Tipped Off
12-19-2005, 01:01 PM
From the Everett Herald:
The Voice of Faith
Silvertips announcer in a battle he intends to win
By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SNOHOMISH - Two years ago, 8-year-old Katie Piland began growing her hair so she could donate to a program called Locks of Love, which aids cancer patients.
Her 10-year-old sister, Crissy, watched a program on the Discovery Channel with her father four years ago, which led Crissy to an immediate desire to become, in her words, "a brain doctor." Two years ago, on Halloween, she dressed as one.
Last year, the Piland family took part in a golf tournament sponsored by former Seattle Seahawk Jacob Green to benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The family took part in the dinner and even bought a football.
Through their Camp Fire group a year ago, Katie, Crissy and their mother, Lisa, knitted caps for cancer patients whose hair was falling out due to chemotherapy.
They did it because they wanted to help. They had no hidden motive. No one in the immediate family had cancer.
So imagine the irony when Dave Piland, 41, of Snohomish was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor seven weeks ago.
"I never dreamed, when I was doing it for other people that a year later I would be knitting a cap for my husband," Lisa Piland said.
Dave Piland, known best in Snohomish County as the powerful, booming voice at Everett Silvertips games, has level 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Dave Piland's faith is unshakable. He will beat this, he said.
"I just don't have any doubt," he said. "I mean, there are times when it creeps in, but I just say a prayer and it creeps right back out."
Since his diagnosis, subsequent surgery and post-surgical care, the Pilands have received a vast wave of support that has helped carry them to new levels of both faith and hope.
Once news hit the Internet, it didn't take long for a worldwide prayer chain to form.
"He's got, I would say, over a million people praying for a miracle," Lisa Piland said. "We're asking God to heal him completely. He's got two little girls he wants to walk down the aisle with. And he has two older sons (Travis, 22, and Greg, 19) who see him as this strong, athletic dad."
Gary Cressey, Piland's bass-voiced partner when the two worked together for six years at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, is just one who has made himself available. A cancer survivor himself currently undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, Cressey talks with Piland frequently on the phone.
During the season, Cressey makes weekly flights to the Northwest from his home in Redding, Calif., to announce races. He and Dave Piland will see each other more frequently once the season begins.
"I love the guy," Cressey said. "He's one of the nicest young men I've ever worked with. Announcing with him is the most fun I've ever had. It's funny. We both thought of doing something else, but I kept staying because of him and he kept staying because of me. We probably spent about five more years together than we really had to."
The two were known for staging mock interviews with drivers during races. One time, Cressey interviewed Piland, who took on the identity of a female driver and spoke in a high-pitched voice.
Later in the evening, Cressey ran into a spectator he knew who also was acquainted with the purported interviewee.
"Boy," the friend said. "That gal sure sounds like her brother."
Still hard at work
Armed with his own strong faith, Dave Piland has carried on. He's returned to work Silvertips games at the Everett Events Center. He works as manager of DeYoung's Farm and Garden in Woodinville as much as his energy allows. He coaches his daughters' basketball teams, as he did his sons'.
"He's a hands-on dad," Lisa Piland said. "He's not one of those dads who ignores his kids. He truly loves his kids and wants to be involved in their lives. He's got a lot of motivation to beat this."
Assistance has come from near and far.
AWA Electrical Consultants of Lynnwood adopted the Pilands for Christmas. Employees at the firm will shop for, wrap and deliver Christmas presents to the family.
The Pilands have received numerous homemade meals. They've received money raised from bracelet sales and auctions, which they use to help pay for medication. Proceeds from a church spaghetti feed went to them. They travel to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle daily for examinations and treatment, so people have donated gasoline cards.
"I haven't really been angry and asked 'Why me?' because there have been so many other good things that have happened to me, good things that I never would otherwise have been a part of," Dave Piland said.
People from his men's Bible study group hung Christmas lights on the family's house. Others mowed the lawn. When the lawn mower blew a head gasket, friends picked it up, fixed it and brought it back.
These challenging times have brought blessing after blessing, the Pilands say.
"It's just been such a beautiful thing to see," Lisa Piland said. "Family and friends just gather around us and help us through this. I just read something this morning in my Bible: 'The storms of life prove the strength of our anchor.' I thought that was so profound. Not only is our anchor God, where we've gotten so much comfort from, but also the outpouring from our family and friends."
They've needed it.
Dave Piland's relentless, daily headaches started in early October. He slept little, missed work and missed four Silvertips games, but received backup from KRKO-AM sports director Tom Lafferty and program manager Tony Stevens.
What was first believed to be a sinus infection was in reality much worse. The headaches persisted for three weeks. Dave Piland also had problems with balance and dizziness. One morning, he fell in the bathroom.
"The headaches were just horrible," he said. "Horrendous. They were debilitating in every way. I couldn't go to work. Basically, I couldn't get up. I would just lie around and have a headache."
On Oct. 28, Piland saw his family doctor, who ordered a magnetic resonance imaging test and CT scans. It was then that Piland was diagnosed.
"I was shocked at first," he said. "But I never got depressed or anything like that. But it definitely was a shock at first. It was almost surreal in the hospital, thinking, 'They're going to do surgery on me for this brain tumor.'"
On Nov. 4, a surgical team at Harborview led by Dr. Richard Ellenbogan removed most of a plum-sized tumor from Piland's brain. A portion was impossible to eliminate, so Piland takes daily chemotherapy medication and undergoes daily radiation treatments.
Piland asked Ellenbogan how long he might have lasted without the surgery. Ellenbogan told him two weeks to a month.
Complicating matters was a blood clot in Piland's left calf, which is being treated by medication that prevents him from driving.
The battle goes on
For now, the Pilands wait. They make daily treks to Seattle hospitals for appointments that sometimes reach to seven or eight hours. They read mail and the Bible. They pray together 30 minutes each morning.
Most of all, they stand united against a disease they have fought since long before Dave Piland was diagnosed.
They find comfort in their faith and love. In their 23 years of marriage, Lisa and Dave Piland say they have never been closer. They fully believe that God will heal the cancer. They consider their circumstance a test, one over which they will triumph.
"Sure, there's been some fear," Lisa Piland said, "but for the most part, there's been this peace that's come upon us, that God's in control.
"We bite this off one day at a time. Let me tell you, I've read my Bible a fair amount, but now it's like breathing. I've got to get comfort and that peace from it. I don't know how people go through cancer, especially as critical as his is, without God.
"That's the only way I can handle this."
The Voice of Faith
Silvertips announcer in a battle he intends to win
By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SNOHOMISH - Two years ago, 8-year-old Katie Piland began growing her hair so she could donate to a program called Locks of Love, which aids cancer patients.
Her 10-year-old sister, Crissy, watched a program on the Discovery Channel with her father four years ago, which led Crissy to an immediate desire to become, in her words, "a brain doctor." Two years ago, on Halloween, she dressed as one.
Last year, the Piland family took part in a golf tournament sponsored by former Seattle Seahawk Jacob Green to benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The family took part in the dinner and even bought a football.
Through their Camp Fire group a year ago, Katie, Crissy and their mother, Lisa, knitted caps for cancer patients whose hair was falling out due to chemotherapy.
They did it because they wanted to help. They had no hidden motive. No one in the immediate family had cancer.
So imagine the irony when Dave Piland, 41, of Snohomish was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor seven weeks ago.
"I never dreamed, when I was doing it for other people that a year later I would be knitting a cap for my husband," Lisa Piland said.
Dave Piland, known best in Snohomish County as the powerful, booming voice at Everett Silvertips games, has level 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Dave Piland's faith is unshakable. He will beat this, he said.
"I just don't have any doubt," he said. "I mean, there are times when it creeps in, but I just say a prayer and it creeps right back out."
Since his diagnosis, subsequent surgery and post-surgical care, the Pilands have received a vast wave of support that has helped carry them to new levels of both faith and hope.
Once news hit the Internet, it didn't take long for a worldwide prayer chain to form.
"He's got, I would say, over a million people praying for a miracle," Lisa Piland said. "We're asking God to heal him completely. He's got two little girls he wants to walk down the aisle with. And he has two older sons (Travis, 22, and Greg, 19) who see him as this strong, athletic dad."
Gary Cressey, Piland's bass-voiced partner when the two worked together for six years at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, is just one who has made himself available. A cancer survivor himself currently undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, Cressey talks with Piland frequently on the phone.
During the season, Cressey makes weekly flights to the Northwest from his home in Redding, Calif., to announce races. He and Dave Piland will see each other more frequently once the season begins.
"I love the guy," Cressey said. "He's one of the nicest young men I've ever worked with. Announcing with him is the most fun I've ever had. It's funny. We both thought of doing something else, but I kept staying because of him and he kept staying because of me. We probably spent about five more years together than we really had to."
The two were known for staging mock interviews with drivers during races. One time, Cressey interviewed Piland, who took on the identity of a female driver and spoke in a high-pitched voice.
Later in the evening, Cressey ran into a spectator he knew who also was acquainted with the purported interviewee.
"Boy," the friend said. "That gal sure sounds like her brother."
Still hard at work
Armed with his own strong faith, Dave Piland has carried on. He's returned to work Silvertips games at the Everett Events Center. He works as manager of DeYoung's Farm and Garden in Woodinville as much as his energy allows. He coaches his daughters' basketball teams, as he did his sons'.
"He's a hands-on dad," Lisa Piland said. "He's not one of those dads who ignores his kids. He truly loves his kids and wants to be involved in their lives. He's got a lot of motivation to beat this."
Assistance has come from near and far.
AWA Electrical Consultants of Lynnwood adopted the Pilands for Christmas. Employees at the firm will shop for, wrap and deliver Christmas presents to the family.
The Pilands have received numerous homemade meals. They've received money raised from bracelet sales and auctions, which they use to help pay for medication. Proceeds from a church spaghetti feed went to them. They travel to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle daily for examinations and treatment, so people have donated gasoline cards.
"I haven't really been angry and asked 'Why me?' because there have been so many other good things that have happened to me, good things that I never would otherwise have been a part of," Dave Piland said.
People from his men's Bible study group hung Christmas lights on the family's house. Others mowed the lawn. When the lawn mower blew a head gasket, friends picked it up, fixed it and brought it back.
These challenging times have brought blessing after blessing, the Pilands say.
"It's just been such a beautiful thing to see," Lisa Piland said. "Family and friends just gather around us and help us through this. I just read something this morning in my Bible: 'The storms of life prove the strength of our anchor.' I thought that was so profound. Not only is our anchor God, where we've gotten so much comfort from, but also the outpouring from our family and friends."
They've needed it.
Dave Piland's relentless, daily headaches started in early October. He slept little, missed work and missed four Silvertips games, but received backup from KRKO-AM sports director Tom Lafferty and program manager Tony Stevens.
What was first believed to be a sinus infection was in reality much worse. The headaches persisted for three weeks. Dave Piland also had problems with balance and dizziness. One morning, he fell in the bathroom.
"The headaches were just horrible," he said. "Horrendous. They were debilitating in every way. I couldn't go to work. Basically, I couldn't get up. I would just lie around and have a headache."
On Oct. 28, Piland saw his family doctor, who ordered a magnetic resonance imaging test and CT scans. It was then that Piland was diagnosed.
"I was shocked at first," he said. "But I never got depressed or anything like that. But it definitely was a shock at first. It was almost surreal in the hospital, thinking, 'They're going to do surgery on me for this brain tumor.'"
On Nov. 4, a surgical team at Harborview led by Dr. Richard Ellenbogan removed most of a plum-sized tumor from Piland's brain. A portion was impossible to eliminate, so Piland takes daily chemotherapy medication and undergoes daily radiation treatments.
Piland asked Ellenbogan how long he might have lasted without the surgery. Ellenbogan told him two weeks to a month.
Complicating matters was a blood clot in Piland's left calf, which is being treated by medication that prevents him from driving.
The battle goes on
For now, the Pilands wait. They make daily treks to Seattle hospitals for appointments that sometimes reach to seven or eight hours. They read mail and the Bible. They pray together 30 minutes each morning.
Most of all, they stand united against a disease they have fought since long before Dave Piland was diagnosed.
They find comfort in their faith and love. In their 23 years of marriage, Lisa and Dave Piland say they have never been closer. They fully believe that God will heal the cancer. They consider their circumstance a test, one over which they will triumph.
"Sure, there's been some fear," Lisa Piland said, "but for the most part, there's been this peace that's come upon us, that God's in control.
"We bite this off one day at a time. Let me tell you, I've read my Bible a fair amount, but now it's like breathing. I've got to get comfort and that peace from it. I don't know how people go through cancer, especially as critical as his is, without God.
"That's the only way I can handle this."