Dee Delgado has served the head and neck population for her 35-year career as a registered nurse. She is the nurse navigator for head and neck patient population at the OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences.
She advocates for head and neck patients living with cancer by educating them through the course of their health care needs.
Most patients have been diagnosed with cancer before she meets them. She helps patients decrease barriers they might otherwise encounter without her help.
“It’s an opportunity to meet with them and introduce myself and identify with them so they don’t feel like they’re lost and they’re just a number,” Delgado said.
During the 20-30 minutes she spends with a patient, Delgado sees them transition from being highly anxious to feeling more comfortable. Earning the confidence of each patient enriches her life.
“I feel like a cheerleader. I’m trying to encourage them, give them hope, and let them know they’re in a very good place,” Delgado said.
Oral cancer usually causes patients to lose a lot of weight. So, Delgado works closely with a dietician and makes referrals to speech pathology when the issue is throat cancer.
“I’m educating them on their surgeries or chemo and radiation, I’m educating them how the radiation and chemo process works,” she continued.
Delgado explained the importance of making sure head and neck patients have been to their dentist recently. Tooth decay could complicate issues for the jawbone. Patients may also have a compromised airway. Delgado understands the speech of her patients with cancer of the tongue.
“We have a lot of trachs and laryngectomy patients, so I’ve gotten good at reading lips. I can teach you anything about a trach,” she said.
Cancer is not always a death sentence. Many times, her patients may have had a relative or a friend several years ago who had a bad experience.
“I try to educate them that things have really changed in 20 years,” she explained.
For example, OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center is one of two cancer centers in Oklahoma offering proton therapy.
Warning signs of a head or neck malignancy may vary. Early detection is crucial. A lot of times patients will get a little sore in their mouth or on a lip. They sometimes mistake it for small ulcer or canker sore. Elderly patients will recall that their dentures started to not fit right.
She sees a lot of skin cancers, too. OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center will consult with the Dean McGee Eye Institute plastic surgeons when the cancer is near the eye or orbit. They also work closely with endocrinologists when the issue is thyroid cancer.
Her range of observation, communication skills, and curious intellect came with hard work and a concern for the welfare of others. In 1989 Delgado earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing at the University of Central Oklahoma. She has worked at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center for 10 years and served at OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center for 25 years.
“I used to take care of these patients post-op. I worked on a med/surg floor, and I really admired the doctors, and just fell in love with this patient population,” Delgado said.
Experience has developed a network of close relationships among diagnostic professionals. She makes sure all the scans and biopsy slides are received from pathology and radiology so they may be presented at the Tumor Board.
Delgado informs patients of the results of every new scan after the Tumor Board — what the next steps are, and schedules appointments for either surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. Not every patient lives in Oklahoma City, so at times she will refer patients all over the state.
She does this not by seeing persons living with cancer as objects. Delgado brings her empathetic nature with her to work each morning or when returning home.
“Whenever a stressor pops up in our life — whatever it may be — if you start to feel sorry for yourself, all you have to do is come to work and you say, ‘No, I am blessed,’ because you see what these people are going through. And you’re like, ‘No, I’ve got this.’ It puts it in perspective. It humbles you. You’re just like, ‘Oh, my problems are nothing,’” she said.
Delgado might work a jigsaw puzzle at home after work. It has a calming effect, she said.
“You kind of disconnect and focus on that,” she said. “I like to meditate. I like to go walking or ride my bike. I enjoy being outside. I enjoy God’s creation — you know it’s beautiful.”

More than 100 Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation donors now have a better understanding of the scientific discoveries their gifts make possible.
This week’s annual gathering of OMRF’s Loyal Donors Society included tours of the foundation’s Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence and demonstrations of current research projects ranging from Alzheimer’s to cell regeneration to blood clotting.
OMRF’s loyal donors are those who’ve contributed for at least five straight years. Using that criteria, the foundation currently has 989 loyal donors, including 111 who met the five-year threshold for the first time this past year.
Combined, they have given nearly $80 million. The longest active streak belongs to the Oklahoma Association of Mothers Clubs, whose contributions date to 1956 – a decade after OMRF’s founding.
“Thanks to your generosity, our scientists make a worldwide impact on human health,” Vice President of Research Courtney Griffin, Ph.D., told the group. “We take great pride in being Oklahoma’s medical research foundation,”
Tuesday’s event was the first visit to OMRF for Peggy and Richard Geib, who’ve been giving to OMRF since 2019. “I can tell that everyone here is passionate about what they do,” said Peggy Geib, “and that they feel like they’re making a difference.”
The Geibs make an annual year-end contribution to the foundation, and they also make memorial gifts to OMRF following the death of a friend or relative. “Flowers are fine, but to us, the memorials are more meaningful,” Richard Geib said.
Sylvia Zimmerman, a donor since 2005, described the event as “an eye opener. I love that OMRF focuses not only the cause of illness, but also on the treatment of it.”
Robert Tilghman enjoyed learning about cardiovascular health and OMRF’s cardiovascular biology research at the event. “I love the dedication of the scientists here and the constant effort to explore every avenue to solve a problem,” said Tilghman, who’s donated to OMRF for 12 straight years.
The consistent generosity of donors like those who attended Tuesday’s event has fueled OMRF’s research since its founding in 1946, said Vice President of Philanthropy & Community Relations Penny Voss.
“These donors are essential to our mission, which aims to help people lead longer, healthier lives,” Voss said. “If we can show our appreciation while giving them a better understanding of the research they make possible, this event is a success.”

Longtime Oklahoma City resident Patty Kelly Stevens faithfully displays the U.S. flag outside her Nichols Hills home for most holidays. But Flag Day, June 14, is extra special to the 99-year-old American patriot, who at an early age lived through shattering experiences that bonded her with her country’s flag.
Watching recent televised reports of students protesting on U.S. college campuses and taking down the American flag has shocked and upset her. “Yeah, that flag means a lot to me,” she says. “For me, it’s mostly about freedom.” As for those protesting students taking down U.S. flags and replacing them with other flags: “They need to ship ‘em out.”
Her impatience with the protesters’ lack of respect for the U.S. flag is better understood in context with her experiences in 1941 as a 17-year-old American high school senior in the Philippine Islands. Abruptly arrested by Japanese soldiers when World War II began, she was classified as an “enemy alien” and sent to the infamous Santo Tomás Internment Camp in Manila. After three years at Santo Tomás with thousands of other American civilian prisoners and suffering badly from malnutrition, she and her mother volunteered to transfer to another internment camp, Los Baños, thirty miles south of Manila.
Patty and her mother had hoped for better conditions at the new camp, but by January 1945 they and the Los Baños camp’s 2,150 other prisoners were on the verge of starvation and a possible mass execution. To their surprise and delight, the captives awakened one morning to find their Japanese guards gone. Thinking the Japanese soldiers had fled from approaching American troops, the prisoners began a celebration.
“We broke into the guards’ food warehouses-we called them bodegas-and started eating like kings and queens,” Patty recalled. “Then someone asked if anyone had an American flag to put up. I was shocked when my mother pulled out the large American flag that had been presented to my father by Philippine Governor-General Leonard Wood around 1921. It had been a family heirloom since way before the war. I didn’t even know my mother had smuggled it into our camp and was hiding it.”
As someone played a recording of the “Star Spangled Banner” over the camp’s loudspeakers, the captives sang along while saluting the raised 48-star flag, many weeping openly. They renamed their former prison “Camp Freedom.”
The gorging and celebrating went on for several days-until the Japanese guards unexpectedly returned one night. “They were furious when they found out someone had put up an American flag,” Patty said.
Fortunately for Patty and her mother, their flag had been taken down as a precaution and hidden before the Japanese returned. “The guards searched our barracks three or four times trying to find it,” Patty recalled. “I remember sitting outside the barracks when they searched and getting so upset. My mother kept telling me, ‘Don’t get all worked up, Patty, don’t get all worked up. They won’t find it.’ They would have killed us if they found that American flag.”
She never learned where her mother had hidden the flag. With conditions worsening in the camp, in the early morning hours of February 23, 1945, Patty and the prisoners were stunned to see a company of U.S. paratroopers from the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment drifting down just outside their camp. The troopers had been ordered by Gen. Douglas MacArthur to rescue the suffering civilians in a special operation. MacArthur and other officials worried the captives would be executed by their Japanese guards in the closing months of the war.
“God, those parachutes falling were a wonderful sight,” Patty says nearly 80 years later. “I’ll never forget it. Whenever I’m a little down or depressed, I just think about that sight.”
The famous airborne rescue of these 2,150 civilians behind enemy lines at Los Baños was described in 1993 by Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell as “the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies.” The complex operation was the subject of a 2004 documentary, Rescue at Dawn-The Los Baños Raid, which aired as recently as last summer on the television network History (formerly The History Channel).
Barely 20 years old when freed by U.S. troops, Patty was soon to meet her future husband, Paul J. Kelly, a 22-year-old first lieutenant from Oklahoma City who had dropped out of the University of Oklahoma to join the war effort. Paul was serving with the First Cavalry Division, which had liberated Santo Tomás Internment Camp in early February 1945 and was stationed in Manila in the closing months of the war. After a whirlwind courtship following the war, the two were wed in Oklahoma City on February 24, 1946, one year and a day after Patty’s liberation from Los Baños.
Long after the war, Paul Kelly founded Guaranty Bank and Trust in Oklahoma City. The couple had two children who grew up in the city, Paul Jr. and Carole. At her husband’s funeral in 1971, Patty had his coffin covered with the U.S. flag that had flown at “Camp Freedom” in January 1945.
With the storied flag nearing 100 years old in 2018, Patty and Paul Jr. found a permanent home for the flag at the U.S. Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, N. Carolina. Patty and her family delivered the flag to the museum where it was honored in a ceremony around a special display in the museum’s front lobby.
Reciting the flag’s proud history, museum director Jim Bartlinski said at the ceremony, “We have an obligation to care for that flag until the end of time.”
Still active and regularly driving herself to an exercise class in north Oklahoma City, Patty finally decided to put in book format the story of her family’s famous flag, her early fraught years as a Japanese prisoner, and her dramatic rescue by U.S. airborne troops. She worked with a local historian and author to complete Waiting for America: A Civilian Prisoner of Japan in the Philippines, published in late February.
As one of the last living witnesses to these historic events, she has recounted parts of her story at several local book signings and is excited about several more planned around the state. And she gets a special thrill displaying her American flag outside her home.
“Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, the Fourth of July-these are all holidays I take special pride in flying my Stars and Stripes,” Patty says. “Those few of us still around who lived through those hard war years have a special connection with that flag. I wish more Americans did. But most have never lost their freedom for more than three years and been denied the right to fly that flag.”

The U.S. Navy has approved the commissioning date for the future USS Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD 29).
The Navy will commission Richard M. McCool Jr., an amphibious transport dock, September 7, 2024 at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida.
The naming of LPD 29 honors U.S. Navy Capt. Richard M. McCool Jr., who was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1945 for the heroism he displayed after his ship was attacked by kamikaze aircraft in the Battle of Okinawa. Despite suffering from shrapnel wounds and painful burns, he led efforts to battle a blazing fire on his ship and rescue injured sailors. LPD 29 will be the first of its name.
Richard M. McCool Jr. is co-sponsored by Shana McCool and Kate Oja, granddaughters of the ship’s namesake. As the co-sponsors, McCool and Oja lead the time-honored Navy tradition of giving the order during the ceremony to “man our ship and bring her to life!” At the moment, the commissioning pennant is hoisted and Richard M. McCool Jr. becomes a proud ship of the fleet.
Richard M. McCool Jr. will be the Navy’s 13th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship.
Amphibious transport docks are used to transport and land Marines, their equipment, and supplies by embarked Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) or conventional landing craft and amphibious assault vehicles (AAV) augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft (MV 22). These ships support amphibious assault, special operations, or expeditionary warfare missions and serve as secondary aviation platforms for amphibious operations.

About Captain Richard Miles McCool, USN, (1922-2008)

Richard Miles McCool Jr. was born on 4 January 1922 in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Appointed from Oklahoma to the U.S. Naval Academy, he graduated an ensign in June 1944, and was assigned to Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. In December, following training at the U.S. Naval Amphibious Training Station, Solomons, Maryland, he assumed command of USS LSC 122 and was promoted to lieutenant in January 1945. On 10 June, while operating off the Ryukyu Chain, Japan, he led his vessel to rescue survivors of USS William D. Porter after a Japanese kamikaze bomb exploded underneath the destroyer. The next evening, 11 June, two Japanese suicide squadron attacked McCool’s ship. Organizing a counterattack, McCool’s crew downed one of the kamikaze planes and damaged the second before it crashed into LSC 122’s conning tower, engulfing it in flames. Wounded and suffering severe burns, McCool led his men until aid arrived from other ships and he was evacuated due to his injuries. For his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” on this occasion, McCool was awarded the Medal of Honor.
In January 1946, McCool was reverted back to lieutenant junior grade. In July, he assumed command of USS LSC 44, then transferred to the destroyer USS McKean (DD-784). In July 1947, he became the aide to commandant, Eighth Naval District, at New Orleans, Louisiana. After instructor duty at the University of Oklahoma with the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps in June 1949, he received orders to USS Frank Knox (DD-742), later transferring to USS Leyte (CV-32). In January 1951, McCool was promoted to lieutenant. Completing Armed Forces Information School at Fort Slocum, New York, in June, he received orders to Commander Naval Base, Long Beach, California, and served as the public information officer. A year later, he returned for duty at the Eighth Naval District. In July 1954, he attended Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, where he earned a master’s degree. In June 1955, McCool was promoted to lieutenant commander and assigned to the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C. The following year, he reported overseas as a staff member of Commander, South Eastern Asia Treaty Organization, Bangkok, Thailand. In December 1958, he was assigned staff duty with commandant of the Ninth Naval District at Great Lakes, Illinois, where he was promoted to commander in July 1960. In April 1961, he served on the staff of Commander, First Fleet and transferred three years later for duty with Commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Japan. When he returned to the U.S., he continued staff duty with Commander, Seventh Fleet. In July 1965, McCool was promoted to captain. In April 1966, he became deputy commander of the Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin, Harrison, Indiana. Following his service in various public affairs posts, he retired from active duty in 1974 and became active in local politics in the Bremerton, Washington, area. Richard M. McCool died on 5 March 2008 and is buried at Naval Academy Cemetery, Annapolis, Maryland.

VillagesOKC has announced a collaboration with Navigating Medicare to offer that agency’s services to provide answers to individual Medicare questions in the VillagesOKC office during business hours – 10 am-3 pm on Mondays through Thursdays. The consultations are free.
“For six years, Navigating Medicare has been the trusted Medicare educator for VillagesOKC members,” said Executive Director Marilyn Olson. “Now we are able to make it even easier by providing space for them in our Bethany office.”
Olson said local hospitals such as Mercy Health and Integris also trust the agents at Navigating Medicare to provide the truth about Medicare Supplements, Advantage plans, and the impact of financial, healthcare, and specific physician selections.
“Because of the experience and integrity of Ginny Curtis-Gillespie, founder and owner of Navigating Medicare, many VillagesOKC members have found solutions that matched their unique health, dental, travel, financial, and location needs – even when they first purchased from another Medicare agent,” Olson said.
Curtis-Gillespie said, “So much of insurance these days is made to seem complex, difficult, and tricky. At Navigating Medicare, we strive to make insurance decisions simple. Our agency is built on our family values which are a commitment to honesty, integrity, togetherness, and support.”
Olson explained that since questions come at age 57- 65, it is important to have honest advice that is easily accessible. Medicare plans change every year, and 2025 has more changes than typically. Doctors and dentists also change plans – even mid-year.
“Staying informed is essential for everyone as they age,” Olson said. “Empowering adults to make good decisions about their lives is a key component of our mission to help everyone age with vitality and purpose.”
In addition the onsite availability of Navigating Medicare agents, VillagesOKC and Navigating Medicare are holding free information meetings to address the many changes coming next year.
“Navigating Medicare: Truth and Changes for 2025” will be presented at VillagesOKC, 3908 N. Peniel Ave, Suite 400, on the following dates June 8: 10-11 am, June 15: 10-11 am, June 18: 6-7 pm, June 29: 10-11 am, July 13: 10-11 am, July 16: 6-7 pm and July 27: 10-11 am.

The sessions are free with RSVP at info@villagesokc.org or (405) 990-6637.

Mark Cope, Community Relations for Nerve Renewal gave an interesting and understandable explanation of neuropathy and the unique Nerve Renewal protocol.

“Neuropathy is a tingling, numbness or pain in your hands and feet, basically your peripheral nervous system, it is everything that is not your brain or spinal cord,” he began.

“Our treatment is unique in that it is drug free. We aren’t adding any medicines to the medicine cabinet. It’s non-invasive, non-surgical and it’s covered by insurance. Medicare, Medicaid, VA and most private insurances will pay for our treatment. Mainly because what they really like to see is fall prevention. So they are willing to do some kind of preventative treatment,” he continued.

Jamie Crowe, Membership Director for South OKC Chamber, asked “How do you actually treat this without surgical or invasive procedures?”

“Our specialized equipment modulates the nerves on a deeper level. The muscles don’t contract with our therapy. We are going right to the nerves themselves. So we are able to depolarize the nerve cells – we turn the nerve signal off completely while they are in therapy,” Cope replied.

“At the same time we are injecting a vitamin solution at the area of the neuropathy. So that is a dual benefit. You have the pain signal being shut off and at the same time the nerve cell is allowing nutrients in from the blood stream. So it’s really creating conditions for nerve cells to improve functionality,” he continued.

“We are naturally helping the body into a state that is reducing the nerve signaling from whatever disorder has caused the pain.”

How many treatments do you typically go through if you were to need your services?” Crowe asked.

“Most get prescribe 24 treatments, coming in twice a week for 30 minutes. So the biggest commitment on a patient’s side is time. But about half way through the treatment they are feeling so much better that the time is no longer a factor,” Cope concluded.

Call today to schedule an evaluation:

OKC – South

9821 S May Ave.

(405) 655-5856

As Paula Poundstone continues her 2024 U.S. tour, audiences can be assured of an evening of hilarity as the comedian launches into a string of humorous stories typical of most observational stand-up comics. But at some point into her routine, the sharp-witted Poundstone will seamlessly morph into her trademark banter with audience members – a part of the show fans have come to expect and adore. It’s a style that evolved out of necessity.
“I’ve been doing stand-up for over 40 years, but have a terrible memory,” said Poundstone by phone from Florida recently, while preparing for an evening event. “I started out doing the five-minute open mic thing and spent years trying to memorize an act. Then I just began talking with the audience. My first thought was that it might be a liability, but one night I realized it was kind of the heart and soul of the whole show. Now it’s my favorite part of the evening.”
How she selects audience members to engage varies from venue to venue as the blinding house lights will often obscure distant individual faces. Sometimes she’ll spot a guest arriving late, or perhaps someone getting up to leave temporarily, while others grab her attention by yelling out answers to her rhetorical questions – and Poundstone pounces.
“I’ll often start with the time-honored question of asking what they do for a living,” she explained. “In this way, little biographies of audience members come up and I use that to set my sails! Their profession might remind me of a piece of material I have stored away in my mind and I’ll run with it.”
A memorable interaction occurred in 2006 during a show recorded for the Bravo cable network. About a half-hour into her performance, Poundstone began questioning an engaged couple who revealed the woman worked for an insurance company and the man was in banking. A seemingly innocuous inquiry about who proposed to whom brought a response from the gentleman, “What kind of a question is that?” prompting immediate gasps from the audience – an opening for the comedian to fire off her frequently heard laugh-inducing response to the crowd’s reaction: “I’ll handle it!”
And she did, brilliantly, with lightning-fast improvisational skills during a sidesplitting 6-minute interaction with the pair.
“People still come up to me and ask about that one and to this day I wonder whatever happened to the couple and if they did get married,” said Poundstone. “And every now and then, someone will ask me if it’s all planned – that the people somehow know they will be picked. That always makes me laugh and my response is how would that even be possible? It would require a lot of effort and I wouldn’t even know how to begin. This is why my shows are never exactly the same wherever I go.”
Like many entertainers with a busy tour schedule, Poundstone has little time for sightseeing (see www.paulapoundstone.com for cities and tour dates).
“I don’t get a chance to look around much since the touring only allows me to fly in for a show and then I’m off again,” she says. “But I still think it’s the best job in the world.”
Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery in Alabama and writes features, columns, and interviews for newspapers and magazines around the country. See https://www.getnickt.org.