In The Beginning Part I

I do get asked, “how did you discover this cancer?”   

Well, the ordeal came to light on Diane’s birthday, November 19, 2021.  We had just arrived in Arizona for the winter at the beginning of November.  We brought down a few boxes of Alaska salmon and halibut and we had a nice dinner at Mom’s with Joan.  

Shortly after dinner I felt very full.  Then, my stomach began to ache and it felt firm and distended.  My first thought was food poisoning but no one else felt bad.  I mean, it’s not like I ate a giant plate of Mexican food or some bad food combination.  I really needed to take a dump but didn’t want to do that at Mom’s house so we decided to go home.

Being a male, of course I had no intention of going to Emergency.  All I needed to do was go to the bathroom and if necessary, force myself to vomit (which I’ve always done successfully my whole life).   I got home and I could do neither, even as the pain increased.  Diane wanted to go Emergency but I said I wanted to lay down for a bit.  While I laid there we called a Nurse hotline and described what was going on.  She highly recommended going to Emergency.  I relented and as soon as I got out of bed I went straight to the bathroom and vomited….intensely!  What came out was not really the contents of my stomach but more of a brown bile.  I did feel much better but I had already agreed to go to Emergency. 

Once there, they took me in for a CT scan.  By now it was around midnight and waiting for the scan result I was able to go to the bathroom.  Around 2:00 am my very young Dougie Howser ER doctor came back and said, “I’m going to have to keep you overnight.”  “But, I feel fine doctor,” I told him.  He replied, “You’ve got a lot going on in there and I don’t know what it is!”  Not exactly what I wanted to hear.  

In the morning a surgeon came in and ordered another scan with contrast and recommended I go for a follow up colonoscopy, based on my previous colon cancer I assume.

He recommended an internal medicine doctor within the Honor Health hospital system.  I did the colonoscopy on December 30th.  It came back mostly uneventful.  I then asked if he would do an Upper GI which, I’ve never had.  That too, was relatively uneventful.  That doctor then referred me to an Oncologist within the same system and the hunt continued for what might be going on.

In the meantime, I had two similar events with the upset stomach and constipation.  One was on January 27th and again on March 4th.  In both instances I was able to eventually vomit and go to the bathroom and I did not go to Emergency.  

Now things are getting frustrating!  I had several more CT scans and two MRIs during this time, but we seemed to be getting nowhere.  Up to now, there was not a cancer scare, just a gut problem. In fact, my first visit with the Internal Medicine doctor his PA sent me home with a brochure for Gastritis.  The frustrating part for me was how proactive we had to be to push for results.  For all those scans the doctors office would give me a phone number and tell me to schedule the scan.  I spent so many hours on hold or days waiting for schedulers to call me back, it was making me crazy.   

I am going to make this a two part blog.  In the next blog I will pick up the story right before the Petscan (April 6) which we were pushing hard for as it would confirm the presence of cancer or not.

But before we close, here’s a cute story:

A few days before the Petscan we were naturally nervous.  We’ve been attending a smaller church near us but on that Sunday we decided to visit a larger church that we previously attended for a several years.

The new pastor gave a powerful sermon about Prayer.  How to structure your prayers, how to have peace with God, and what to expect from your prayers.  It was very encouraging and uplifting.  As he closed, he reminded people that prayer teams would be available up front after service for those who would like.  I’ve honestly never done that in church but as we were walking out Diane asked if I wanted to go up front.  I replied, “If not now, when?”

We walked up to “Bill” who was waiting to help.  We told Bill that I was scheduled for a Petscan on Wednesday and we needed some prayer for a negative result.  Bill looked directly at me and said, “no matter what happens, you’re going to be a winner.”  That got my antenna up a little.  As you might recall from the theme of this blog, I only want to hear positive thoughts and stories about survivors.  Then Bill turned to Diane and said, “you are going to be all right.”  Whoa!  I’m starting to feel uncomfortable but not really sure how to get away.  Bill then launched in to a story about his good friend.  It seems he had been misdiagnosed and was told he had several years to live…..and then he died on his couch!  Bill started tearing up and told us how he did the eulogy.  Oh boy, not the type of prayers I was looking for.  I considered saying a prayer for Bill!  He finished with a nice prayer but we walked away wondering if Bill might be better suited as a “Greeter”  

So, today I am two weeks out of the second chemo session and feeling as normal as ever.  We had a delightful Memorial Day weekend.  We went to see Top Gun with some friends, then out to dinner and some Euchre.  Sunday we went to church then out on a date.  We saw the play Ghost at Arizona Broadway Theater, and out to eat at PF Chang’s, then a visit with Mom.  Monday we played 4 hours of pickleball before the heat set in and then had our own little Mooseburger BBQ!

But the most special surprise this week was a care package from home put together by our dear friends Skip and Cheryl.  Skip coordinated Halibut and King Salmon from his neighbor (and my favorite Seward AK fishing captain) Jim.  With the help of their son-in-law Josh we received two boxes via FedEx!  You can teach a man to fish and he’ll fish for a lifetime or you can send him fish in the mail, and he’ll be forever grateful!