The journey began near the end of December 2004, when I experienced pain. I immediately thought it was a pulled muscle after carrying my youngest child Matthew up to his bed. It was hard to sleep that particular night but I felt fine the next day. The next evening was a repeat of the day before. Matthew fell asleep and once again I carried him up the stairs to put him to bed. I experienced the pain from the previous night. I decided I was not lifting Matthew or anything else until the pain subsided.
Our trip home to Kentucky from Maryland seemed routine accept that I still had pain. I called my family doctor, Charles Arnett to make an appointment. He was on vacation but would see me on January 10, at 10:00 am. I explained my pain and shared what I thought it was, Dr. Arnett’s diagnosis was diverticulitis. He put me on an antibiotic called Levaquin for 7 days. Dr. Arnett also made an appointment for a prostrate exam with my urologist, Dr. Mark Swofford and an appointment with Dr. Grady Stephens to schedule a colonosocopy. Both of these appointments were on January 20 at 2:00 and 3:00 pm respectively.
The prostrate exam and PSA were negative for cancer and Dr. Swofford set up a follow up appointment for January 2006. Dr. Stephens agreed with Dr. Arnett’s diagnosis and gave me 7 more days of the same antibiotic. The follow up appointment a week later seemed to indicate everything was fine and we set February 21 as the date for the colonoscopy. Through a series of events, birthdays and vacations I had to change the date to March 8.
The colonoscopy was early on this Tuesday. I do not remember much accept waking up and being wheeled on a bed to X-Ray. I remember telling them I did not think I was supposed to have an X-Ray. The persons wheeling me in told me, “It is to see if it has spread.” I could not figure out what they were talking about. For some reason I thought it had something to do with peanut butter. They took chest X-Rays put me back on the bed and wheeled me downstairs where I was asked to get dressed Julie, my wife came in the room. She looked upset and I asked what was wrong. She said, “You have cancer.”
The next day an MRI was scheduled of my liver. It showed tumors in the liver.
March 16 was set for my colon surgery.
The surgery and 7 day hospital recovery went very well. Recovering at home in the following weeks went well. I met with Dr. Phillip DeSimone, an oncologist at the Markey Foundation, with the University of Kentucky. He referred me to Dr. Mohammed Mohiuddin who would do radiation on my bladder. The treatment plan was set. Chemotherapy every day for 14 days rest 14 and then on again. This will be oral medicine called Xeloda, along with IV’s
The radiation would begin on April 20 and continue 5 days a week for 6 weeks. We are staying in Lexington to eliminate traveling back and forth to Prestonsburg. We will try to travel home on weekends.
-Rev. Mark D. Walz