Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Age, and attitude, and prayer.

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Ken Peltier

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If that sounds like a country song, it should.

That's how Ken Peltier -- Alaska's best-known country musician -- describes what got him through six grinding weeks of treatment for neck and throat cancer.

Peltier's feisty personality and innate toughness survived. He's already back to work at his day job as statewide administrator for the Alaska Operating Engineers/Employers Training Trust.

But the 38-year-old finished treatments last month 30 pounds lighter, with a throat too raw for singing -- yet. He hasn't been away from performing this long since 1992.

Looking over at his unused guitar during the nausea and exhaustion of treatment was "like pouring salt in a wound," he said. "Music -- I just missed it tremendously."

"But on the other hand, to just sit by myself and play ..." he continued, his voice trailing off.

Offers to return to the stage started before the treatment ended. Concert promoters wanted The Ken Peltier Band to open for Grammy nominee John Michael Montgomery on April 11 at the Dena'ina Convention Center. And the band hoped to play its fourth annual gig at the Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go Classic north of Paxson in mid-April.

No go.

Peltier was still too exhausted. His tongue sent up jolts of pain when it scraped his teeth. His palate was raw.

"It hurt to drink water," he said.

'GOING TO WORK OUT FINE'

Peltier learned just last December he had cancer -- not just any cancer, but the kind that can steal your voice. Surgeons removed 47 lymph glands on the left side of his neck.

He traveled for a second opinion to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where doctors specialize in treating singers, and returned with high marks for his Anchorage team, and a plan that included sparing his larynx the rigors of radiation.

From mid-February until early April, Peltier underwent three chemotherapy infusions and radiation fives times a week coupled with shots of a voice-sparing chemical in the belly. Amifostine was originally developed as a military safeguard against the effects of radiation from a nuclear explosion. It can prevent permanent dry-mouth and scarring, but it also increases the already punishing side effects of cancer treatment.

"We actually don't use it that much because a lot of patients can't tolerate it," said Dr. Max Rabinowitz, the Anchorage oncologist who's part of Peltier's treatment team. "For him, the long-term benefit of it was worth it, trying to save his vocal cords."

During his treatments, Peltier continued to work his day job from home. But there were days when all he could do was just sit in a dark room, days when looking at a computer screen made him sick.

Within three weeks, his neck turned beet red from radiation. It looked like road rash. Peltier's goatee fell out.

Visitors were limited to protect his immune-compromised body from disease but also because he just didn't feel up to company most of the time.

"Chemo changes your personality," he said. "You really don't want a lot of room distraction."

Treatment was tough on Peltier's family too. His wife heard horror stories from well-meaning relatives of cancer patients. Their younger son, nearly 5, gauged his daddy's progress by the healing of the scar on his neck. But their older boy, almost 8, sometimes came home with ugly questions from kids at school.

"He asked if radiation burns my neck to dust," Peltier said. "I'd reassure him to come talk to me and everything was going to work out fine."

ALL PSYCHED UP

More than 2,000 people showed up at two February Mat-Su benefits to help Peltier and his family. Peltier hopes to return the favor through the Ken Kare Foundation, a nonprofit he's starting to help other Alaskans dealing with cancer.

In the month or so since his treatment ended, Peltier says he's recovered a lot, though he's still getting his strength back up.

During a recent visit, his speaking voice sounded strong, boosted by frequent slugs from a nearby bottle of water.

Peltier believes his stressful lifestyle and steady consumption of sugary beverages and road food had more to do with his cancer than second-hand smoke from juke joints.

After his diagnosis, he and his wife dug into a book called "Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients" by Dr. Russell Blaylock and got lots of local advice from All About Herbs in Wasilla.

Now, Peltier said, the couple cooks with olive oil and whips up daily concoctions of five to 10 different kinds of fruits and vegetables -- "anything I would never eat" like asparagus, cucumbers, wheat grass -- in a commercial juicer.

Doctors plan to check Peltier for cancer in early July.

He's cautiously optimistic. Peltier knows how fickle cancer can be, the long days spent waiting for results, the fight that's not always about how tough you are.

"You get all psyched up, you go through all the treatments," he said. "But in the back of your mind, you know that doesn't necessarily mean you've beat it."

Rabinowitz described his overall prognosis as "very good" given the aggressive regimen of surgery, chemo and radiation he's received.

The doctor, not a huge country music fan, really enjoyed the CD Peltier gave him of his music. He's hoping to hear his patient perform on stage one of these days.

"I'll just go to one of his concerts," Rabinowitz said. "That would be great."

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 1-907-352-6711.

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