My Story

Where to begin? Well, I guess I’ll start where most of us start, when things started going wrong. In 2016 I started losing weight and had some cramping and rectal pain. I thought when my wife and I started going for walks around the block that I was simply out of shape and ignored the pain.

In June or July of 2016 I started having some rectal bleeding and got kinda freaked out by it so I went into the local ER and like most colorectal cancer patients, was told that it was just a hemorrhoid and that it was no big deal. Yeah, no big deal I thought…people get hemorrhoids so, it’s nothing to be worried about. So like the rest of my symptoms, I simply ignored it.

A year later (July 3rd 2017) I thought I was having a heart attack (I had a massive heart attack and surgery in 2012 and now have 3 stents in my right coronary artery) and went into the ER. Luckily I was NOT having a heart attack but was still concerned enough to follow-up with my cardiologist who (of course) wanted to do an angiogram.

Since I knew what was involved and what the solution would be if there was any blockage going on, I asked if I would bleed to death if given Plavix. The answer? Of course you would, what the hell is going on, he asked.

Well, I have some rectal bleeding due to some stupid internal hemorrhoids, I said. So, he arranged for a GI to look at me before moving forward with an angiogram. After explaining my symptoms to the GI, he recommended that we do a CT of the chest, abdomen and pelvic region.

After getting the scans, he immediately came back in stating that he needed to do an emergency colonoscopy. He was seeing a HUGE mass surrounding my “rectal column” and needed to go in to see what the hell it was. Nice, how about saying something like, I see something concerning that needed to be checked out. Nope, telling it like it is…is the kind of doc he is. 🙂

So, long story short, we did the colonoscopy and when I was woken up…I was treated to some lady yelling at me and asking what the hell my problem was and why I waited so long to get checked out….half awake and groggy as hell, it was not the wake-up call I had expected.

But there I was, being yelled at and told I had like 6-9 months to live, at best. I had colorectal cancer and that it was probably late stage four….what with such a huge tumor and all ….that was wrapped around my rectum and all 21 lymph nodes affected. I was then whisked away to do a PET scan and then wheeled into my “private” room to “think about it”.

I was then presented with a colorectal surgeon who walked in and said he could fix the glitch but that I had to go through oncology first if I was gonna fight this. He went on to tell me that it would be a year or two fight from hell but, if I could make it through radiation and chemo, he could yank my innards out and do me up some new plumbing. Huh???

I asked him to just take me into the OR and yank that tumor out of me and let’s get it over with. He chuckled and said yeah, it doesn’t quite work that way…..you (and by you, I mean YOU) need to shrink up that tumor first so that I can have a successful extraction. Oh and by the way, yes…..I was still wondering where my cardiologist was.

I then met with an oncologist who gave me three options to shrink up the tumor so that my surgeon could have a successful extraction. I ended up choosing the first option presented which was six weeks of daily chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

After that, I had my robotic LAR (Low Anterior Resection) surgery to remove my rectum (tumor and all) and 21 lymph-nodes. The surgery was a success but of the 21 lymph nodes removed, two of them did not get fried in the process and still had active cancer in them.

So then I was given another choice, go through six to eight months of post-surgical chemotherapy or, take my chances and do nothing. UGH So again, with everything to live for, I decided to move forward with more chemo.

Naturally I picked the worst one (capeox) of the three options since it had a 91% success rate and a very small chance of recurrence. However, it comes at a price….massive nerve damage (neuropathy).

So I spoke with my doctor about it and he basically said; yes, I’m treating three other cancer survivors who have pretty bad neuropathy and couldn’t walk…..so his advice was to go through with it but to keep a close eye on the side effects and that if got to be, kinda sorta bad, lower the dose or call it quits.

So I made it through chemo (oxaliplatin) but stopped after 5 sessions. I did however, continue on to the end with the capecitabine (xeloda) and had my reversal surgery in August of 2018. I was then declared cancer free (NED) and kicked out of the cancer center.

I’ve since had a few follow ups and just did my six month, post surgical colonoscopy and was given the ALL clear. They don’t need to do this again for a whole year! I’m so excited.

So that’s my story and, I’m stickn’ to it. 😉 Since I didn’t blog on a daily basis (I did document my journey though) and want to do everything I can to help out “the community” moving forward, I thought I would create a blog, do a video podcast and contribute to the many organizations out there as much as I can and….who knows, maybe even write a book (we’ll see).

So I hope this blog will be useful to someone out there who is looking for some additional information, some encouragement and even some occasional entertainment. 😉

Please feel free to leave some comments below and if you have any questions, let’s chat about it in the comment section below or shoot me a private message on the Contact Me/Us page and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks again and, have yourself a wonderful day! Chat soon!