Dr Mini's health issues update for those who might want to know

[drmini]

Thought I'd give an overview of what's been happening in my life and where I am now.  Several of you have spoken to me over the past few months so this may be redundant. 
Around the first of Dec 2019 I was completely stopped up.  In pain with no relief.  Went to the local civilian ER and was diagnosed with a stomach bug and given medicine and sent home.  Two days later I was no better and was throwing up.  As a retired military guy, the government has medical insurance that covers me at any civilian hospital or doctor's office. I also have the option of using military hospitals and VA hospitals.  Anyway, as I was getting worse I had my brother drive me 100 miles north to the VA hospital in Johnson City TN. They ran tests and soon diagnosed me with stage 3 colon cancer. In surgery they removed 18" of my colon and said that I should start chemo once I had healed from the surgery. Now, those who know me, know that I'm a pretty fat guy. Normally around 340, after surgery I was at 400+ and pretty much immobile.  They were pumping fluids into me 24/7 and wouldn't allow me to drink anything.  Spent 4 days in ICU then to a private room. I continued to swell with water on my lungs, heart, and everything else.  Back to ICU and a blood transfusion.  Things were not looking good.  We finally convinced them to stop the fluids and start draining them to hopefully take down the swelling.  Once they did this I dropped 76 lbs in less than a week.  Spent 3 months total in the hospital and finally got out on Mar 5th. I had a port put in my chest for chemo and had a PET scan to see if they had missed anything or if anything had spread.  When they analyzed the scan they said that there was a small mass that had be missed and that the cancer had metasticised and spread to the other side of my body. Because of this, the tumor board had deemed me 27% curable.  Because of the Covid virus the CDC had now restricted the start of chemo on new patients who had been diagnosed as less than 50% curable.  The Oncologist said there was nothing she could do for me. At that point I got up and started to leave the room. She stopped me and said we had some decisions to make and my response was, "Lady, I think the decision has already been made! It's between me and the Lord now." and left. I had another appointment in mid May for bloodwork. On that analysis she was amazed that all my good indicators had doubled or tripled. She said, "on paper it looks like you are getting better when in fact, we know you aren't." I told her I was getting stronger and felt great. I was scheduled for another PET scan in Jun to compare with the Mar scan to see how fast it was growing since they couldn't do anything to stop it. When I returned for the analysis, she was amazed. What the latest PET scan revealed was that the part that had spread was now GONE! In addition to that, the original part that was missed was now shrinking. Previous measurement was 22.5 suv and now was 6.7 suv. The report also said that there was no active disease anywhere. She was amazed and bewildered at the same time. She admitted that she had no explanation of what was going on, and said I should return in 3 months for a checkup, but to continue whatever it was that I was doing because it was working. My comment was, "the power of prayer!" Ever since I was diagnosed, my church and my wife's church have both been praying for me, as have several of my friends around the world. I hope that I continue to beat this monster inside me, but it is not my doing, but HIS! This has been a long message, but I thought there may be someone out there who would like to know. FWIW, I'm not 100% yet, but I did make a cross country trip in May to deliver a Mini to the port in San Diego and next week I'm making a haul to Arkansas. Whenever they open up NY again (to TN folks) I have a Mini waiting here in TN that has to go to Long Island. Hopefully the DR. will be moving Minis for a long time to come! Cheers, Hugh 

[94touring]

Wow that's amazing and great to hear!  Frustrating they turned you away to basically die.  Our hospitals in Tulsa furloughed during covid season to prepare for all the people they never got.  Now, they are 80% capacity catching up from a couple nurses and doctor friend we have.

[MiniDave]

Wonderful news Hugh - just proof that the Docs don't know everything....

One of my best friends was diagnosed with much the same, they gave him less than a 50% chance of surviving it - he found some homeopathic things to try and when he was finally scheduled for surgery they found his mass had shrunk more than 70% - they went in and got the rest and he's still with us 10 years on now.

Here's hoping you have a similar success!

[tsumini]

Hmmm... just spent Wed and Thurs in the hospital for partial small bowel obstruction. Felt it coming on so went light on the food. Got it cleared Wed night but Dr kept me for two days observation. Thinking that my sedentary life since Mid March didn't help. Walking around kitchen and LR several times a day and watching diet now.
Became a believer in exercise especially for the gut.
Glad you're doing better Hugh.

[jeff10049]

Great news.
It's always worth trying my friend Ed was given three months to live 17 years ago. They didn't want to even attempt surgery for some very advanced melanoma advanced to the point it had pathologically fractured a rib.
He insisted so they cut a big hole in his back to remove what they could and did some chemo gave him a zero percent chance and he's been cancer free for 17 years.

[drmini]

I hope through all of this that everyone gets this message...GET A COLONOSCOPY! When I turned 50 it was recommended. Yeah, I'll do that sometime, but not right now. Well at 63 (which I still consider young) it was not the diagnosis I was expecting, and the past 8 months have been fun. Please take time to do this and hopefully skip the problems I am experiencing!

[94touring]

At 40 and a pilot I get to look forward to getting probed twice a year now.

[Red Riley]

Good to hear, Hugh. The lesson I learned from my health issues is never just take anyone's word at face value. If you don't do the research and act as your own advocate, you are at the mercy of someone else, and you have no idea where their head is at. They have a hundred other people to treat, you have just yourself. I had random symptoms for more than a year before the flight doc finally thought to get me a PSA test. At 39 years old, nobody thought I might have prostate cancer. Normal PSA level is usually 4.0 or less. My PSA was close to 40. The first civilian specialist I saw that did the biopsy wanted to do immediate surgery and gave me 5 years to live. I told him what he could do with his 5 years, and started doing my own research. I ended up requesting permission to go to Walter Reed's Prostate Cancer Research Center. They put me on hormone therapy for a year before even considering surgery, then got a good result with the radical prostatectomy. Other than a slight rise in PSA about 4 years out, and a round of voluntary chemo, I'm symptom free after almost 20 years.

I hope you continue to improve and get that weight off, man. That fat is a killer. I know it's hard, but it's worth the battle. I struggle to keep it off with having a low testosterone level, since I don't have the prostate gland anymore. I love my beer and pizza, but it's not worth dying for.

And a word to the wise for all of you guys. Don't wait until you're 50 to get a PSA test. Better to know what's going on than to wait until it's too late.

[MiniDave]

The ongoing theme I keep reading here is pay attention to what your body is telling you - I had mild symptoms for months, maybe years before my latest (and first) heart attack - the other time 11 years ago was just angina. But when something feels "off", do something about it!

I agree on the weight thing, the older you are the harder it is to lose it - I've managed to lose 25 lbs this year, and still have another 25 to go to get where I was in my 30's - that's the weight I should have stayed at but getting married to a nice Italian girl who likes to cook took care of that! She found a lump in her breast in early November, but with the holidays and all waited till Feb to go see the doc, in that time it had grown substantially - they did a bipopsy and it was very bad, so they did a lumpectomy, a few weeks later they took the whole breast. She's been cancer free for over 10 years now, so that's the good news. BTW, I gained about 50 lbs since we've been married - she eats more than I do and has gained about 10. There is no justice in this world!   ::)

I have a good friend who was recently given the prostate cancer diagnosis too, he is only in his 40's - he took another route and used cannibis therapy - he's now cancer free for two years. Another friend had to go thru chemo and radiation therapy but he also managed to lick it tho his PSA was only about 10 - they caught it early enough for him to  be treated successfully.

I'm happy that everyone here is still alive and kicking, and I hope to have all of you as friends for a good long time yet.

Cheers! to everyone.....

[drmini]

I forgot to update the weight issue before. Anyway in April I was down to 280. Last trip to the doctor I was at 300. Pretty much maintaining that. Hoping to lose some of that when the gyms around here aren't so dangerous/covid...

[John Gervais]

Great news to hear, Hugh, keep it up!   77.gif

Dan - "At 40 and a pilot I get to look forward to getting probed twice a year now.".  I was joking with Hyacinth not long ago that UFO aliens seem to really be into that sort of thing.  They abduct you, do an anal probe and drop you off down the road.   :-\  Really though, that just sounds a bit awkward.

I once told my doc, next time I expect flowers.  I think I need to find a different doc.

[MiniDave]

One of my best friends (who also used to weigh 300) used to tell me - "there are no 300lb 80 year olds"

I don't know if that's true, but it makes sense that if you want to live a good long life being heavy isn't going to be your best option. My friend is down to about 230 now - right about  what he weighed in high school. I don't think I can get to my high school weight as I was 3 or 4 inches shorter then and skinny as a rail, but I def think I should be about 25 lbs lighter than I am - I'm now at 5'10" and 190lbs, down from 215. I think 165 would work for me, as I'm only going to get shorter from here on!   ;D

[tsumini]

I hope through all of this that everyone gets this message...GET A COLONOSCOPY! When I turned 50 it was recommended. Yeah, I'll do that sometime, but not right now. Well at 63 (which I still consider young) it was not the diagnosis I was expecting, and the past 8 months have been fun. Please take time to do this and hopefully skip the problems I am experiencing!

I can attest to this. Two years ago my wife got her regular colonoscopy. They removed a polyp that was cancerous. Additional procedure revealed that they had gotten all the canacer with the polyp removal so she dodeg na bullit. My colonosopy has been due for 6 months but screww up appointments and COVID delayed that. Being rescheduled now.