page, Team Doolin is filled with uplifting and encouraging scriptures and comments. Stacey keeps followers apprised of their daily trials and tribulations, as well as triumphs and joys through the Facebook postings. \u201cI just really cannot believe how much support there is for a guy who is just doing what he enjoys,\u201d said Stacey.<\/p>\n

Doolin is known by students for keeping lessons educational and interesting. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a matter of here\u2019s the information, you need to learn it,\u201d said Stacey. \u201cIt\u2019s that he knows that it\u2019s their future being built. He changed his whole direction in life based on one really good teacher he had in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the focus is on his family. Doolin spends as much time as possible with Stacey and their boys. \u201cThe kids give him something to fight for,\u201d Stacey said. \u201cThey are so young and they need their dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like a true superhero, Doolin and his family power forward through each day. The strength they find in each other is magnified by the support they receive from family, friends and community. This alliance is invaluable as Doolin continues chemotherapy and the fight of his life.<\/p>\n

To follow and support the Doolin family, go to Team Doolin and Team Doolin Superhero Alliance on Facebook. For more information about mesothelioma, visit www.curemeso.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joyce Wagner In Motion Staff Writer Optimism and hope might seem elusive after receiving the diagnosis of a rare cancer, but Rick Doolin shows it is possible. Family and friends consider Doolin a superhero for his valiant fight despite his disease. At a recent event in November, Doolin and his Continue reading Team Doolin looks to defy diagnosis<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1472,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions\/1472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}