| Greg Reid |
05-19-2024 12:26 AM |
Fellows, I had no idea that this thread was here. You don't know how much I appreciate all the support that you're showing me right now. I mean I really, sincerely appreciate it.
It's been a long hard struggle starting in January of '23. After 6 months of chemo I had my entire stomach removed exactly a year ago to the day of my surgery yesterday. 6 months later, the cancer was back. I suspected it because I was having issues through that entire time. After my initial surgery although they said that all of the cancer was in my stomach and I was all clear after the removal of that. I never felt quite as certain as everybody else though. This time it came back at the stage 4 and had progressed into the lining of my torso above the intestines. I made a mistake of looking that up and found that it's a pretty low survival rate. Typically 5 to 7 months after diagnosis. That was scary so I immediately stopped thinking about that and just started thinking about being one of the people that survived. I'm not a quitter and I'm fighting with everything I have.
In the last week I started having some severe shooting pains across my abdomen and one of the biggest problems I've had over the last year is trying to put my weight back on. I've lost ninety to a hundred pounds in the last year and a half. My oncologist has threatened to kick me out of the program three times because she says that I won't be able to survive these chemo treatments if I can't maintain weight but she did not understand why I could not eat. The reason I wound up in the hospital this time was because of intestinal blockage was causing those shooting pains and if you don't have a stomach and your intestines are blocked how can you eat? I wound up in the emergency room this week because of the intestinal cramps. Second time really, but this time it did not clear up on its own so they decided that they would have to do surgery. That is, they x-rayed and saw that it wasn't just food.
My original surgeon had a look at it and told me that this was a very bad situation. He said that it was obviously one of two possibilities. Either it was scar tissue from my initial stomach removal or it was a tumor indicating the cancer being back. He then told me that the perfect scenario would be that it was scar tissue and he could snip it out put it back together and have me home in a couple of days. Worst case scenario and very possible, was that it was a tumor and maybe it could be more than one and the cancer could be spreading through my entire test. He told me that if that was the case, that he would have to just sold me back up, send me to hospice and he predicted that I would live for 4 to 6 weeks after that because of my absolutely atrocious physical condition. He wouldn't know until he actually got in there and started surgery. Obviously, that cost me a long weekend of worry.
Here's the part where I tell you that I've never been a very religious person but I was raised with a religious foundation and have been a believer but not in any way devoted to religion or spiritualism whatever. Today, I want to testify that I believe. When the word got out about what was going on with me I believe that I probably have thousands, literally thousands of people were praying for me at 2:00 yesterday which was my surgery time. I didn't even know about you guys or did I know that you all knew what was going on with me. People that I have never met were praying for me. My wife tells me everyday about people who have sent prayers, text, you name it to her about me.
When they rolled me into surgery yesterday I felt so uplifted spiritually and my confidence was so high (I have an excellent medical team behind me as well) that I wasn't nearly as nervous as you might think be....and my family have been just great throughout this last year.
To shorten the story just a little bit, this time the coin fell in my favor. It wasn't the perfect scenario that he outlined but it wasn't the death sentence either. He was able to cut the tumor out he said there's still cancer present but but that he saw obvious signs that the chemo is working and that if the effects of the treatment continue on this path it raises my chances tremendously.
The main thing being that I should now be able to take in nutrition and get my weight back. I was actually scheduled for a chemo treatment this week and the stomach cramp started the day before. He told my wife that if I had gotten chemo this week I would have died because of my terrible physical condition at the present.
You guys just don't know but I have been so weak for the last month or two that I haven't even been able to drive. My legs were too weak to climb a step alone or have any confidence that I can raise my foot from the gas pedal to the brake pedal if there was an emergency. Both of my cars are manual shift, other than gto, and I know I could not raise my leg enough to get the clutch.
I'm also missing my favorite fishing month!!
Anyway, there's a lot more to the story but I am generally a rather private person which is why I never put this out here publicly. I haven't been keeping it a secret because I believe that other people should know the warning signs and so forth. At some point I'm going to write something about what's led up to my initial illness and the warning signs that I missed. It has occurred to me that if I survive this, and I still have a ways to go, that I owe something to people who might be helped by my experience. If I had known before I was diagnosed what I know now I might have been able to avoid the entire diagnosis. I had worn in size 6 months before I was diagnosed but never, ever would have guessed it it was cancer or anything serious. I've read that that's one of the reasons that gastric cancer is so difficult because the early symptoms don't really seem like anything that might not just pass on their own. Just some discomfort here and there and some other symptoms.
Again, this form group is almost like family to me because I've been here so long I feel like I know you all even though I've only personally met a few. I'll never forget to support, prayers and well wishes that I've gotten here recently. Thank you all so much and God bless you all!
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