Cancer scare- need to vent

[Fritzo]

Hi all. Long-timers may have noticed I haven't been around the last several months, and that's mostly due to a new job that's proving to be interesting, challenging, and actually making me happy. Life has actually be good for the last couple of years, until...

I've been having a problem with GERD (which is like acid reflux on steroids). I constantly have an acidic stomach, and if I eat dense foods often I'd get severe hicups and end up regurgitating what I ate. As long as I took acid-reducers every day, everything was fine. After living with things for a couple of years, I decided to have things checked out.

They stuck a scope down my throat, and yep- I have GERD. But that didn't concern the doctor...the large golfball sized growth right past my stomach did. They scheduled me for a biopsy and ultrasound, and that will be happening tomorrow morning (5/10/17) at 11am ET.

In the meantime, I've been Googling everything I can find that resembles the picture I was given...and it doesn't look good. Even if it's a benign tumor, treatments seem to involve removing part of the bowel and intestine...possibly even part of the liver and pancreas.

I'm 46, have never had any kind of surgery or procedure in my life, have never been seriously ill, I don't smoke, I don't drink excessively, and keep fit. I have no symptoms of cancer, no history, yet...there it is. On top of this, since I just started a new job recently, I don't have much sick or vacation time. It's just not a good situation all around.

I'm not scared for me so much as my family. My wife has had a lot of medical issues over the last 15 years and, while much improved now, greatly depends on me. My son is about to start college and we need my income for his education. Things like this aren't supposed to hit until you're older. Leave it to me to break the rules...

Sorry. Just needed to get some thoughts out.

5/11/17 UPDATE: Well, the scoping and biopsy went well. Was a little groggy all day from the anesthesia, and throat's a bit sore (Props to porn stars! They're troopers!), but I'm back at work today. The Dr. is 90-95% sure I have what's called a "gist"- which is a type of cancerous tumor and it's partially blocking my esophagus. Originally my daughter told me it was just past my stomach (I was out the first time, so she misheard), so this is a whole new ballgame. A gist is a rare form of cancer caused by a genetic defect. The good news is it usually doesn't spread, and it's one of those "cut it out and it's gone" type of cancers. The bad news is it's pretty rare (only 5000 cases per year are reported in the US), and it takes a special surgeon to remove them because they're filled with blood vessels and can't be "popped", so I'm most likely going to have to travel for surgery. They'll most likely cut out part of my stomach and stitch it to my esophagus (bonus side effect- free weight loss surgery!).

So, tldr: I have cancer, but it's a sissy cancer and can be surgically removed with little to no lasting effects. I'm getting a consultation May 23rd and will schedule surgery after that.

I actually felt better after reading some of the comments here, and it really calmed be down. Thanks everyone!

Update 5/17/17:


UPDATE 6/23/17:

Surgery scheduled for 6/26 at 10:30. Expected 4 day hospital stay. I've never been in bed that long (hell- I have a hard time sitting still to watch a 30 minute TV show). This has the potential to suck. I'll live post from my bed if able

UPDATE: 6/29/17:

I had surgery Monday, and was able to come home yesterday afternoon to heal because I have super-human recovery abilities or something. Got six incisions in my gut with a drainage tube sticking out of one of them (pics on request! ), and other than being in a lot of pain I think everything came out pretty well. Stuck on a liquid diet for two weeks though. Great way to lose weight!

FINAL (?) UPDATE 7/12/17:

I've mostly healed from the incisions, but still had a JP tube sticking out of my side, and I had that removed yesterday. This procedure was, by far, the MOST PAINFUL THING I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE.

For those that don't know, a JP tube is a long tube they leave in a deep puncture-type incision that allows it to drain. The liquids are sucked into a "bulb" at the end of the tube, while the other end reached all the way to my stomach. I had this in for two weeks, and by this time scar tissue started forming around it. It was about 10" into my right side, and the only way to remove it is to rip it out. I can take a lot of pain, but the amount of screaming I did sounded like someone getting their leg sawed off on a battlefield...never felt anything like that in my life, and it lasted nearly two minutes. Best description:

- Having to hold explosive diarrhea
- ...while having your skin peeled away from your body
- ...while having a red-hot ice pick jabbed into your gut
- ...while hearing the sound of uncooked pasta snapping

It is a teaching hospital, so the doctor had one of the new residences start pulling it out. My legs were flailing in the air and I was screaming so loud it was freaking him out, so he kept doing gentle pulls and wussed out. The main Dr. had to step in and finish it, and just did a big yank, at which time I nearly passed out. One star- would not recommend.

After about 5 minutes to regain my composure, they put a bandage on the wound, and asked if I was still on a liquid diet. I replied "yes" (lost 15 lbs!), and I was told to go back to a normal diet. YES!

Started feeling hungry around 7PM, so I drove 30 minutes to my favorite pizza place, and experienced what Heaven must fell like. I'M BACK BABY! (Could only eat one piece though )

Now to go back to low carb/high protein and get my abs back

 

[NoCreativity]

Hope everything goes well for you. Keeping you in my thoughts.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Man, I'm very sorry to hear that. Hope they can remove it fairly easily and that you recover quickly.

Best thing you can do is keep a positive outlook and fight this. Get the best doctors you can. You're still young, you can beat this.

 

[JoeBleed]

best of luck Fritzo. Stay off of google, though it's already way too late. Google treatment options once diagnosed. googling symptoms seems to go bad for most people. myself included.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Hi all. Long-timers may have noticed I haven't been around the last several months, and that's mostly due to a new job that's proving to be interesting, challenging, and actually making me happy. Life has actually be good for the last couple of years, until...

I've been having a problem with GERD (which is like acid reflux on steroids). I constantly have an acidic stomach, and if I eat dense foods often I'd get severe hicups and end up regurgitating what I ate. As long as I took acid-reducers every day, everything was fine. After living with things for a couple of years, I decided to have things checked out.

They stuck a scope down my throat, and yep- I have GERD. But that didn't concern the doctor...the large golfball sized growth right past my stomach did. They scheduled me for a biopsy and ultrasound, and that will be happening tomorrow morning (5/10/17) at 11am ET.

In the meantime, I've been Googling everything I can find that resembles the picture I was given...and it doesn't look good. Even if it's a benign tumor, treatments seem to involve removing part of the bowel and intestine...possibly even part of the liver and pancreas.

I'm 46, have never had any kind of surgery or procedure in my life, have never been seriously ill, I don't smoke, I don't drink excessively, and keep fit. I have no symptoms of cancer, no history, yet...there it is. On top of this, since I just started a new job recently, I don't have much sick or vacation time. It's just not a good situation all around.

I'm not scared for me so much as my family. My wife has had a lot of medical issues over the last 15 years and, while much improved now, greatly depends on me. My son is about to start college and we need my income for his education. Things like this aren't supposed to hit until you're older. Leave it to me to break the rules...

Sorry. Just needed to get some thoughts out.

To start, I'm just some swinging dick on the internet so don't take what I say as gospel or too seriously.

Sorry to hear about your complications/possible future complications, but for one, be careful with self diagnosis, especially 'what horrifying things look like x' because everything leads back to brain cancer. Let the docs do their things. For two, surgeries removing bits inside aren't terribly uncommon as you get older, try not to sweat that too much.

The GERD thing though, do you actually have a diagnosed failing/non-functional sphincter muscle at the top of your stomach/bottom of esophagus? I've fought with acid reflux/heartburn for the better part of a decade and am finally getting a handle on it myself (primarily by dropping a shitton of weight) and based on what I've learned and experienced, acid reduction is *not* the way to go. Your stomach is supposed to have acid, and taking tums/omeprazole every day is gonna do more harm than good.

This is a fairly long read (set of reads really, it's like part 1-6) but I implore you to check it out if you're interested in halting the GERD/heartburn issues:
https://chriskresser.com/what-everybody-ought-to-know-but-doesnt-about-heartburn-gerd/
https://chriskresser.com/the-hidden-causes-of-heartburn-and-gerd/
https://chriskresser.com/more-evide...-that-gerd-is-caused-by-bacterial-overgrowth/
https://chriskresser.com/how-your-antacid-drug-is-making-you-sick-part-a/
https://chriskresser.com/how-your-antacid-drug-is-making-you-sick-part-b/
https://chriskresser.com/get-rid-of-heartburn-and-gerd-forever-in-three-simple-steps/
Note: I am not an 'anti-drug'/'down with big pharma' guy (even if I have issues with each), and this guy lays it on a bit thick in part one. Work past the hippy garbage and read what he's proposing though, and there's some logic behind it.

 

[Platypus]

Shit, sorry Fritzo, best of luck with everything.

I can't really make you feel better, but I can definitely help to not make you feel worse... don't try to diagnose yourself via Google. It can only end in misery.

Try to keep in positive spirits about the whole thing and wait until you get more information from professionals. Even if it's cancerous, that doesn't automatically mean game over. I've had lots of people in my family with cancers that have battled back and came out ahead. Keep your head up and wait for more information, in the meantime, go do something calming with your family and just relax the best you can.

 

[slag]

Fritzo,

Everything will work out. It's a growth that hopefully is located in one place. With treatment, these things can be taken care of and you will get back to doing the things you normally do.

You got this.

Slag

 

[sandorski]

Another Vote-- for Self Diagnosis

In the last few years I have had numerous things wrong, minor things, but all had "possible" Cancer connections. Let the Docs determine that.

 

[Geekbabe]

Fritzo, take it from a cancer patient. It ain't cancer till the biopsy says it is. Google is not your friend at 3am when you are scared out of your mind. Google told me to write my will in Dec of 2014, said I would be gone in under a year I am still here, alive & working!

I have GERD & one helluva hiatal hernia, lot of stuff can go on down there! Get the biopsy, take a deep breath & walk this road one foot at a time. Ask your doctor for some sedatives to help you sleep through this process.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Best of luck to you. I'm sorry you have to go through this, but here's to benign tumors.

And hey, if you lose a bunch of weight after intestinal surgery, you'll look better naked.

 

[lxskllr]

Not much to say except "good luck", and seconding what everyone else is saying about self diagnosis. It isn't anything til it is, and you'll deal with it when the time comes. There's nothing to gain by getting stressed out over something you don't know the name of yet, and some research and anecdotes say it can negatively affect you. Just keep going until you don't, and try to stay positive :^)

 

[SketchMaster]

I know all too well what you're going through, but I want to tell you that you shouldn't give up hope.

My mother suffered from GERD most of her adult life. Without going into the (very long) story, she was dealing with the stress of raising 8 kids and taking care of my father who suffered head trauma from a car accident ~13 years from the point she started getting sick.

At first, she could treat it with diet and some Tums, but soon she was vomiting up most of what she ate and had heartburn 24x7. Skipping past a few ER visits and dangerous weight loss, on her third trip to the hospital an ER doctor told his staff, "This woman is not leaving until I know what's going on.". They scoped her stomach and found that 1/3 of it was covered in scar tissue and growths that were blocking food from leaving her stomach; the C word got tossed around a lot while we waited for the biopsy results.

Thankfully, it was all benign. That still left them with the issue of the growths blocking food from moving. They ended up removing the lower third of her stomach and pretty much made a straight shot from her stomach to her duodenum and onto the small intestines. Here's the good news: While the recovery from that operation was painful, and mom lived on a liquid diet for weeks, she fully recovered. In fact, her diet didn't change much after that, she could still eat pretty much whatever she wanted and quickly got back to a healthy weight.

This is no doubt scary, but there is still a very good chance that you'll make it through this with very little lifestyle change.

Best of luck!

 

[BudAshes]

Just make sure you get a second and third opinion before you do anything drastic. Doctors make more mistakes than any other profession outside of politicians.

 

[renz20003]

Hi all. Long-timers may have noticed I haven't been around the last several months, and that's mostly due to a new job that's proving to be interesting, challenging, and actually making me happy. Life has actually be good for the last couple of years, until...

I've been having a problem with GERD (which is like acid reflux on steroids). I constantly have an acidic stomach, and if I eat dense foods often I'd get severe hicups and end up regurgitating what I ate. As long as I took acid-reducers every day, everything was fine. After living with things for a couple of years, I decided to have things checked out.

They stuck a scope down my throat, and yep- I have GERD. But that didn't concern the doctor...the large golfball sized growth right past my stomach did. They scheduled me for a biopsy and ultrasound, and that will be happening tomorrow morning (5/10/17) at 11am ET.

In the meantime, I've been Googling everything I can find that resembles the picture I was given...and it doesn't look good. Even if it's a benign tumor, treatments seem to involve removing part of the bowel and intestine...possibly even part of the liver and pancreas.

I'm 46, have never had any kind of surgery or procedure in my life, have never been seriously ill, I don't smoke, I don't drink excessively, and keep fit. I have no symptoms of cancer, no history, yet...there it is. On top of this, since I just started a new job recently, I don't have much sick or vacation time. It's just not a good situation all around.

I'm not scared for me so much as my family. My wife has had a lot of medical issues over the last 15 years and, while much improved now, greatly depends on me. My son is about to start college and we need my income for his education. Things like this aren't supposed to hit until you're older. Leave it to me to break the rules...

Sorry. Just needed to get some thoughts out.

Best of luck guy

 

[Rubycon]

Wow, hope this works out and wish you well recovering from this.

 

[allisolm]

Here's hoping for a great outcome. Please keep us updated when you can. We'll all be sending lots of positive thoughts your way.

 

[deustroop]

It's good to vent, keep that ongoing. Lots of trouble is self imposed but verbal discharge helps. The rest of it is out of your hands . Good luck.

 

[PricklyPete]

Sorrr to hear that Fritzo. Definitely wait till the Dr. diagnosis before worrying too much...but I understand your fear for your family. Best of luck! Hope it is benign and they are able to help your stomach situation.

 

[Exterous]

Hopefully everything turns out ok for you!

 

[msi1337]

wishing you a good outcome and praying for health in your family!

 

[Scarpozzi]

You're in my thoughts and prayers buddy. Sending good vibes your way.

Just take it a day at a time and don't read stuff online....WebMD is crap according to my wife. Definitely get a second opinion if you get a bad feeling about any of the doctors you talk to.

 

[slightlyhuman]

best of luck Fritzo. i don't post much these days but saw this thread. really hoping it's good news <3

-dp

 

[Capt Caveman]

Good to hear from your Fritzo and I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. Good luck today! Hoping it's benign and it doesn't need the extensive surgery that you listed.

 

[LPCTech]

Im 38. It all started when I was 23. I have the most serious bowel disease you can have that isnt cancer. I have had 2 major surgeries to remove parts of the bowel. I have had 12 colonoscopies and my 13th will be soon. I have to take 5 pills a day minimum for the rest of my life.
Medical problems are donkey balls.

good luck.

 

[x26]

Hi all. Long-timers may have noticed I haven't been around the last several months, and that's mostly due to a new job that's proving to be interesting, challenging, and actually making me happy. Life has actually be good for the last couple of years, until...

I've been having a problem with GERD (which is like acid reflux on steroids). I constantly have an acidic stomach, and if I eat dense foods often I'd get severe hicups and end up regurgitating what I ate. As long as I took acid-reducers every day, everything was fine. After living with things for a couple of years, I decided to have things checked out.

They stuck a scope down my throat, and yep- I have GERD. But that didn't concern the doctor...the large golfball sized growth right past my stomach did. They scheduled me for a biopsy and ultrasound, and that will be happening tomorrow morning (5/10/17) at 11am ET.

In the meantime, I've been Googling everything I can find that resembles the picture I was given...and it doesn't look good. Even if it's a benign tumor, treatments seem to involve removing part of the bowel and intestine...possibly even part of the liver and pancreas.

I'm 46, have never had any kind of surgery or procedure in my life, have never been seriously ill, I don't smoke, I don't drink excessively, and keep fit. I have no symptoms of cancer, no history, yet...there it is. On top of this, since I just started a new job recently, I don't have much sick or vacation time. It's just not a good situation all around.

I'm not scared for me so much as my family. My wife has had a lot of medical issues over the last 15 years and, while much improved now, greatly depends on me. My son is about to start college and we need my income for his education. Things like this aren't supposed to hit until you're older. Leave it to me to break the rules...

Sorry. Just needed to get some thoughts out.

Positive Vibes sent your Way!!