Bill's experience with multiple cancers

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Username: billl

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My name is Bill, and my story is simple, yet not just as simple as being diagnosed with cancer. You see, I have had cancer surgery three times. Yes, three times, and now I live with inoperable cancer. What makes my story a little different is twofold. I will explain, or at least try to.

All three were discovered due to other ailments that I was experiencing at that particular time in my life. My first visit was in 1980. I noticed that I was passing blood in my stool. I called the doctor about it. Long story short, on MY insistence I forced him to put me in a hospital. On HIS insistence he decided I should stay and get a complete physical because I hadn't had one in 25 years and I was in my 40's. So they started. The following day, Saturday, he came in and performed proctology and what I'd done was ruptured a hemorrhoid. However, ten days later, after all kinds of testing, they found out that I had a malignant tumor in my right kidney. I had had no problem with, first of all, with the hemorrhoid. I had had no problem with my kidney. However, they did remove my right kidney. So, it goes to tell you, you can live with one kidney because that was like 21 years ago.

Then in 1989 my wife and I decided to get my knees fixed. I had been suffering with bad knees for some time. In the process of the pre-op physical, they found my hemoglobin was 7.4. They proceeded to do CAT scans, etc. One of the exams they wanted me to do whatever it is where they go up inside your rectum and check. They discovered that I had colon cancer--another surgery to remove about 14 inches of my colon.

Then this year in January, I finally got to my knees again. We decided to only do one knee, so we picked the right one. This went just great. However, while I was recuperating from the surgery a lump developed in the left side of my neck. After more tests, it would be decided that I had a tumor of lymph node growing in the area of my jugular vein. They proceeded to remove it. However, there was another one on the right side. If and when it starts to grow, I am a goner. It is inoperable due to it being attached to the jugular vein on the right side. You can live with one jugular, but you have to have at least one.

So now, my wife and I and my family just wait for the other one to start growing, and that brings me up to the big part. Without the support group of my wife and my family, and if I'd had to do this just inside of myself because I was enclosed, I don't think I could have handled this for twenty years. And remember, it's been twenty years. And now, I'm sitting here knowing that this one is going to take me, but I still have the great support group. Through this support group I will be all right, whether it's three months, three years, or whatever.

Taking the option of quality of life vs. quantity

Through all of this the one conclusion that I've drawn is the support group around you is as important or more important than the doctor. The doctors diagnosed my last tumor on my neck and they wanted me to do radiation and chemotherapy. The chemo would have possibly--and "possibly" is the word, because there are no sure cures in cancer--possibly would retard the growth. They wanted me to do radiation, which would possibly get rid of, remember again, just like a 20% chance it would have. The process of doing that, after discussing with my wife and I went to the Cancer Center and got information on the treatment. Through the treatment I would have lost my salivary glands, my taste glands, and I would have probably--I wear false teeth, I would not have been able to wear false teeth because I would develop sores in my mouth. So at that time, with my wife and my support group, we decided to take the option of quality of life instead of quantity.

And so, with my wife and my family behind me, I have opted not to do either treatment with the percentage rate so low to cure it, but the percentage rate of having no quality thereafter was much greater. So that's where we sit, and my only suggestion is when you get diagnosed, do not get scared. You know, you don't know driving down the freeway when you're going to get hit by a truck, so you can't be scared every time you get on the freeway. But when the doctor tells you that, you need to investigate all the possibilities and get all the truth. It's not that they don't mean to give it to you; they just don't go into complete explanation of the whole thing. And also pray to God an awful lot, that's the best advice I can give you. The one thing that I've got through my wife, and not because of her insistence, because of her much better intelligence, I now have a better relationship with God. And what it's done, I'm at peace with myself. I'm not going to sit here and blame everybody else, and I'm not going to blame God, because some people think sin is a creation of ailments. I don't believe that. I just believe that--I believe in my God and I pray to God, and I know He's on my side and He's on my family's side. So I have developed a peace within myself, and that's probably the most important thing, because I'm not afraid to drive down the freeway. I can't do that.

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