Hey! How’s it goin’ eh? I’m finally back and am gonna try blogging “again” so, we’ll see how long it lasts. But yeah, I’m home now after spending a week in the hospital at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.
Note: I meant to post this in mid-2022 but just realized it didn’t post due to a server error and here I am a year later (mid-2023) re-posting the article so that I can do some more updates. So…. sorry about that. At least I also updated everyone on Twitter (X), Facebook, LinkedIn and on my podcasts back then so, no big deal I guess…. but for the sake of being consistent and keeping my life’s story / history in-line on this blog, I’ll try posting it again so I can move on with my other articles. Anywho…..on with the show:
It’s my third time battling cancer and I’m quite knackered and like I always say, I’m not a cat so, not sure how many lives I got left in me but, hopefully I got at least one left.
Back in late 2021 and 90 days after being declared NED (No Evidence of Disease), my labs and scans came back bad (rather than good/clear/clean) and revealed a NEW tumor growing at a very fast clip in my right lung.
My oncology team decided to take the most non-evasive route this time with a targeted radiation type of procedure and more chemo that would (in theory) kill the tumor but leave it in the lung and hope the bed it sat in wouldn’t spawn new tumors.
So I scheduled a second opinion and surgical consult appointment at the Mayo Clinic and they disagreed with Park Nicollet (chemo and spot radiation – x3 sessions) and recommended immediate surgery to remove the tumor and it’s bed.
So…. once again I had to prepare myself to battle ALL over again. But because the tumor was way smaller than the previous one (that led to the partial lung removal) they wouldn’t have to take half the lung this time, only a “wedge” as well as the tumor and the “bed” it sat in (so that it wouldn’t spawn new tumors).
So after the biopsy tho, I didn’t have to do the pre-op chemo and radiation since I didn’t need to shrink it, only prevent it from spreading any further. Whew!!
The Journey to Mayo
So after taking care of everything and getting all my “affairs” in order (ie: bank, bills, business stuff, life insurance, etc etc etc….. I readied myself for surgery which was scheduled for April 19th. I also had to do all my pre-op tasks such as covid test, EKGs blood labs, updated scans etc.
After all that, I checked in at Mayo and they got me prepped and ready to rock in the OR. I was told by the surgeon they’d take care of me (meds etc) while in the hospital …I just needed to update my info, complete all the pre-surgical paperwork, provide an updated med list etc and off to sleep I went.
When woke up, I was (naturally) in a shit-ton of pain and told they got the tumor and the bed it was nestled in (so it wouldn’t spawn new tumors) but although I had my own room and was made as comfortable as possible, they couldn’t get control of the pain (gee big surprise).
Now, recall I had to provide an updated med list which (btw) clearly showed my pain meds along with dosage (mg) and schedule. So, what I didn’t know (at the time) was that they completely ignored that and gave me what they (the surgeon / anesthesiologist) thought I needed which (as it turned out) was more than half LESS than my regular (daily) pain medication so not only did I have to suffer though the pain of previous surgeries, massive nerve damage (neuropathy) and the pain of having your chest ripped open and having my lung cut in half and pulled out etc) but nothing to address the current surgery or related break through pain.
So…. basically I was in excruciating pain for my week long stay in St Mary’s Hospital which caused me to focus on pain constantly / non-stop rather than healing, eating, wound care etc .
After finally being discharged on Friday (4/22) I made the hour and a half long drive (feeling every bump) home where I struggled to manage the pain with what they sent me home with (again, half my regular dose) so I finally researched what they sent me home with vs my regular stuff. What I learned, shocked me and pissed me off to no end.
What I found was that their drug and my drug was one (1) oxygen atom different. So basically/technically they were the same thing. I then called the Walgreens pharmacist and the May Clinic pharmacist and asked what the difference was between the Mayo drug and my drug and they BOTH stated that they were, yeah, the same thing except that mine “included” acetaminophen / Tylenol but the that they are considered “cousins” or the same thing plus/minus an oxygen atom.
So mayo was giving me / sent me home with, 5mg tablets with instructions to do the same thing they did in the hospital ….take two 5mg tablets every 4 hours as needed for pain. My regular pain meds were two 10mg tablets every 4 hours as needed for my chronic pain (again, from all the surgeries, chemo induced neuropathy, etc etc etc) so I took 20mg per dose and they gave me half that at 10mg.
So I immediately went back to taking my regular, every day dose and within twenty (20) minutes, I was completely pain-free. I could stand, talk, walk, and if asked, I could run jump and do cartwheels since I had absolutely NO pain.
So Mayo purposely made me suffer in excruciating post-op pain for a week for NO reason (or at least, no reason told to me) at all. Who does that?? Why would you make a terminal cancer patient fresh out of surgery suffer needlessly in excruciating pain?
Well, yes, I told them I was in terrible pain but they simply told me to tough it out and if I needed anything “extra” they could do Tylenol and or Toradol (a non-narcotic pain med) which I did try but they took it away, right away, cuz I wasn’t peeing on a regular basis ……didn’t help resolve the pain anyway.
So now I’m in NO pain and healing nicely at the hands of my super wife. We have an adjustable bed (kinda like a hospital bed – only way nicer), master bathroom (for quick – easy access) and a cane & walker for exercise
So now that I’m done with battling cancer (for a third time) I guess I’m in (pending the results of my labs and scans of course) full remission. I really hope the third times a charm since I highly doubt I can battle a fourth or fifth time (I will if I have to but….) so anywho, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I will do my six month follow up in Sept (2022) and year-end follow ups (MRI, CTs, Blood Labs, etc) in Dec (2022) and hopefully I’ll be classified NED (No Evidence of Disease) and in remission. I’ll keep ya all posted. Cheers! ~JR