Cancer Survivors Day
Jimmy Vail of Hattiesburg doesn’t move like a man who spent the better part of two years fighting cancer.
He talks instead about his dream workshop, motorcycle trips, Alaska, Sturgis, and riding until he’s 80.
Jimmy is currently working at what he laughingly calls “happily retired.”
On a recent afternoon, the sound of an air compressor nearly drowned out his voice over the phone as he aired up the tires on his Harley-Davidson. The motorcycle had sat idle for about 18 months, waiting for its rider to heal enough to get back on the road.
The next day, Jimmy and his brother rode for several hours.
“It was just the therapy I needed,” said Jimmy, who turns 78 in June. “Getting back to riding helped rebuild my confidence. This is mental — not thinking about the cancer. It’s wonderful.”
He’s also back in the gym several days a week, rebuilding strength lost during treatment, noting the weight and muscle mass he lost.
Jimmy has learned firsthand that you never know what’s waiting around the next corner.
His corners have brought lifelong friendships, military service, cross-country adventures, an RV pointed toward Alaska, retirement, cancer battles, recovery — and now, finally, a return to the open road.
Built for the Long Haul
Jimmy has spent a fair amount of time on the road between Hattiesburg and Tupelo during the last several weeks, checking on an old friend who recently had his leg amputated. Jimmy talks about how his friend’s demeanor has changed, and he’s steadily working his rehab program. It was a friendship built on the first day of 10th grade after Jimmy’s family moved from Columbus to Tupelo.
“It was my first day at Tupelo High School,” he said. “I walked up the steps and he was the first person I saw standing in the gathering area. I introduced myself and found out we lived just down the street from each other. We’ve been friends ever since.”
After graduation, Jimmy made his way to Itawamba Junior College (now ICC) in Fulton where he played a couple of years of football before making his way to Mississippi State for a semester and a half.
Then came six years in the Mississippi Army National Guard. After his time in the Guard, Vail eventually built a career in the concrete and asphalt business in Texas, spending more than three decades working hard before retirement finally called him toward the open road.
Jimmy’s first battle with cancer came in 2006 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After surgery and recovery, life eventually shifted in other ways too. Following a divorce years later, Vail did what came naturally to him — he pointed himself toward the open road. Eventually that road led him as far away as he could get – Alaska. There, he found a work-camp program and put his construction skills to work – driving snowplow equipment, building trenches, and structures. After his six-month stint, he reluctantly headed back south, leaving his new-found friends/family behind, to what would become his new home in Hattiesburg, via Texas and Tupelo.
The Hard Turn
Seventeen years after his initial cancer surgery, Jimmy had a checkup and found his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) number had jumped and needed to be checked. He followed up in Hattiesburg. He ended up at Forrest General’s Cancer Center where he had 35 treatments to his abdomen.
Two years later, a sore throat that Jimmy tried doctoring with home remedies added with bad indigestion sent him to a gastrointestinal doctor. During the procedure, the doctor noticed a spot at the base of Jimmy’s tongue. He was then sent to an ear, nose, and throat physician who did a biopsy and discovered the cancerous spot at the base of his tongue.
It was a reunion, of sorts, as Jimmy returned to the Cancer Center where everybody still knew him. He started radiation and chemotherapy treatments. “People warned me how bad it was going to be, but evidently, I didn’t realize how bad bad really was,” Jimmy said. Thirty-five radiation treatments and seven rounds of chemo followed. The radiation left the sides of his neck red and raw and his skin peeled off at times. The chemo took his hair.
Eventually, Jimmy agreed to a feeding tube after losing nearly 35 pounds during treatment.
“I was ready to tell them I was done,” he admitted. “It was that bad.”
Even after treatment ended, recovery was slow. Jimmy had to learn how to swallow again through weeks of therapy, starting with small sips of water and crackers.
Today, he still deals with lingering side effects. Some foods taste like cardboard after only a few bites, and he keeps water nearby because his saliva glands no longer work properly.
Still, Jimmy considers himself fortunate.
He can’t say enough about the team at the Cancer Center who got him to where he is today – the nurses, techs, doctors, and physician assistants. “They’ve all come out, hugged my neck,” Jimmy said. “Everybody has just been fantastic. I don’t wish this on anybody, but if they’ve got to do it, they need to come here. The whole facility – from the ladies at check in to those doing radiation and chemo – they are all just fantastic folks here. They kind of make you forget what’s going on. Because they knew me already, it was not like having to get used to something all over again. They made me comfortable. They made my journey much easier and kept me on track.”
Life is moving on.
These days Jimmy returns to the Cancer Center every three months for a body scan to make sure everything is still clear. Time between scans keeps going up as his results remain positive. “Thus far, all my results have been fantastic. I’m really happy with everything,” he said. “I just hope in two years, I don’t have something else pop up.”
Part of Jimmy’s recovery can be attributed to his positive attitude. “It helps to be surrounded by caring personnel and how they do this day in and day out, I don’t know,” he said. “So many people come to the Cancer Center every day. You think you’ve got it bad until you look over your shoulder and see that somebody has got it worse, and they aren’t complaining.”
Jimmy is living for the day when his tastebuds come back. He explains that after the first couple of bites, which taste pretty good, the taste goes away and food is just bland. “There are a couple of foods that I can continuously taste throughout – barbecue chips and anything cinnamon flavored, but nothing else,” he said. “They say my taste should come back, but nobody knows when. I even eat sweet and sour candy hoping it will shock things back in place.
“You see a nice plate of food, but you know after the first bites you’re only eating it because you need the nourishment. I miss eating everything – from ice cream and every type dessert to steak and seafood. I love anything with sugar in it.”
But Jimmy isn’t sitting around waiting on life to return to normal.
He’s already moving again.
He’s back in the gym several days a week rebuilding strength and muscle lost during treatment. And after sitting untouched for more than a year, his Harley-Davidson is back on the road too.
Recently, Jimmy and his brother spent several hours riding together — something he once worried he might never do again.
“It was just the therapy I needed,” Jimmy said. “Getting back to riding helped rebuild my confidence. This is mental — not thinking about the cancer. It’s wonderful.”
At nearly 78 years old, Jimmy still talks about future trips, future projects, and future miles.
“If I can ride motorcycles until I’m 80, I’ll have done something,” he said with a laugh.
After all, Jimmy has learned something important through cancer, recovery, heartbreak, Alaska winters, and open highways –
You never know what’s waiting around the next corner.
