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What brought me to Stanford was a diagnosis
of *** cancer by my gastroenterologist who sent me to a local hospital. And they
confirmed the diagnosis and suggested that I have a colostomy bag placed and oh, by the
way, I may not survive." I was devastated. And I thought, "Maybe I need a second diagnosis."
The first time I went to Stanford, I looked like a man who had really been told in two
weeks we're going to take you out and hang you.
Dr. Welton did the ultrasound and he had this big broad smile on his face. And he said,
"If my suspicions are correct, you won't be getting a colostomy bag. You may end up with
radiation therapy if we're suspicious of the tumor."
We will have patients who come in and they've
been told that they have to have a permanent colostomy. They don't like that. They worry
about it, about the impact it will have on their life. So, we can then, offer those patients
different options.
The change from despair to optimism had a
precipitant, and the precipitant was going to Stanford and seeing, Dr. Welton .
They did the surgery right away, and then the news came back that I wouldn't be having
to return for surgery and that I could, proceed on with radiation.
He was doing fine for about two years, and
then developed evidence of metastatic disease was given chemotherapy and then, saw one of
our thoracic oncologists who did a resection.
That controlled the disease for some time. He then developed another nodule and he received
chemotherapy and then another resection so we've been able to control his disease all
this time. He's been back to work and is quite happy with his current quality of life.
Even though I have metastatic lesions in my
lungs, I don't walk around feeling like I've been given a death sentence. And I think that's
the biggest thing that I got from Stanford, and it's been a constant underlying theme
of my relationship with Stanford. They offered me hopeful solutions to a debilitating disease.
Colorectal cancer really has become in quite
a few patients, a disease that can be managed like a chronic disease so is not causing the
patients any problems, and they can live their life as if they don't have cancer.
I feel very comfortable trusting my doctors.
One of the things about my treatment at Stanford that they all talk to each other and they
push each other to come up with solutions.
There can be a decision making that is really
robust and sophisticated here with the multidisciplinary, thirty doctors in a room discussing the case,
and the group of us can come together and come to a consensus as what's the best approach
for this given patient.
My experience at Stanford gave me a tremendous
amount of hope and made me more appreciative of simple things. I don't take anything for
granted.
To go from a place where I was in such great amount of despair, and transforming that into
becoming hopeful, I needed some glimmer of hope. I was like, you know, a guy on a raft
in the ocean and the steamers are going by on the horizon and finally one of them stops
and starts flashing its lights at me. That's all you needed and then you can start paddling
towards it. That's spark of hope came from my first visit at Stanford.