{"id":197639,"date":"2020-04-25T13:49:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T18:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=197639"},"modified":"2020-04-25T17:53:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T22:53:34","slug":"bill-beals-rings-bell-jrmc-cancer-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=197639","title":{"rendered":"Bill Beals rings bell JRMC Cancer Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Jamestown\u00a0 (JRMC)\u00a0 April 23, 2020 \u2014 He rang the bell, knowing he\u2019ll celebrate sometime soon.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ll make up for it,\u201d said Bill Beals, New Rockford, N.D. \u201cWe need to stay positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beals graduated from the cancer center at Jamestown Regional Medical Center Monday after 18 months of treatment. Doctors diagnosed him with lung cancer in 2018. His family has supported him since the beginning, checking in, lending hands. Because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, however, they couldn\u2019t attend the graduation.
\nInstead, Beals celebrated with his medical team at the JRMC Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys, I can\u2019t thank you enough,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t kidding about the golf. We have to go together sometime.\u201d
\nThough social distancing guidelines kept them from attending the graduation, Beals\u2019 three grown children kept in touch through phone calls, texting and Facebook Portal.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll celebrate soon enough,\u201d Beals said.<\/p>\n

Once the bell ringing is complete, Beals said he\u2019ll return to work as the office deputy at the Eddy County Sheriff\u2019s Department.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to be partying like a rock star,\u201d he said, laughing from behind a surgical mask.
\nHowever, that day may come. Once the pandemic is over, he hopes to take a trip to Las Vegas with his family.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s get past this pandemic. Then, we\u2019ll make the most of it and have some fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While a cancer diagnosis is rarely good news, for Beals, the timing probably saved his life.\u00a0 The victim of a work-related accident, Beals manages his chronic pain with a pain pump. When the pump wasn\u2019t working, he asked his doctor if he could try something new. To do that required a chest x-ray.<\/p>\n

That x-ray revealed Beals needed medical attention. Doctors diagnosed him with lung cancer on December 30, 2018.
\n\u201cI said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to be kidding me. I don\u2019t feel sick,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to believe it at first.\u201d
\nDoctors recommended radiation and 24 rounds of chemotherapy. At the time, Beals needed to travel to Fargo for that care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe JRMC Cancer Center was a life-saver,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you have chronic back pain, driving 200 miles in the car is a lot.\u201d\u00a0 Beals\u2019 attitude to cancer is a lot like his attitude to the pandemic interrupting his party \u2013 stay positive.
\n\u201cAttitude is the biggest part of this thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew I was going to beat cancer. I always believed. Plus, everybody here is great. You couldn\u2019t ask for better.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to clinical care, Beals made and re-acquainted with friends.\u00a0Like Beals, Oncologist Dr. Shelby Terstriep is also originally from New Rockford.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraduation day” from chemo is always an awesome milestone,\u201d Dr. Terstriep said. \u201cOur staff get almost as excited as the person ringing the bell because with regular infusions, we get to know them so well. With hope, that makes not being able to have family present because of the pandemic a little bit easier for Bill and others.\u201d
\nHer dad and Beals are good friends and Beals even catered her wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to take care of people close to home has been a real highlight for me,\u201d she said.
\nIn addition to his oncologist, Beals said he looks forward to seeing registered nurses, K.C. Robison and Garret Hillius, in a social setting one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cStories like Bill\u2019s help drive a cancer nurse do what we do. All patients experience adversity during treatment. Bill never let that adversity get him down. From his first treatment here at JRMC, he knew he was going to ring that bell. Every time he walked through the front door, you knew he was in a good, positive mood. His personality and sense of humor made our days better. Our patients thank us for what we do for them, but an important thing that I think gets missed is that it\u2019s people like Bill and many of our other patients that help us be the best nurses we can be. The way they view life and carry themselves in some of the toughest times is truly something to live by. It\u2019s really exciting to see Bill finish his cancer treatment. Although we\u2019ll miss him, we\u2019re excited for him to move on and we wish him the best,\u201d Hillius said.<\/p>\n

Beals said he appreciates the support of his medical team, his family and even his colleagues in Eddy County. Even though he needed six weeks off for treatment in Fargo, Beals said his colleagues donated enough paid time off that he never missed a paycheck.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be by yourself in this,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamestown Regional Medical Center is located at 2422 20th St. SW, Jamestown, N.D. and serves approximately 55,000 people in nine counties. In 2019, it was named a \u201cTop 100 Critical Access Hospital\u201d for the sixth consecutive year. Modern Healthcare named JRMC a \u201cBest Places to Work in Healthcare\u201d each year since 2017. For more information, visit www.jrmcnd.com or call (701) 952-1050.<\/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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamestown\u00a0 (JRMC)\u00a0 April 23, 2020 \u2014 He rang the bell, knowing he\u2019ll celebrate sometime soon.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ll make up for it,\u201d said Bill Beals, New Rockford, N.D. \u201cWe need to stay positive.\u201d Beals graduated from the cancer center at Jamestown Regional Medical Center Monday after 18 months of treatment. Doctors diagnosed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":197654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csicelebrations","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197639"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197656,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197639\/revisions\/197656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/197654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}