Captains log: Earth Date 05012021
This is where it all began for this journey. Earlier this year I started experience a coughing problem while eating. I though I might have an allergy to a certain food. The coughing was not bad, but at times I could cough for like 5 minutes. Breathing was good but I was pretty tired after. I also started to notice but I did not put the two together that I was more fatigued more often every day and I was moving more slowly or out of breath.
One Tuesday evening I was sitting down at the table, and I had not cough for days and we were having Tacos. As soon as I took a bite I started to cough. I narrowed it down after talking with my wife that is was a cheese allergy or something else. Oh, boy I thought I had nailed it down and put all the puzzle pieces together.
I made a doctors appointment. Now let me stop there for a sec. I moved to Michigan in 2019 and this is 2021 and I have yet to find or seek a General Doctor. After picking the same place as my wife I called and made an appointment.
This is where it got a little interesting. I show up on the day of my appointment and met with a doctor. First impressions, the staff was awesome, the doctor, well that person was a little cold if I must be honest here. (and no I will not name the place nor the doctors name here)
The doctor comes in the room after a nurse identified all my symptoms. First thing I am asked. What seems to be the problem. I stated and I quote: “I feel I have an allergy to cheese and when I eat it, I seem to cough.” The doctor looks down to the floor and then up to me and says this: “Don’t eat cheese!” Wait what? I am like are you kidding me. I did not like the answer so I asked if there was a pill or something that can be done. Again, the doc stated the same phrase, Don’t eat cheese.
At this point I was not happy with this answer. I asked the doc what else can be done, the suggestion was to talk to a surgeon. HOLD THE PHONE! I came in to discuss an issue and you want me to go see a surgeon. Um, NO!
We talked about this for a moment and it was agreed I would go see a surgeon for an upper and lower GI. Ok, now that make sense. Oh, now I am very excited…..NOT!
Pause that story for a moment and let me explain what I am referring to. Back when I was 40 I had a colonoscopy and I had some complications from that procedure after it was all done. Simply put I was just exhausted dehydrated. After I left the outpatient surgery center while my wife was driving I had a seizure and stopped breathing for a moment. By the time the ambulance got to our car and put me in the ambulance, they worked on me for 5-10 minutes before I was stable enough. And BOOM, I was right back in the hospital. Now you know why I was and still am scared to take go under and get another colonoscopy.
Back to the story.
I make an appointment with a surgeon. The day arrives and she made me feel very comfortable as well as her nurses and staff. The surgery exploration went well. Me waking up, not so much. Here we go again. Ok, so it was only like 30 minutes and I had a blip. A what? A blip. Yep, I was told I had a blip right when we started the procedure. So here I am in the recovery room and my wife can not be in there why they do 2 procedures to make sure my heart was good. Wait, what? So your telling me my heart had a blip? What the hell is that I ask. My heart skipped is all. Ok, so that’s not good? Nope they say and after a few tests, nothing and I was good to go. So it was just a blip. LOL
Once back in my waiting room are with my wife the docs comes in and tell us everything was good below and in my stomach. For a sec there I thought she was tell me I was perfect and nothing found, then she pulls out a photo collage and explains she saw something in my lower Esophagus and she took 3 biopsies. WHAT?
Now, my wife and I did not talk nor shared any info on what we saw. I knew and she knew from the pic it was not good. I figured it was cancer and 2 days later, the doc called:
Mark, I think your a man that needs to know ASAP and I chose not to have you come into the office to tell you the results.
You have cancer, more specific, Adenocarcinoma, cancer of the esophagus or more doctor terms, the correct description is, Esophageal Cancer. I most likely have it from years of Acid Reflux or GERD as it is call. Who knew….
That’s where this all began. This is where the results take me on a journey to save my life.
Till the next story, I leave you with this. GET CHECKED OUT!
#rockthetreatment
