{"id":187850,"date":"2019-12-24T10:49:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T16:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=187850"},"modified":"2019-12-24T11:06:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T17:06:27","slug":"siek-family-special-gift-this-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=187850","title":{"rendered":"Siek Family’s “Special Gift,” This Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jamestown\u00a0 (JRMC)\u00a0 \u2014 The Siek family got a special gift this Christmas – a dad who is done with cancer treatments.<\/p>\n

Husband, father and grandfather Chris Siek rang the cancer center bell three times<\/strong> on Friday, Dec. 20, 2019. He is the third cancer survivor to ring at Jamestown Regional Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been ready for this for six months,\u201d Siek said about his cancer journey.<\/p>\n

Sanford Health Family Medicine Physician, Dr. Justin Rosenau, diagnosed him with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) on May 1.<\/p>\n

The active 39-year-old was working a full-time and part-time job, in addition to caring for his family. His stay in a hospital felt like a prison, he remembers, because he couldn’t work or see his family. He wasn’t even well enough to attend his grandson’s first birthday, though he is confident he will attend the second.<\/p>\n

Siek received about 100 arsenic infusions \u2013 three-hour treatments every day for four weeks at a time. Originally, he traveled to Fargo for those infusions. However, with the opening of the JRMC Cancer Center in July, life changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s way easier to drive two miles compared to 200,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The day he rang the bell was a special one for his wife, Missy, and children, Mercedes, Ethan and Skyler. Also in attendance was Ashley, Skyler\u2019s girlfriend and Easton, Siek\u2019s 19-month-old grandson.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristopher has a positive attitude,\u201d Missy said. \u201cThat helped the family quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

JRMC opened the cancer center in July. It anticipated serving about 40 treatments each month, said Mike Delfs, JRMC President & CEO. Since October, the JRMC Cancer Center has served more than 100 each month.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding the JRMC Cancer Center took a decade of work. It\u2019s humbling to see us serving the community in this way. It\u2019s also bittersweet,\u201d Delfs said.<\/p>\n

Amongst the pride and excitement were feelings of sorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know not every ending is a happy one,\u201d Delfs said.<\/p>\n

The same day Siek rang the bell, another patient chose to terminate service and go on hospice services instead.<\/p>\n

The Siek family felt the same way.<\/p>\n

Siek said he remembered a special uncle, Mike Doyle, who passed away from cancer in 2011. He was 56.<\/p>\n

Doyle\u2019s daughter and Siek\u2019s cousin, Nikki Wibstad, attended the bell ringing in support of Chris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m emotional,\u201d she said. She remembers how Siek and her dad drank coffee together and helped each other with house projects. \u201cHe was a special uncle to Chris.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that treatments are complete, Siek said he\u2019s looking forward to returning to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going back to full-time next week,\u201d he said. \u201cNo matter what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the family, they are looking forward to having their father back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s big man\u2019s special day,\u201d Missy said. \u201cAn extra special Christmas present.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about the JRMC Cancer Center call (701) 952-3954 or visit www.jrmcnd.com\/cancer.<\/p>\n

Jamestown Regional Medical Center, in partnership with Sanford Health, opened the JRMC Cancer Center in 2019. The JRMC Cancer Center serves 100 people from Sanford and other healthcare organizations in the Jamestown area each month, saving more than 160,000 miles of travel each year.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamestown\u00a0 (JRMC)\u00a0 \u2014 The Siek family got a special gift this Christmas – a dad who is done with cancer treatments. Husband, father and grandfather Chris Siek rang the cancer center bell three times on Friday, Dec. 20, 2019. He is the third cancer survivor to ring at Jamestown Regional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":187851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187854,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187850\/revisions\/187854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/187851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}