My Health Journey

The past 5 months have been an experience I never imagined I would go through!

In April, I had a sore on my tongue that wasn't healing. It had been in my mouth, unhealed, since the previous November or December.

Yet I simply dealt with the pain and discomfort, since it was fairly minor.

Until it turned into a small growth the beginning of May. That was more discomfort and pain, but I could handle it.

I had it inspected by my dentist and an oral surgeon in June, which led to meeting with an ENT doctor. He ordered a biopsy surgery right away, not liking the look of it. It had been growing in that month, and was becoming more painful and uncomfortable to talk.

I ate less food because of the discomfort, and I started to get a suspicion that this was not a normal thing my body was dealing with.

The results of the biopsy showed cancer in my tongue, and in my neck.

The Questions

What?! How did I end up with cancer?!

I'm healthy, right?

I workout. I eat right most of the time. I drink plenty of water. I don't smoke. I rarely drink.

While I don't feel invincible anymore, and I know I won't live forever, how did this happen?

All of the questions rolled in.

What's next?

What does treatment look like?

How do we deal with this?

How will our kids handle this?

How will my wife and I handle this?

I mean ALL of the questions rolled in.

We were recommended to get to the James Cancer Center in Columbus, Ohio as quickly as we could. So a week after getting out of the hospital, we were meeting with an ENT who specializes in head and neck cancer.

He recommended surgery to remove the cancer, and then another ENT doctor would reconstruct what was left of my tongue with tissue from my forearm.

My head was swirling with all of the details.

Wasn't there a natural way to make the tumors shrink so we could avoid such an invasive surgery?

Wasn't there another option?

We searched.

We read.

We prayed.

We asked questions.

The closer we got to the surgery date, which was one month after the biopsy surgery, we were not finding alternative options to the surgery.

We soon had a growing peace about it, actually.

Knowing we were about to pursue the best option to remove the cancer from my body gave us peace.

Sure, I was about to embark on the toughest journey of my life, but I was at peace.

I was not alone.

I was not afraid.

I made the decision to move forward with it.

The Surgery

The crazy thing is that I didn't meet the doctor doing the reconstruction until 30 minutes before surgery. The good news was that we loved him!

I now had two doctors who I trusted doing the surgery.

I kissed my wife goodbye as she walked back to the waiting room and I was wheeled to the operating room. My mind never saw the OR, only about another 20 feet of the hallway.

The next thing I remember was waking up after surgery as they pulled out the initial feeding tube to make sure it went to my stomach and not my lungs.

It was uncomfortable, but didn't hurt because of the pain meds still coursing through my body.

I was very groggy as they took me to the room I would spend the next week of my life in.

I was mostly numb, unable to feel my mouth, my forearm, and my thigh.

They ended up removing half of my tongue. They were able to cut away and test each section until each one came back negative for cancer cells.

Then doctor #2 began removing tissue from my forearm, and he attached it to my tongue. Then he removed a layer of skin from my thigh and covered the area on my forearm so that it would heal more quickly than the large open wound would.

Learning to Breathe

The hardest part of the process at this point was learning to breathe through the tracheostomy in my neck. Because my tongue was swelling from the surgery, it would become difficult to breathe through my nose and mouth as I had for 39 years. My throat had swelled too, which would make breathing difficult.

They knew this from other surgeries, so I knew I would have this when I woke up.

But it still wasn't easy.

Thankfully I had been practicing breathing for a few years, learning to control my breaths and focus on what my body needed in those quiet minutes.

And boy did that training come in handy!

Because of the swelling and because of the phlegm that would move around my head and neck, my trach would get clogged at times. Unfortunately, most of those hard-to-breathe times were in the middle of the night.

The nurse would have to come in and suction out the trach while I coughed.

Thinking back to that experience reminds me of the pain of that process.

But how many times do we have to experience a little discomfort in the short term so that we can experience comfort for the long term?

Once I would cough it clear and the nurse would suction the junk out of the tube, I could breathe slowly and deeply once again!

Healing is an interesting thing.

Up to this point in my life, I had healed fairly quickly. My sore tongue had been the first time I had not healed in days from an incident.

Now as I lay in bed most days, slowly walking the halls, getting all of my sustenance and nutrition through a tube in my nose, I didn't feel like I was healing very quickly.

It felt slow, and I didn't like it.

Yet the reality was that my body was healing quickly.

On day 5, they removed the trach and put in a smaller one, which made breathing so much easier. Usually they leave the cap off it for 24 hours, to ensure I handle it ok. Then they cap it for 24 hours to allow me to experiment with talking. But the nurses gave me the cap right away and I began talking that same day.

The next day, they removed it completely because my oxygen levels were still at 100% in my blood! The next day when they looked at the spot where the trach had been, it was completely sealed over! Within hours!!!

So while my whole body was not quick to heal and recover, my body was making massive strides towards healing.

Today, 5 1/2 weeks after surgery, my body is still healing. I see improvements in my arm and my leg and my tongue each week. While there's still part of me that wishes I would see something change every single day, I can see improvements every 4 days.

The skin graft on my forearm has sealed over and looks like skin again. There are only three spots that will take a little longer to heal up, but it's looking so good at this point.

My range of motion will take time to come back, but I can feel my arm getting stronger again already. I cannot extend my hand back to do a pushup like I normally did, but I can make a fist and do pushups. So I started that last week.

My leg is nearly healed from where the skin graft was taken. For the first two weeks being home, I laid around in my underwear all day, with the area smeared with salve so it could begin healing. Eventually I could cover it and go out in public without feeling weird.

Now, two spots on the area itch, but it's healing well.

My tongue is gaining mobility. It took a week or two to learn how to swallow and chew and eat, but I ate some steak this past weekend without issue. Next is to begin eating salads again to get the good greens in my body that way.

I have had more smoothies and soups in the last 5 1/2 weeks than I probably had in the last few years combined! But they've been good, and it's been what my body needed.

I was given some exercises a few weeks ago to begin strengthening the tongue to help improve my speech. The stitches have held the new skin in place and it has healed together well. Now I can stretch it and learn to enunciate the difficult letters, like L, N, R, G, T, S, and D.

I can be understood most of the time, but I have to mentally slow down as I talk at times, so that I speak clearly.

Decision Time

Last week, we made a big decision.

The doctors at The James recommended chemo and radiation treatment to help ensure the cancer was completely gone and would not return.

While we felt like most of the doctors cared for me, we didn't feel like they were customizing the treatment for me. It felt general and just like a standard protocol without looking at root causes to ensure my lifestyle wouldn't cause the cancer to return.

But we had been looking into our options in this area.

We met with a doctor in Georgia, who doesn't treat cancer or treat any specific diseases. Instead, he specializes in helping patients heal from chronic illness. He has helped a variety of individuals heal from issues they have had for years.

How he does this is by diving into their health history, their family history, and their environment. He may run tests to see what the body is showing as far as toxins or pH level or mineral deficiencies.

Based on what he finds, he may recommend a diet change or a lifestyle change to help the body experience the healing it needs.

I am currently waiting for the various test results to be completed before we have a follow up with him to learn what his recommended protocol will be for the next few months. Healing will not happen overnight. There is no quick fix when it comes to healing our bodies.

I am committed for the long run, which is why we chose to not pursue the chemo and radiation route. Not because this doctor is treating me for cancer in a natural way. But because he is guiding me to help my body heal and be able to cleanse itself of any disease moving forward, ideally.

Of course, we can't predict exactly what the results will show or what my body will do, but we are going to do our best to support my body in the ways we can.

Closing Thoughts

Here's what I want to leave you with today:

Your habits will make you or break you.

Your habit of consistent exercise will train you to stretch yourself and make your body stronger.

Your habit of eating the right foods will fuel your body to perform what needs done.

Your habit of drinking may slowly eat away at your body, tearing it down in ways you cannot see.

Your habit of reaching for the chocolate when you're stressed is training your mind to cope in unhealthy ways.

Your habits will make you or break you.

It really is that simple.

It really is that blunt of a reality.

Choose wisely!