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Tanner Coker started coughing in late August as smoke from the region’s wildfires settled into the Flathead Valley.

The Flathead High School senior wasn’t alone. Most of his classmates and over half the area’s residents were coughing with him.

But when the rains came and the smoke cleared, people around him began to heal while Coker hung on to his cough.

A visit to a doctor resulted in a diagnosis of walking pneumonia.

Coker went home with a round of antibiotics, but returned to the doctor 10 days later, his symptoms unchanged.

His doctor hit him with a second, harder round of medicine, which Coker took as he continued to go to school and work full time.

Ten days later, though, he returned to the doctor, this time with what his mother, Carrie Coker, described as a raspy, gurgling cough that made him sound like a drowning Darth Vader.

On Nov. 28, Tanner underwent a CT scan to figure out the source of his illness.

Around four hours later, he and his parents were at work, he at Les Schwab Tire Center and his parents at Big John’s, the family’s store, when his mother’s cellphone rang.

“Where’s Tanner?” the nurse on the other end asked.

Upon hearing that Coker was at work, the nurse insisted Carrie go get her son and rush him to the emergency room immediately.

Carrie said her heart felt like it dropped into her gut.

“It knocks the wind out of your sails,” said his father, Shane Coker. “You take your general life that you normally have and you wad it up like a piece of old newspaper and you throw it in the garbage.”

The scan had revealed a mass the size of a fist resting against their son’s bronchial tube, restricting his breathing and threatening to collapse his throat.

Further tests revealed masses in his stomach and near his heart as well.

The diagnosis was Stage III Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that attacks the immune system.

Coker spent the next 10 days in the hospital.

Some of the teen’s friends came to stay with him in the hospital, crowding tiny room’s furniture and floor to stay by his side.

“Nurses were tip-toeing around stinky teenage boys in cowboy boots,” Carrie said.

When Coker finally got the all clear to go home, Shane said he still required constant monitoring to make sure he was breathing and his blood cell levels were stable.

Soon after, he started his first round of chemotherapy and steroid treatments.

“You never think it’s going to be you,” Carrie said. “Your work and your daily life revolves around this one giant C word. It overtakes everything that you’re used to.”

The 18-year-old found himself cooped up at home day in and day out instead of enjoying his senior year at school and with friends to avoid germs and potential infections that could kill him.

The family had to get rid of their 12-year-old cat to prevent the spread of dangerous bacteria around the home.

Coker’s treatments came with side effects including hair loss, nausea, mood swings, headaches and extreme fatigue.

“It feels like being on a bad carnival ride that you can’t get off of,” his mother said.

Still, the teen has kept a positive attitude.

When the side effects loosen their grip and his blood cell count is normal, Coker can still make it to the lake for some ice fishing or pull out his bass guitar for a solo performance.

Things could be worse, he said.

“After doing research on it, I know it’s one of the less serious types of cancer,” Coker said. “It’s definitely nothing you want to pass over, but after looking at all the little kids that have it way worse than I do, I don’t fear anything.”

“I think if anyone should get support, it should be them,” he added.

The American Cancer Society estimates that around 8,500 people will be diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma this year. The 5-year survival rate for the disease has risen over the last 40 years to around 85 percent.

Shane said while he’s hopeful about his son’s chances, “that 15 percent still scares the hell out of you.”

“He’s our only kid,” Carrie said. “I’d like to keep him around. I kind of like him.”

FOR COKER, the panic that first accompanied his diagnosis has now worn off, and he is now focused solely on getting back to living his normal life, and, most importantly, he said, getting back to work.

When he finishes chemo and after graduation, Coker said he hopes to go on to college to get his business degree and return to work his way up at Les Schwab.

Currently in the middle of his second round of chemo, Coker continues to work to keep up in school online while his parents work to balance both their changing schedules and budgets.

“There’s no time for boo-hoos. There’s no time for panic,” Carrie said. “It’s just ‘what do I have to do today to win?’”

His road to normalcy got longer as of Monday, however, when results from Coker’s latest set of tests yielded some bad news.

Current treatments have failed to reduce the size of the mass pressing down on Coker’s bronchial tube, meaning he will soon require radiation treatment as well.

The addition of radiation will potentially tack several weeks onto Coker’s treatment time, further stretching the family’s schedules and finances.

Still, Shane and Carrie said they will do what it takes to get Coker through it. They set up a GoFundMe account to help cover the cost of treatment and plan to donate any funds left over to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

In the mean time, Coker said he tells his parents not to worry so much.

“It’s just one of those things you have to learn from in life, and it’s one of those things that makes your family stronger when you go through it.” Coker said. “Obviously cancer’s not a good thing, but it has its lessons it can teach you.”

To make a donation to Coker’s “Beat Cancer Fund,” visit https://www.gofundme.com/tanner-cokers-beat-cancer-fund.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.