Nolan Bingham has found himself in difficult situations before.
As a U.S. Army sergeant in Vietnam, Bingham jumped into a bunker to grab a gas mask when a bomb from North Vietnamese forces went off, skipping up his arm and hitting him in the face.
The 1971 wartime incident left some permanent nerve damage, but the Columbus native mostly recovered and received the Purple Heart for injuries he sustained during combat.
Like other soldiers who served in Vietnam, Bingham walked through fields that had been treated with Agent Orange, the defoliant used to clear heavy brush. Thousands of those soldiers eventually were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, linked to their exposure to the chemical.
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Bingham dodged that bullet. But almost 45 years later, due to a genetic trait, pancreatic cancer found its way into the Columbus architect’s body just the same.
Bingham was diagnosed with the disease in August 2015 after going to his doctor when an upset stomach wouldn’t go away.
He has Lynch Syndrome, an inherited condition that causes an increased risk for colorectal cancer and in certain other organs. It occurs in about one in 400 individuals, caused by a mutation in one of five specific genes responsible for fixing errors in DNA, according to the Cleveland Clinic. A buildup in damaged cells can lead to cancer.
Colon cancer runs in Bingham’s family, with his father and two brothers succumbing to it. In 2008 as a precautionary measure, he had a majority of his colon removed.
But after being examined for the lingering upset stomach seven years later, Bingham’s family doctor referred him to the surgeon who had operated on his colon and knew the family’s history.
During testing, a cancerous spot was discovered on Bingham’s pancreas.
“That set off a lot of alarms,” said Bingham, a 1964 graduate of Columbus High School.
Additionally, Bingham had a perforated ulcer that required surgery, which delayed his first round of chemotherapy for the pancreatic cancer, an attempt to shrink the tumor.
The 8-hour Whipple Procedure, the most common surgery to remove tumors in the pancreas, was done by Dr. Attila Nakeeb at the Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis in February 2016.
There are two versions of the procedure, with Bingham needing the standard Whipple, the more invasive of the two. He was hospitalized for a month, and it took about nine months for Bingham to regain his normal activities — timelines that fit within expected recovery patterns.
The surgery was followed by three more rounds of chemotherapy, ending in early 2019.
A post-surgery biopsy determined that the cancer had metastasized into three small lymph nodes near Bingham’s pancreas. To confront that, Bingham applied to be part of clinical trials for Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug first used to treat lung cancer. After Bingham began taking the medication in April 2019, the cancerous cells diminished.
“We’re keeping things at bay,” said Bingham’s wife Mimi, a full partner in his treatment. She retired from Columbus North High School in 2018 after 39 years as an English teacher.
Her husband’s pancreatic cancer is at stage 2B, with stage 4 being the most advanced condition.
With the success of the drug in attacking the cancer, Bingham said his oncologist, Dr. Stephanie Wagner at the Columbus Regional Hospital Cancer Center, recommended in May of this year that he stop taking Keytruda, which stays in your system for some time hunting down cancer cells.
Bingham had developed an increase in side effects, including short-term memory loss, dehydration, sepsis, pneumonia and diabetes.
“I’m a mess,” said Bingham, who has also had heart problems.
Bingham goes to Columbus Regional Hospital weekly for saline infusions to treat his dehydration and to the CRH Cancer Center monthly to see Wagner.
He also has a PET scan every two months at CRH — about 10 minutes from his west-side Columbus home — to review the status of the cancerous cells. The most recent one, done Aug. 12, was clear. However, testing found infections in his intestines and colon, which are common and are treated with antibiotics.
“It’s nerve-wracking,” said Mimi Bingham, although she and Nolan both said they have had great experiences at the Columbus hospital.
“It’s hard to believe I’ve lived five years. That’s not normal for pancreatic cancer patients,” Bingham said.
About 25% of pancreatic cancer patients last that long. Fewer than 7% live more than five years, according to medical statistics.
“We have justification to be nervous,” Bingham said.
“We know it’s not curable,” his wife added. “He’s stable today, but there have been days he looks awful. It’s a day-to-day thing.”
Bingham worked four decades as a Columbus architect after receiving bachelor of architecture and bachelor of science in environmental design degrees from Ball State University in 1976.
Among Bingham’s proudest architectural accomplishments were the 28,000-square-foot addition for First Christian Church, the city’s first Modern building completed in 1942, and design of the 4,075-square-foot Jackson County Bank branch at West Hill Shopping Center in Columbus. Both projects were completed in 2002.
He retired in March 2017 due to what he called “chemo fog,” a side effect from the cancer treatment. He started having difficulty understanding things he had just read.
“My life for a long time was work,” Bingham said, but the cancer became a wake-up call in adjusting his priorities, spending more time with the important people in his life.
With young grandchildren, “I’d like for them to remember me,” said Bingham, who lost his own father to cancer when he was 11.
His advice to others dealing with cancer is to keep positive and not let the doldrums linger.
Bingham is no longer able to play golf or tennis, hobbies he used to enjoy. But he is able to get out and walk around, which he said helps him mentally as well as physically.
When some responsibilities become too much, family members have jumped in to shop for groceries or prepare meals, for example.
“They’re always asking about me, always calling me, very loving,” he said.
Besides friends and family, faith plays an important aspect in Bingham’s life.
“I’ve had people praying for me across the world,” said the member of St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Columbus.
For others who face circumstances similar to his, Bingham’s advice is this: “Be positive. Grow in your faith. Keep your family and friends close.”
With those thoughts foremost in mind, he counts his blessings one day at a time.
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Nolan G. Bingham
Age: 74
Residence: Columbus
Occupation: Retired architect
Type of cancer: Pancreatic
Treatment: Chemotherapy, surgery and immunotherapy drugs.
Family: Mimi Bingham, wife of 10 years; son Zack and wife Katie Bingham, Greenwood; daughter Catherine and husband Jordan Winkler, Columbus; son Jack and wife Abby Bingham, Flat Rock.
Advice: “Be positive. Grow in your faith. Keep your family and friends close. People, friends and faith are extremely important.”
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Inside today’s Republic, you’ll find the annual Colors for a Cure section. This section shares the stories of local people who are battling cancer or have survived it, as well as a list of local services available to cancer patients and their families.
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