It was April of 2015 and I went to my Primary Care Physician (PCP) for an issue regarding hearing loss.  It was at this appointment that i shared with my PCP some symptoms i was having regarding blood in stool.  My Dr., without hesitation, scheduled me for an immediate colonoscopy.  During this procedure they removed 6 polyps in my colon.  These polyps were not located in a grouping, rather they were scattered throughout the colon.  The Dr. performing the procedure talked with my wife (Jill) and told her that at least one of the polyps had the visual characteristics of a Cancerous tumor.  They removed all of the polyps, tattoo’d the locations and sent the tissue samples off to Pathology for testing.  The pathology report came back very quickly and confirmed the suspected cancer.  Let me tell you, when you hear those dreaded words “You Have Cancer”, you are in shock.  At least for a moment.  Then the type “A” personality took charge and went on the attack to get this handled (no matter what that meant had to be done) so i could resume my life.   I was then labeled a Stage 1 cancer patient.  From that day forward, little did i know, my life would be changed indefinitely.  After meeting with my now Oncologist, I received two opinions from surgical consults.  In June of 2015 I had a Colon resection surgery done where they removed approximately 1/3 of my colon.  This was the right side of the colon of which will have clinical importance in later blogs.  Post surgery follow up with Oncology determined that they were able to remove all of the cancer and I was cured.  No additional treatment required.  We would do monitoring from here on out.  This would be blood tests to monitor my cancer markers, CT scans and a colonoscopy annually.

March 22nd, 2016 I had my scheduled CT scan annual follow up done in the early morning.  That afternoon, my PCP called me on the telephone and informed me of the bad news.  The radiologist had contacted my PCP and said my Liver had several suspicious spots that had the appearance of cancer.  He did not want to waste any time and scheduled me an appointment with Oncology.  After meeting with oncology,  I was immediately scheduled to have a liver biopsy performed.  The pathology report confirmed that it was cancer.  And not new cancer, rather colon cancer that metastasized to my liver.  I am now and forever STAGE IV.  Wow…this is a whole new level of shock.  Coming to terms with you have cancer is one thing.  Identifying Stage IV as well as some other clinical information puts me in the Terminal category.  Now the vacuum begins.

As i look back at 2016, I sometimes feel like that whole year was either in Dr. appointments, hospitals, or at the treatment facility receiving chemotherapy.  It is very hard for me to see much else.  I have to admit, 2017 has started out the same way and feels the same as well.  So far i have had 4 surgeries; Colon resection, a second surgery to repair complications from the colon surgery, followed by 3 months of FOLFOX Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, Cryoablation of an inoperable tumor in my liver, followed by a liver resection to remove a portion of my liver that contained two more tumors, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy of the FOLFOX treatment for 3 additional months.  This cancer is putting up one hell of a fight i must say.  But so am I and I am not willing to quit.

I always use this analogy on myself (when I need a lift).

Fighting cancer is similar to the sport of boxing.  

Round 1:  Cancer puts you up against the ropes with the dreaded diagnosis.  It strikes hard, it is looking to establish superiority early on.  As with boxing, whoever can dominate the mental aspect of the fight has the better opportunity to win.

Round 2:  I fight back and have part of my colon removed.  (Take that you beast)

Round 3:  Cancer strikes back, has me up against the ropes and will not let up, finally my legs give out and i drop to the canvas.  I am down for the count.  There is no getting saved by the bell, I get back up to fight another round.

Round 4:  Its my turn you beast, Chemotherapy begins,  Bags of hope, one after the other.  On a mission to destroy the cancer once and for all.  

Round 5:  Cancer is on the attack once again.  I am not having a pathological response to the chemotherapy.  Rather, my tumors have continued to grow.  This in turn will make things more and more difficult from a clinical point of view.  The Pain levels are increasingly becoming almost intolerable.  

Round 6:  Time to engage Plan B (when plan A fails, have a back up).  One of the tumors has grown and become inoperable to due location.  We met with our team of Doctors and decided to attack this one tumor with Cryoablation.  This is essentially a process where they insert probes into the tumor and freeze it to kill it.  It was still a difficult process due to location as well as providing enough freezing properties to due the job and not leave any cancer behind.

Round 7:  We have mounted a full on attack.  Cancer has its back up against the rope and we have not let up.  I am not going to either.  Its time to try to get ahead of this beast (at least for a little while).  After recovering from the Cryoablation (round 6), we moved directly to full on open surgery and removed the portion of my liver that had two active tumors.  Take that cancer.  

Round 8:  Back to the Chemotherapy chair.  Cancer has met a formidable opponent.  At least for now.  Now its time to finish this fight and move on.  There will be other bouts to fight with this cancer but for now its time to put it down for the count.  It was a long fought round filled with very difficult to manage side effects and a weak body but we overcame the challenges.  Cancer went down to the canvas and took the 10 count.  

This concludes my personal story for now.  I will be creating a page that I will be posting to and updating as new medical information becomes available.  This page will be posted very soon.  

Thank you for visiting my page.