Deni Caplan

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Deni's Story...

As told by Deni Caplan

Champion Status

Survivor

Share some of your passions and joys, including the things that are most important to you.

My greatest passions and joy revolve around family and friends. I am 64 years old. I have been married to my high school sweetheart, Dr Mickey Caplan, for 42 years. We have three sons, two daughters-in-law, two grandchildren, and one on the way. I have been a practicing attorney doing corporate work and mergers and acquisitions with the same law firm, Goldberg Kohn, for over 35 years. While I love my work, my passion is spending time with my family and friends, many of whom are lifetime friends who are family by choice. It is and always has been my passion to enjoy every day and never to put off or wait for some special event, achievement, or time to live life. Now more than ever those passions and joys are front and center.

Tell us about your cancer-related journey

My cancer was discovered during a routine dental cleaning visit to my dentist. He found a fluid-filled mass on the left floor of my mouth. It turned out that the fluid built up because there was a mass on my salivary gland. I had to have a very painful surgery to remove the tumor, the salivary gland, and the nerves and lymph nodes around it where cancer had metastasized, followed by reconstructive surgery to build back the roof of my mouth and reattach my tongue using a graft of skin and nerves from my wrist to build the “flap.” The surgery was 14 hours, and then I had to have the reconstruction and reattachment of my mouth, tongue and wrist tested every hour for 2 weeks in the hospital. I could not eat, swallow, or talk on my own. The surgery was followed by 33 rounds of radiation and 7 rounds of chemo. The results of the radiation and chemo were that I lost all of my tastebuds and had mouth and tongue sores for 4 months, which made it impossible to eat. So I had to have a feeding tube for 8 weeks. 10 months out, I am healed, and there is currently no further evidence of cancer. I have relearned how to talk and eat using only one side of my mouth, and I have regained about 70-75% of my tastebuds on the right side of my mouth. I will never be able to taste or use the left side of my mouth. The type of cancer I have is rare, and there are not good studies on treatments. While I had the most aggressive known treatments to try to stave off recurrence, there is no cure, and this cancer tends to recur in the neck and lungs. I get tested every three months for the first year or two. My journey now involves learning to live in my new normal state and with the anxiety of a recurrence. It also includes the hope that more research and studies will lead to more treatment options if and when this recurs.

What are you inspired by?

I am inspired by and grateful for my family and friends, who dropped everything and showed up for me to lean on during my journey. I feel blessed to be able to tell people whom I love that I love and appreciate them while I am alive and to actually feel what it means to love and be loved.

What is your favorite mantra, quote, or saying?

My mantra: Feel gratitude, enjoy every day, and make lemonade out of lemons.

What advice would you have for people on their own cancer-related journey?

The hard things make you appreciate the important things in life.

Why is ICRF important to you?

ICRF does the important scientific work needed to continue to find new treatments and cures for cancers. That mission is critically important to me on a personal level and for all people affected by cancer.