David “Putt” Putnam

~August 10, 1968 - February 12, 2020~

1. Introduction

2. History

3. Background

   • Tryon 1994

   • Henderson County 1996

   • Tuxedo School

4. My Trash!! (divorce)

5. Cancer #1 May 2012

6. Cancer #2 June 2013

7. Cancer #3 Sept. 2014

8. Cancer #4 Jan. 2019

9. WOW God!!

   • Luke 7:1-10 vs. #9 Jesus Amazed

   • James 1:2 We all have trials!! Not if, but when!

10. Closing : Joshua 1:9 - “ This is my command- be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the lord Your God is with you wherever you go.”

Introduction

Hello, my name is David Putnam, but everybody calls me Putt. Everybody say Hello Putt! I’ve been invited to share my testimony and cancer story with you guys, but first we need to set some ground rules. I am not a preacher, so I don’t know all the right words to say. I’m just PUTT so I’m going to keep it as real with you as I can. I’m a sinner and I fell God every day. My mouth gets me into more trouble than we have time for me to explain. But I know I’m forgiven and going to Heaven when I die.

Background

I’ve been in church all my life. My dad was a preacher, so I have been to every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, revival service, vacation bible school, mission conference that any church around was having. We went to church no matter what. This was the time in my life where I had developed a serious drug problem. I was drug to church all the time! I’m thankful for that now, but just didn’t understand it years ago. Having been raised in church I have heard all kinds of testimonies. From rock stars, to drug addicts, rape survivors, to war heros. How they were deep into sin, but God rescued them and brought them out. Hearing all those stories I thought I needed a big exciting story to tell and to WOW God. People remember big wild tales. Can we WOW God?

I don’t have a big wild tale with lots of bad stuff, but the ending to my story is going to be great.

I was saved when I was 8,9,10 years old. I don’t remember the exact date and time, but I do remember the exact place. It was at a revival service at Calvary Baptist church out on Hwy 191 in Hendersonville. The Evangelist name was Rusty Coffee, and I don’t remember the exact sermon, but I do remember going forward to the alter, asking God to forgive me from my sins and to come live in my heart. I also remember telling my mom and dad, after church, what had happened. I don’t remember getting baptized, but I know I was, because I’ve been told. I’ve been a Christian a long time, but I still mess up! But the best part is when I mess up God forgives me, and I still get to go to Heaven. Trust me I’ve messed up a few times, and still do. I’m a Christian but I cuss, say bad words, think bad thoughts, get ticked off. I’m a human!! But my conscious always reminds me to straighten up and do right.

In 1994 I became a police officer in Tryon NC in Polk county. I loved it. I became certified in all sorts of law enforcement classes, but the best was when I became DARE certified and school resource officer certified. I loved my job. I was hired in November 1996 by the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office and started as the SRO at Tuxedo Alternative School. WOW!!! What an eye- opening experience. The school was filled with all kinds of kids in all kinds of different trouble. The only thing these kids had in common was they were kids, and they needed something positive in their lives. I was now, besides a cop keeping the peace, trying to be a positive influence in these kids lives. I made plenty of arrests, and juvenile petitions to court, but all these kids were just trying to be tough or act tough. All this time at Tuxedo I was still getting to teach DARE, so my days were mixed with troubled kids to good kids wanting to learn about resisting drugs. I had the best of both worlds. I got to be around young people, teach DARE and best was I got to help at DARE camp. The BEST ever! I stayed at Tuxedo school until 2001, but I missed most of the school year in 2000, because of a SWAT team training accident I had in February 2000. I fell approximately 20-23’. I don’t remember anything from that day, but I learned 2 important facts. #1- pigs don’t fly! and #2- my size doesn’t bounce! So, from Feb. until Nov. 2000 my life was full of doctor’s visits, workers comp appointments, lawyers appts. And watching LOTS of TV. I was finally released to return to work in Nov. 2000. I came back to Tuxedo Alternative school and got to continue teaching DARE.

Now my story gets personal, and I’m going to share some of my dirt with you.

After I returned to work and teaching DARE, in November of 2000, it didn’t take long to see that I wasn’t the same guy. Having a brain injury will change you, trust me I know. Having my little brain bounced around wasn’t very good. I was short tempered and got mad easy. If it didn’t go my way, I got upset. I tried to be the same sweet PUTT at work and at home, but if I had a bad day at work, I would take it out on my wife at home. I became a pitiful excuse of a man, yelling, cussing, blaming everything on my wife. She took the mouth and verbal abuse for a long time. I never physically touched my wife, but the emotional, and verbal abuse was bad. I was raised that a man didn’t touch a woman out of anger or while he was mad. I did know better than that, besides I was still scared of my momma. If I had ever touched my wife my momma would have touched me for sure!! I became such a jerk and refused to get help or even see I needed help. I David Putnam ruined my marriage. We got divorced in 2005. Still all this time I was going to church, singing in the choir, helping with the youth group. I knew I was saved, or at least thought I was, but the devil started putting doubts in my mind. How can a Christian cuss, and ruin his marriage? My head was full of doubts and questions. I still believed in God and attended church. I continued doubting and questioning my salvation until Aug of 2007. I was working security at Mud Creek Baptist church during a revival service, with an evangelist from Florida was preaching. This evangelist said if you are 99% sure that you think you are saved and going to heaven then you are 100% going to hell. That freaked me out. I wasn’t 100% for sure, so being in full police uniform I made my way to the alter, didn’t care what people thought I was going to get right with God!! I asked God to forgive me and He did. I became a new man with no doubts about salvation again.

Let’s skip ahead in time to 2010. I left the Sheriff’s Office and worked several different jobs until I landed full time with NC DOT in March of 2012. Now my story takes a real turn down. Health wise!

Since 2012 I have been diagnosed with cancer 4 times. Not a fun exciting thing to have happen but I had to deal with it.

I was first diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma in May 2012. No clue how I got it, or how it came about. I just knew my kids still needed their daddy and I was going to fight and do all I could to get over this cancer. Many chemo treatments, scans, and lots of blood work I was told the cancer is gone in October, but in 8 months the cancer came back with an attitude seeking revenge. I began questioning God! This was the 2nd time I got cancer! WHY ME!! Being raised in church I was told we don’t question God we just have faith and believe it’s part of Gods plan for our lives. I wasn’t sure about this plan but there was nothing I could do, but FIGHT and have FAITH!! Round 2 more chemo, blood work, and scans, but now the Dr started talking about a stem cell transplant. Stem cells in your body control DNA and make up red and white blood cells. There are 2 types of stem cell transplants. The 1st type was harvesting my own stem cells, if they were cancer free. It was like hitting a reset button to hopefully grow new red and white blood cells to fight off cancer. The 2nd type of transplant is a donor transplant. Find a match to me and harvest their stem cells. Now I like Putt the way he is!! I didn’t want some stranger in Putt. I opted to get tested and see if my stem cells were going work. Tested out good, so only Putt in Putt. Harvesting stem cells wasn’t bad. All they do is withdraw blood from my arm, run the blood in a machine, the machine separates the stem cells out of the blood, and then they pump the blood back in me.

I was admitted into UNC Cancer Hospital in January 2014. 5 days of heavy chemo to kill my immune system, and then on the 6th day my stem cells would be placed back in my body. Now I’ve experienced pain before, but on day 6 when the stem cells were placed back in my body the pain level was unreal!!! I hurt from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet and everything in between. I t hurt to shut my eyes, or to even touch my hair. I WAS HURTING!! I’m curled up in bed hurting and crying like a baby. I look over to the couch in my room and see my mom and dad holding hands while dad is praying. I’ll never forget that sight. Dr kept saying the pain comes from the stem cells trying to find their way back to the proper place. I didn’t care I just wanted relief from pain, but nothing worked. Finally recovered and pain free I was released from hospital by the end of January, 3 weeks earlier from what Dr thought. Came home went back to work but still had to go to UNC Hospital for checkups. 6 months later it was discovered that the lymphoma had come back again for the 3rd time.

Now is when I really began questioning God! I thought why me? I’m a pretty good guy, don’t drink, do drugs, go to church. I’m not wanted for killing anybody. WHY ME? God why are you picking on me? Anybody but me!

So, more chemo, blood work, and scans plus meetings with cancer Dr to discuss my only option. This time the only option I had was a donor transplant. My sister volunteered to be tested and we matched!! GREAT only Putt in Putt.

In April 2017 I was admitted into UNC cancer Hospital. 5 days heavy chemo, 1 day of radiation, then on day 7 my sisters stem cells would be put in my body to reproduce in a new home. I remembered all the pain I went through before, so I was mentally getting myself ready to hurt. I’m a firm believer in positive reinforcement. I kept telling myself I’d be Ok, and nothing would hurt me!! I was ready- bring on the pain!!

NOTHING, no pain NONE!! I didn’t understand at all. I just thought the transplant must not have worked. I was confined to my room could not leave for anything for 13 days after the transplant. Finally, my blood counts shot high above normal and everything was good. Dr said the transplant team could start talking about a release date from hospital for me. On May 22nd I was released from hospital, but had to stay in Chapel Hill for checkups with Dr. I couldn’t go home!! On July 24th, 2015 I was told I could go home back to Hendersonville!!! I still had to make monthly trips to UNC for checkups, then it was changed to every 3 months, so slowly I was getting healthier and more strength. 2 years later at a normal checkup my pet scan showed 2 spots that weren’t there before. Dr said he wasn’t worried the spots were little and were too small to biopsy. I kept going for checkups. The 2 spots never got bigger but were in different locations every checkup. Until October 2018. Good news- spots were gone!! BUT I had a bigger spot show up on the scan attached to my colon. Dr advised me to return home and to schedule a colonoscopy to get spot checked. At my Colonoscopy appointment it was discovered the spot had grown and needed to be taken out, which meant surgery. During surgery the surgeon took out approximately 13” of colon. In January 2019 I went to my surgeon to have the staples removed and that was when I was told I had colon cancer. It wasn’t lymphoma but it was cancer, so here we go again! Round 4. Dr. stated it was stage 4 colon cancer. The reason it was stage 4 was it had spread to my lungs and liver. Not real big but there were signs of cancer there. So, more chemo treatments and new chemo pills. My last scan in May showed no signs of cancer, nothing new, or nothing has spread, so this treatment is working. But there is no cure, so it will come back. I will be on a treatment plan for the rest of my life.

Remember earlier I asked if you thought we could WOW God? Well I believe we can, at least please Him!! I’ll explain by reading from the bible.

Luke 7:1-10 Vs. 9 - Jesus was amazed

I want to please God with my action, attitude, and my faith. We all will face trials and tough times.

James 1:2 - We can be and should be happy in trials.

Its tough and hard to figure out why some things happen in our lives, we all face hard and difficult times, but we to trust in Gods plan. We may never know what that plan is, but if we continue to have faith and trust in God, maybe one day He will say WOW!!! Look at that faith! The ending of my story will be great. I’ll be in heaven, cancer, and pain free.

Remember faith untested is not real faith! But if we are saved and have God living in our lives He made this promise to us.

Joshua 1:9- “This is my command- be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the lord your God is with you wherever you go,”

In loving Memory of David “Putt” Putnam.