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LE Magazine November 2002
Just Begun
With renewed health, Bob Handley looks forward to what's to
come
Robert Handley was nine years old when he stepped into his
first cave. It was a small cavern known as Higginbotham #1
near Frankford, West Virginia. Bob went with his uncle and two
cousins. Since it was 1937, the group relied on pine-knot
torches to light the way, rather than the high-powered
electric headlamps used today. He remembers wiggling his way
through a little tunnel and popping out of a hole in the floor
of a large passage full of calcite formations. (Calcite is a
common mineral, and the primary mineral component of
underground cave formations called stalactites and
stalagmites.)
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After investigating the stalactites and stalagmites with
his cousins, the group decided it was time to leave. But in
searching for the hole through which they’d entered, they
discovered that the cavern floor was dotted with
holes—each one virtually identical to the next. The boys
made some frantic attempts to find the way out, while trying
to keep their rising panic in check. Finally, Bob’s
uncle, who had been waiting for them near the cave entrance,
popped his head up through the right hole and asked what was
keeping them.
The experience might have sent many a nine-year-old running
for the light of day, determined to never again set foot
underground. But for Bob, it was the beginning of a love
affair with caves that has lasted over 60 years, surviving his
battle with bone-marrow cancer, the near loss of his left arm,
and a fall that left him classified as a quadriplegic.
“Caves offer the only ‘new frontier’ to the
average human” says Bob, who is in his mid 70s. “To
be first to set foot on ground that no other human has seen or
touched is quite a challenge. It’s a many faceted passion
that draws me on.”
There was ample reason to believe that Bob would not become
a famous caver, or a world-record holder (in the 60-year-old
division for climbing 100 feet of knotted rope), or even use
his legs again. Why? In 1978, when he was building his own
home near St. Albans, WV, he lost his balance framing a second
floor wall and fell nine feet through an open ceiling. The
fall broke his neck and left him unable to move. Though
classified as a quadriplegic, he walked out of the hospital on
crutches two months later. What saved him was the fact that
his spinal chord had not swelled. The doctors couldn’t
explain it. But Bob believes that his general good health
prior to the accident gave him a good base from which to
recover. Caving, after all, is great exercise. Factoring in
the boulders, precipices and crawls means that one mile
covered underground is equivalent to 10 miles on surface
terrain.
“The accident happened April 17, 1978 and I caved
again that fall,” he remembers. “It was one of the
first things I wanted to do.” And do it he did, with
trips to exotic underground locations in Central America,
China and Hawaii, even posting his all-time deepest
descent—the 1,400-foot El Sotano in Mexico. The only
lasting impact he noticed from the accident was that his
stride had shortened. Once 6’3”, Bob lost a full
inch and a half of height when he broke his neck. (Three
vertebrae were fused together.)
And, there were more physical challenges ahead. One July
day in 1996, Bob fell asleep at the wheel of his Toyota,
waking up just as he was about to clip an interstate highway
edge marker. Startled, he jerked the vehicle to the left, then
overcompensated to the right and ended up flipping his car.
The driver’s window broke in the process and his left
elbow was severely crushed between the car and pavement. But
fate had some mercies in store—the first person to arrive
at the scene was a veterinarian, who knew how to splint the
injury and stop the bleeding. After multiple surgeries,
including an operation to splice tendons in his left wrist and
allow more normal finger movement, Bob still can’t turn
his palm upward.
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But limited hand mobility wasn’t enough to keep him
from caving. That same year, at 63, Bob traveled to Costa Rica
to find and explore Miramar Cataraca. This time, instead of
the normal killer pace that typically left his caving
companions in the dust, Bob noticed that he was the one
lagging behind the group. “I was being out-walked,”
he says. “No matter how hard I tried to exercise and get
my stamina back, it didn’t come.”
By the spring of 1997, his endurance problem had been
compounded by severe back pain and he began seeking medical
opinions from a variety of doctors. After about six months and
many x-rays, his bones were discovered to be deteriorating. In
August, the official diagnosis was osteoporosis. For the next
year, Bob followed treatment prescriptions for this
degenerative bone disease, but in spite of his best efforts,
he noticed a continued decline in his health. A trip to an
endocrinologist in October of 1998 revealed the truth. Bob did
have osteoporosis, but it was caused by multiple myeloma
(cancer of the bone marrow). And it was quite advanced.
As a long-time Life Extension Foundation member, Bob was
leery of going ahead with the chemotherapy and radiation
treatments that his oncologist was prescribing. He called Life
Extension, which okayed the chemo, but advised against
radiation, recommending instead a radical and immediate
overhaul in Bob’s diet and supplement intake. Just as
important, Life Extension gave Bob hope.
The first step in Bob’s new regimen was a triple
play—mega soy extract, curcumin and
clodronate—designed specifically to attack immune-system
cancer, which is sometimes called multiple myeloma. Soy and
curcumin strongly enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy.
Clodronate inhibits bone destruction, prevents fractures and
relieves bone pain. Bob was also advised to cut back on
vitamin C because it makes immune-system cancers worse by
stimulating the immune system. As for diet, Life Extension
endorsed fish and vegetables, but no sugar.
It worked. “Within three months my entire outlook
changed,” says Bob. “My ribs stopped cracking every
time I sneezed or coughed and my old drive returned.”
Even more tangible evidence of his improvement began to
appear. Bob’s bone marrow aspiration (a procedure to
measure the percentage of bone marrow affected by cancer)
dropped from a high of 74% to 40% after three months. By July
2000, Bob’s bone marrow aspiration showed the cancer to
be in remission.
“My oncologist claims credit for my improved
condition, but I give credit to Life Extension for saving my
life,” Bob says, adding that a positive attitude and the
support of friends helped as well. During his recovery, he
also studied ways to develop his own thought processes so that
he could will the cancer right out of his bones. “I
don’t call it ‘my’ cancer,” he explains.
“I refer to is as ‘the’ cancer or as an
invader. It doesn’t belong to me and I tell it to
leave.”
Now that “the” cancer has acquiesced, Bob has
more time to devote to the things he loves. He is CEO of two
philanthropic cave conservancies in Richmond, Virginia and
manages two West Virginia cave conservancy properties. He
writes regular articles for the local watershed newsletter,
supports the Greenbrier Valley Theater, and is an active
member of the Greenbrier Historical Society of Lewisburg, West
Virginia. He’s also building another house and is looking
forward to introducing his four grandchildren to the wonders
of caving.
Then there’s the annual New River Gorge “Bridge
Day” when the State of West Virginia closes two lanes of
the US 19 bridge to traffic and lets daredevils base jump, or
rappel, the 800 feet to the river below. The last time Bob
rappelled was in 1995. “I like to hear the rope
sing,” he says. He aims to do it again.
In fact, there are a lot more things he wants to do and he
plans to be around long enough to do them all. “My
favorite quote came from a public radio tee shirt,” he
deadpans. “It said, ‘[I was put] on earth to
accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I’m so
far behind I’ll never die.’”
—Twig
Mowatt
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