A Spouse Perspective - Connie Wardenburg

How do I begin?   I certainly am not a writer, but will try and give you an idea as to who I believe my husband Larry is and what has happened over the past year.

Larry & Connie Wardenburg

We were married in February 1998.  This was a 3^rd marriage for both of us, but it seems like we have known each other forever and I not only truly love Larry, but he is my best friend.  Our family is the most important thing to us.   We have 6 of the best kids and their spouses ever and oh boy, don’t get me started on our 7 grandchildren.   

We opened our real estate company in 1989 at Lake of the Ozarks.  We began as a vacation property management company and then added the real estate sales.  Larry’s background was in Hotel management and I had been selling real estate since 1983.  Our company (Lifestyle Properties) grew to be one of the most successful companies at the lake.  We worked hard during those years, especially in the vacation rental portion.   In the beginning we would clean many of our condos and homes in the evening after the office was closed, sometimes working until late at night.   As our business grew, we hired on housekeepers, but many times would do some of the cleaning ourselves.  We loved what we were doing and especially doing it together.

We were lucky to get some great real estate agents join our team on the real estate side of the company.   Our company grew to be successful not only monetarily but was also well respected by our peers.    Life was great!   Then when the real estate market started dropping, we were sure it was only a short set back and we began using our retirement to keep the company open.   I never believed that the recession would take such a toll on the real estate market.   Eventually, we had used most of our retirement and reality set in that we were in financial difficulty.  

We sold our company to Al Elam Real Estate in June of 2010 for a small monetary amount and my entire office moved in with the Al Elam company.    This was a great relief to me as I no longer was the broker/owner and now could just concentrate on selling real estate.  We continue to pay off bills from our company and our credit is still good although our credit debt has gotten out of control.  Larry took on several different jobs, such as working at nuclear plants in Virginia on outages, working at Pauls grocery store and then working for his daughter, Sandy, with computer input and handy man chores 3 days a week.    Not what he expected to be doing in his retirement years.   

We are not quitters and are trying to do everything to keep afloat and not file bankruptcy.   We both always looked at it as we were still very lucky because we had such a great family, each other, good health and our integrity.   We thanked God for all we had and did not dwell on the monetary things we had lost.   We put our home on the market last October.  Larry had owned this home for over 30 years.   An old farm home built in the 1880 that Larry had restored.   It was home to us and our kids and grand kids, but we all realize that home is not the house but where the family is.

Last August 2011, Larry got really ill and was in the Lake hospital for over 11 days.   They thought he had a blood infection, but I believe it was the beginning of his carcinoid showing up.   Many tests and different specialists and medications later, we ended up again in the Hospital in Jefferson City where he was diagnosed with c-diff but the doctor found the tumors in his liver.   The doctor took a biopsy and a few days later we were told he had carinoid cancer and we were referred to Doctor Rifkin in Jefferson City.   He is an oncologist and after some more testing, Larry was referred to Doctor O’Dorisio in Iowa City.    

We are very thankful that all the doctors were so diligent in getting Larry diagnosed and to the right doctors for treatment and testing.   Doctor O’Dorisio has Larry scheduled for the Galium 68 scan this week . Doctor O'Dorisio does not believe that Larry will be a candidate for surgery, but will know for sure once he has the scan.   He has petitioned for Larry to go to Basel, Switzerland for the PRRT treatments.   He says it will be 2 or 3 treatments because of his liver burden.  

I am still learning a lot about the cancers especially from other carcinoid patients.   We are not quitters but pray that the treatments will help slow down the cancer growth.