While Bakersfield College students are struggling to prepare for their upcoming finals, English professor Kevin Klawitter is struggling to survive a bout with colon cancer.
Early this fall semester, Klawitter initially thought he had an especially nasty case of the flu.
He said that he was suffering severe stomach and bowel cramping pains, which kept getting worse.
Klawitter said that he finally contacted a doctor who informed him that his problem might be more serious than previously suspected. Klawitter was quickly referred to a gastroenterologist for a colonoscopy. The specialist discovered many sizable masses, Klawitter said.
While still recovering from the colonoscopy, Klawitter said he found himself in the emergency room.
The intrusive masses were so huge that they extended into his bowel, Klawitter said. This was at the root of much of the pains that he was experiencing. This was causing a total blockage and back up of his colon, Klawitter said.
Klawitter said he soon underwent a colostomy, a procedure from which he says he is still recovering. Klawitter said that he has a large surgical cut on his abdomen, and he still experiences a great deal of pain accompanied by hiccups.
These symptoms, he says, have gone on for two weeks now. He says he also endures recurring bouts of insomnia. Once the surgical incisions have healed, Klawitter says he will then undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for approximately 6 to 8 weeks. When the tumors shrink, Klawitter says, surgeons can then reattach his colon.
In an e-mail, Klawitter writes that “there have been a lot of faculty and staff members at BC who have been helpful and supportive.
The students in my class are still sending me e-mails about how I am in their thoughts and prayers. I’ve also gotten some very touching phone calls from on-campus cancer survivors with wonderful messages of hope and inspiration.”
English Department Chair David Moton says Klawitter is “a great guy. He is generous and always wants to help students.” Moton and Klawitter worked together at Cal State Bakersfield in the English Department helping to run the English composition lab there.
Cal State Bakersfield’s Intensive English Language Center is where Klawitter showed a partiality for teaching students one on one. In fact, Moton says Klawitter also has a unique preference for teaching lower-level English, which is a preference most English instructors do not have, Moton said.
Around the time Klawitter was starting a job at the Sylvan Learning Center, Moton says that he contacted Klawitter imploring him to teach some BC English classes.
“There were tons of students and not enough instructors, so I tracked him down. He wouldn’t have come here unless he was stepping up to help us out,” Moton said.
BC English Professor Nancy Edwards said that Professor Klawitter is a “marvelous, witty, delightful person. He always has a positive attitude.”