The Answer to “Why”
From May, to the first of July I had several “episodes” where I couldn’t breath and I had pain in the right side of my abdomen with pain in my right shoulder.This would last about 5 days getting a little better each day. Of course, being who I am and a man in general, I ignored all of this. I didn’t have time for more problems. I didn’t want to go to the doctor and them look at me like I was crazy. On July 4th my wife and I had to leave a cookout with friends early because I was feeling pretty bad. These “episodes” were becoming more frequent and worse each time. On the way home from the cookout my wife wanted me to go to the emergency room which I promptly shot down. I don’t go to the ER for anything, unless I’m unconscious. Well, one thing lead to another and I think divorce was mentioned somewhere in the conversation. So I agreed to go to our doctor on Monday, if I was still feeling bad. This seemed to be a good compromise and it got her off my back for another day. Monday came, and I couldn’t hide the fact that I was not much better so we went to the doctor.
So we are at the doctor. I tell them what is going on and, they looked at me like I was crazy. He wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic and one for Darvocette (sp?). Then he said, “If his happens again we’ll get some testing.” Since I knew something was going on. I requested a CBC, liver enzymes and a chest x-ray and my wife said she wanted for me to have an ultrasound of my liver. He agreed to order the testing. The ultrasound showed three “lesions” on my liver. So that led to another test. One test led to another which led to another and after a month of testing......
At the first of August 2010 I was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. The cancer has metastasized (spread) to my liver and lymph nodes. Since the diagnosis, everything in my life has revolved around cancer. It seems like I see more cancer ads and on television. I see more people being diagnosed with cancer. Maybe I didn’t pay attention to it in the past. It’s not like I ignored cancer, my family gives money every year to cancer research.
Today is October 14, 2010. Since my cancer diagnosis in August I have been through quite a bit. We’ll start with a colon resection on August 19th, 2010.
After finding a 55cm tumor in my colon the decision that I needed immediate surgery was made. Since the tumor was so big there was a chance my colon would become occluded. So in less than a week I was having a colon resection. Because of some complications, I spent 8 days in the hospital.
They withheld all liquids after surgery. The first thing I noticed when I woke up after surgery was my 6 - 7 inch incision ended up being about 22 inches. This isn’t really a problem for me because I don’t think I was going to be the next Calvin Cline underwear model. Then my stomach became distended. After watching me for two days, the doctors decided to place an NG or Nasogastric tube. This is a small tube that goes up your nose and into your stomach. By the next day they had removed approx. 8 liters of fluid from my stomach. Needless to say, I felt quite a bit better. But during the placement of the tube, (It took three attempts before getting it in) I puked all down my incision, in a bucket, pretty much everywhere. Linda Blair didn’t have anything on me. They didn’t really say anything about this, but I started getting an infection in parts of my wound. They circled it and waited for it to grow, but it didn’t go very far, so it wasn’t a big issue. I had a problem keeping an IV from about the second or third day. For some reason my veins kept shutting down, so a new one would have to be started. Since I had been without liquids for about 6 or 7 days my veins collapsed so getting an IV was quite a task. All in all, I guess the complications were minor compared to what they could have been. I got out of the hospital on August 27th, 2010.
From then till September 15th, 2010 I recovered at home. Returning to my surgeon a couple of times for checkups. On the 15th of September I returned to my oncologist, which I admire and respect. He also has a great bedside manner. I thought everything was going well, until my oncologist asks me about my port. A port is a device placed in your chest with a tube that goes directly into the heart. It is used for receiving chemotherapy. I told him that I didn’t have a port yet. He said my port, for chemo, should have been put in while I was in the colon resection surgery. Ut oh…. Seems like someone dropped the ball.
On September 20th I went into the hospital again to have the port “placed”, or implanted. I was prepped for surgery. Several hours after getting there a doctor came in my room and said my doctor was in a conference then he had to see a patient. Then he said, I can do your surgery if you allow me, but if you don’t you will have to go home. Well since this was on Monday and my first chemo was already scheduled on Friday, I didn’t’ really have a choice. So I agreed to let him perform the surgery, the other surgeon should have done the first time around.
Friday, September 24th 2010 I had my first round of chemo. I’m on what they call Folfox-6. This is how it works. I get to the hospital at 8:20am. They draw blood, then I see my oncologist or his nurse practitioner. They look at the results of the blood work to determine if I can have chemo that day. Then I go to “The Pod” where they mix up my chemo drugs. When I finish getting that chemo, I’m hooked up to a portable pump with another bag of chemo drugs that infuse for the next 46 hours. All of this happens every other week for me.
The first time wasn’t as horrible as I expected. I was feeling pretty sick for half of the first week. That dissipated and I felt better the second week.
Friday October 8th, 2010 I had my second round of chemo. This time it was quite a bit worse than the first. The nausea is worse and I developed the cold sensitivity they talked about. It’s hard to describe, but when I touch something cold it’s like I’m being electrocuted. If my feet get cold, I get the same sensation in my feet. I can’t drink anything cold either. If I do, I get the same sensation in my tongue and my throat seems to close up. Also when I take the first bite of anything I get a pretty bad sensation in my jaws. I can’t quite put my finger on what that’s like though. If it’s gotten this bad on the second I can’t wait for the third.
By the way, I forgot to say that I am scheduled for 12 rounds of chemo. They are going to do four rounds then do a PET scan and probably some other testing. This will let them know if I have cancer anywhere else. It will also let us see how effective the chemo is. They want to shrink my liver and the tumors. If this is successful, I will have another surgery to remove the liver tumors.
UPDATE
After four rounds of chemo I had a full body CT scan. When I went on for the results my oncologist said it looked better to him and one of my tumors had shrunk almost 1cm. He stopped my chemo on November 17th to prepare me for surgery. This was the great news we were looking for!
The day before Thanksgiving, my oncologist called. He said “We met about your case at the tumor board and the surgeons say they can’t do your surgery and leave you with enough liver to sustain life. I really wanted to treat you more aggressive because you are so young. We might send you out for another opinion.” I asked how long the surgery was off the table. He replied, “Oh it’s off the table for good. You can’t ever have surgery. Sorry I ruined your holiday.”
I couldn’t figure out why taking out five (5) tumors would be so bad. So, I requested a copy of the radiologist report on my full body scan. The report said I have too many tumors on my liver to count. This answers that question. Now I just have to figure out how to get this “Death Sentence” off my back.
I was on Facebook one day, and saw one of those little ads that are across the right side of the screen. It said “My name is Eddie Dwyer and I was diagnosed with stage iV colon cancer.....” I thought. How does Facebook know I have colon cancer? This is just TOO weird. So I HAD to click on it. It took me to his page and I read all about what he’s going through. It’s was much like what I have been through. I found out that he started going to Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). The next day I called CTCA just to see what they would say more than anything. I was on the phone for about 3 hours with the first person. He is a 12 year survivor of colon cancer and a really nice man. I decided to give them a try. What do I have to lose? Vanderbilt had pretty much given up on me.
On December 5th, 2010 I flew out to CTCA in Tulsa, OK for an evaluation. This would last for eight days. I went in somewhat skeptical. I’ve seen the corny commercials and read the blog. How could any place live up to what they have made public? After 5 days I had been “put through the ringer”. They ran a bunch of test, including a PET scan (if you don’t know what that is and want to know check out this link). When it was all finished I met with the oncologist again. He showed me one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. It was a 3D Image of the inside of my body. He could rotate it around for a better look at something. It was just plain cool. The results showed that my liver is covered with cancer. I have a few other “spots” which are lymph nodes that showed up as well.
The bottom line? Well, I have to say their commercials aren’t corny enough. This is the most caring place I have ever been. From the moment you are picked up from the airport to when you walk in to the facility is amazing. I can’t say enough nice/great things about it. Everyone on the staff goes out of their way to make sure you have everything you need, and are taken care of. They gave me the hope I was looking for. Trust me when I say, If you know someone with cancer they NEED to be at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. I will be posting more about them in the coming weeks if you are interested. I will probably create a separate blog just for that and my treatment there. Again, if you are interested, please check it out.
Thanks for reading about my 2010 “The Year That Sucked”. Thank you for your prayers and support. I couldn’t get through any of this without my wife and best friend Bobbie, and my children.
I love you guys!!!
