FEATURES

Scott's Quest...

Tuesday, 26 March 2024 00:10

By Katy Bloomquist Freitag

In 2017, When Scott Freitag was 53 years old, and we were newly married, he got the news that no one ever wants to hear – he had cancer. At that time, he was highly active and had zero symptoms. He was diagnosed with a biopsy after a simple blood test showed he had an extremely high Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA).

We were both shocked to learn that Scott had aggressive prostate cancer. Later that year he learned that his cancer was already stage 4 and it had metastasized. He had surgery to remove the prostate and two months of daily radiation, plus hormone deprivation therapy which temporarily stalled the cancer.

Scott has always been an athlete – growing up participating in football, hockey and baseball. He kept active throughout his adult years with running, cycling, hockey and softball.

Because I enjoyed doing triathlons, especially ironman, Scott started doing more biking and running with me. Scott does not like to swim but did complete the Hopkins Royal triathlon as Doobie promised he could stand up during the swim portion of the short distance  if...

necessary, (which he did indeed take advantage of doing this triathlon). Scott has also enjoyed being part of triathlon teams where he does the biking, doing this in South Dakota at the Wildlife Loop triathlon and the Northwoods tri in Nevis, MN where we live, as well as doing time trials and biking with the headwater’s triathlon gang.

After the brief reprieve that surgery and then radiation and hormone deprivation gave, in 2019 Scott’s PSA started to rapidly double, and a pet scan showed multiple new bone and lymph node metastasis throughout his body. Chemotherapy followed, as well as returning to the Lupron- the hormone deprivation therapy that takes away all his testosterone and causes fatigue. Prior to the start of treatment Scott’s oncologist told him he could have a 250 percent survival benefit if he exercised 6 days a week, 60 minutes a time. He was also encouraged to strength train as long-term hormone deprivation therapy causes osteoporosis – affecting bone density.

Scott took to cycling throughout chemotherapy, but rather than doing it to stay active he now did it to prolong his life. His thought was – so much of cancer is out of your control, but this was something he could do in his control. I remember many a day he climbed up on the trainer to ride his bike, when he was so weak and nauseous, I do not know how he did it.

During chemotherapy Scott got the call no parent ever wants to get – his son Benny had taken his own life. Shortly after his death we learned that Benny, 25 at the time, had schizophrenia and had gone off his meds.

At that time Scott went internal and started thinking and praying. Shortly after he came to me with an idea – he wanted to follow his dream to bike around all the exterior states and do it to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and schizophrenia. These two things had dramatically impacted his life, and he wanted to not just follow his dream of biking around the perimeter of the country, but do it to honor his life and Benny' lives..

I admit I was flabbergasted. Scott was very sick from chemo, he had stage 4 prostate cancer, and he was telling me he wanted to bike 11,000 miles? WHAT?! But I immediately decided this was an important dream, and mission to him, so we needed to do it. For two plus years we planned logistics, and Scott went into training with Neil King to get him ready for the massive bike trip. He retired from his job as postmaster of Park Rapids, and on June 26 we left Nevis on the trip. We had a great group of cyclists that joined him to get him started out of Nevis, and he has had other cyclists like friends of Helen and Steve Gunther, join him along the way. The Minnesota triathlon and cycling community has been extraordinarily supportive, as have our friends from LLS team in training!

To date Scott has biked over 7600 miles – we are currently in Oregon. He biked from Minnesota to Maine, to Florida, to California and we are headed up the west coast, then headed through the northern tier to home.

Scott has biked through lots of bad weather, worse weather, equipment failures, an active law enforcement search for a felon, taken ferries, hit multiple dead-ends, wrong turns, bad routes, bad roads, worse roads, dirt roads, and had one bad fall/accident into a guardrail that required an ambulance trip and 7 stitches to his face. But through it all he has kept up his positive attitude and kept going.

During this trip we have gone back to the Mayo clinic every 3 months for Scott to have his tests and treatment. Unfortunately, the cancer is growing again, which means the hormone deprivation therapy is no longer stalling the cancer. The recent pet scans have shown new metastasis. But Scott feels good, as he always has throughout. The cancer has not even given him any symptoms, it is only the treatment that has made him sick!

On June 15th will be the final bike ride into Itasca State Park and we encourage cyclists to join him for the bike in, or the final party. Our message is twofold: follow your dreams and men get your PSA tested, which is a simple blood test. High risk men should start at age 40 ( African American, Asian, and men with a family history are “high risk.”) Early detection can save lives and prostate cancer is very treatable and curable if it is caught early. Finally, we are supporting two 501c3 charities: zero prostate cancer and schizophrenia & psychosis action alliance. You can read about that more on our website, milesformoney.org, which will also have the details on the final ride into Itasca State Park on June 15th, 2024. Thank you to our Minnesota triathlon and cycling friends who have been so very supportive along the way, and to Neil King, Scott’s coach.