Battle with cancer doesn’t keep Bibb DOM from job

Some days are better than others for Wayne Traylor.
   
It’s those good days when Traylor, director of missions for Bibb Baptist Association, insists on going to work. He doesn’t usually stay all day, struggling to muster as much energy as he can.
   
For someone battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, even a half day can be challenging.
   
Sitting in a semi-reclined position in his office off Montgomery Highway in Bibb County, Traylor relates the struggles of the past 18 months. How he sits is not an indication of poor posture. Traylor said reclining is less painful.
   
His posture is the second indication something is wrong for those who have known him for some time. The most glaring indicator is the loss of a once full head of hair as a result of chemotherapy.
   
“Reading is a chore sometimes, just because you’re zapped,” he said of his struggles with fatigue. “Trying to concentrate, sometimes is a chore.”
   
Sometimes he enjoys television, but often just likes sitting in a recliner. “I won’t turn on the TV, I don’t turn on a light, don’t pick up a book — I’ll just be there.”
   
Traylor was diagnosed in March, but his ordeal began long before that. He remembers being fatigued, but put little stock in it when it began 18 months ago.
   
As his fatigue continued, Traylor consulted his doctor. The blood work on Traylor was inconclusive and everything from medication and dieting failed to correct the problem.
   
It was this past February when he became very ill and pain in the abdomen area forced him to visit his doctor. Physicians suspected cancer, with their diagnosis confirmed a month later when they cut a sore spot from Traylor’s head.
   
The news was even worse in April, when he met with a specialist who diagnosed Traylor with Stage 4A, the more aggressive, faster moving lymphoma.
   
Traylor, 57, has been DOM in Bibb County since 1986. He offered to step down when he learned of his illness, but area churches said they didn’t even want to consider that option.
   
“I’m so grateful that I’m being allowed to continue to serve,” Traylor said. “It hurts that I can’t do as much as I like to, but I still have a ministry.”
   
His condition means his wife, Sue, must drive him to the association, where she serves as secretary.
Pastors in Bibb County continue to support Traylor. Recalling how Traylor helped him when he came to Bibb County, Charles Teague, pastor of Randolph Baptist Church, shared how Traylor had mentored him.
   
“He has a vision for our association,” Teague said.
   
The pastor said it was during an association meeting that pastors voted to keep Traylor as long as he can continue to serve.
   
Traylor said he has lymphoma in the groin area, abdomen, in the chest, under his arms, neck, spine and head.
   
Doctors are fighting the cancer with chemotherapy that began April 23, but the treatment has taken a toll on Traylor. He endured four days of 24-hour chemotherapy the week of July 2–6.
   
It was during the third week of chemotherapy that Traylor began to see the side effects of his treatment.
   
Traylor climbed into the shower and began shampooing his hair. “I kept feeling stuff coming down off my face,” Traylor said.
   
He couldn’t open his eyes for fear of getting shampoo in his eyes, but wondered what was happening.
“I stopped, rinsed off my face, looked down and there’s hair,” he said.
   
Over the next few days, Traylor would lose more hair during subsequent showers. “My hair kept falling out,” he said.
   
The continued loss led him to have his hair cut short, with later chemotherapy treatments taking care of the remainder.
   
The chemotherapy is as much of a culprit — if not more — in his loss of energy than the illness itself. As a result of a reduced white cell count caused by chemotherapy, Traylor was hospitalized indefinitely July 7 at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Birmingham.
   
The treatments have made it a struggle for Traylor to even make it to the mailbox sometimes. He often breaks out in sweat from exhaustion. Doctors have repeatedly told him to slow down and cut back on things.
   
At one time, Traylor walked three miles each day. “Now I can’t even make it eight feet without being winded and exhausted,” he said.
   
Doctors initially gave Traylor a 40 percent chance of recovery, which still stands as far as he knows.
“I just have not asked lately,” he said.
  
Discussing his illness comes easy for the soft-spoken Traylor, but he doesn’t claim any kind of bravery in facing the future. “I don’t know if I’m brave,” he admits.
   
He cites Psalm 23:4 as his strength: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.”