2010 has not started out as a normal 24 year old, like myself, would like it to. \u00a0Being young you think that nothing bad can ever happen to you. \u00a0You are on top of the world. King of the Mountain. \u00a0Anytime you get sick, you play it off as you are just sick. \u00a0You might sleep a little more or take some Tylenol Cold and vuala you are all better. I would never get worried unless I was vomiting all over the place or something like that. \u00a0Being young you do not really worry about being sick and ill. \u00a0Well on January 12 of 2010, I got diagnosed with some rare form of Cancer in my Parotid Gland. \u00a0Let me tell the whole story up to this point.<\/p>\n
During the last week of August, I noticed a small lump behind my ear. \u00a0I did not think it was anything of importance. \u00a0It did not hurt at all, so I just assumed it was some kind of swelling of one of my glands when you get sick. Nothing to worry about. \u00a0I went to a local doctor in Thailand and they thought I had an impacted ear with the wax. \u00a0All righty then I thought to myself. \u00a0I got some drops for the ear wax and all was well. \u00a0A couple months went by, but the lump was still there. \u00a0This time it really started to bother my ear. \u00a0My ear was in a lot of pain. \u00a0I had to take a ton of tylenol to feel good. \u00a0I could not sleep on the right side of my face because I was in too much pain. \u00a0I went into Bangkok to go to an ENT doctor. \u00a0(Ears, Nose and Throat). \u00a0I told him the story and he took a needle biopsy and a CT scan of the lump to see what the deal is. \u00a0The doc told me to come back in a week to see the results. \u00a0Next week we went into Bangkok to go back to the hospital. \u00a0Now, the CT scan showed that my parotid gland on my right side was enlarged. \u00a0The needle biopsy showed irregular nuclei with pleomorphic cells or something like that.<\/p>\n
Here is a little breakdown of my hospital bills in Thailand:<\/strong><\/p>\n Supamitr Hospital is located in Suphanburi where I was living. \u00a0I went here twice. \u00a01,265 Baht which is around 39 US dollars. \u00a0This accounted for me seeing the doctor and getting some prescription medicine.<\/p>\n The Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital is located in Bangkok. \u00a0I went here twice. \u00a06,300 Baht which is around 192 US dollars. \u00a05,500 Baht of this bill was for the CT Scan I got done there. \u00a05,500 Baht is about 168 US dollars. \u00a0Lets just say that a CT Scan in America is more than 1,000 bucks. \u00a0Its crazy to compare the costs of CT scans in Thailand to America.<\/p>\n The last hospital I went to is the hospital that the King of Thailand goes to. \u00a0Siriraj Hospital. \u00a01,535 Baht which is around 47 US dollars. \u00a0This was for seeing the doctor and some prescription medicine.<\/p>\n I did not need insurance to go to these hospitals. \u00a0I just walked right up to the hospital and got treated. \u00a0Also, you are able to buy your meds right there at the hospital instead of driving to another place to get them. \u00a0Now, the hospital in Suphanburi was not too great and the doctors could not speak that good of English. \u00a0The hospitals in Bangkok are way much better and those doctors could speak English and could be understood.<\/p>\n :End of hospital costs rant:<\/strong><\/p>\n The doc told us to get a second opinion. \u00a0This is when I called up my parents and told them what the deal was. \u00a0I gave them all the information. \u00a0My mom got on the horn with her doctor friends and luckily she knows a doctor who is Thai, who happened to be in Thailand at the time of all this. \u00a0This Thai doctor called me up and gave me a name of a Thai doctor he knows. \u00a0All you have to know is that he hooked me up. \u00a0I went to the hospital that his friend was at. We went up and talked to him. \u00a0This guy spoke really good English. \u00a0He pretty much said that this tumor needs to come out with surgery. \u00a0OK! This is great news. \u00a0I am all the way in Thailand and this thing in my neck needs to be taken out. \u00a0On Christmas weekend, I was in sooo much pain. \u00a0I wasn’t sleeping. \u00a0The whole side of my neck was just stiff and in pain. \u00a0I could not do anything. \u00a0I was in such bad shape that I was looking at plane flights back home. \u00a0I talked to Anna about this whole situation and I said that I needed to go home. \u00a0I could not live like this anymore. \u00a0If we wanted to backpack SE Asia in March, this tumor needs to be taken out.<\/p>\n I flew home on December 30th and got home on the same day. \u00a0It is pretty crazy flying back in time \u00a0and you don’t lose any time essentially. \u00a0Really weird. \u00a0I got home. \u00a0It felt really good to be home. \u00a0I got to be with my little sister Grace and my parents. \u00a0I was just glad to be with my family and spend time with them. \u00a0I definitely wanted to get surgery with my parents along side me. \u00a0We set up an appointment with an ENT doctor in New Jersey. \u00a0We met with the man and he said I needed to get an MRI done. \u00a0He did not feel anything on me until I told him that my ear has been in pain. \u00a0OK, well the next day we went to see him because he pushed up my surgery to be on January 7th. \u00a0He said that the tumor was pretty big, but he could still take it out no worries. \u00a0He looked a little nervous to me, but he could still do the operation.<\/p>\n We went in on January 7th to get this thing taken out of me. \u00a0Coming out of surgery is a wild feeling. \u00a0You feel like you are waking up from a deep, deep sleep. \u00a0You also think that everything is all taken care of after you wake up. \u00a0You \u00a0are going to be cured of all your problems once you wake up. \u00a0Well, in my case, this did not happen.\u00a0\u00a0It took me awhile to actually get out of my sleep. \u00a0It was hard to keep my eyes open, but I tried to over and over. \u00a0The tumor was too big for this doctor to operate on. \u00a0All he did was take a biopsy of the tumor. \u00a0A big chunk was cut out of me. \u00a0Then the doctor spoke the words that would change my life forever:<\/p>\n “We did a frozen sample of the tumor and a preliminary test to test for malignancy. \u00a0This tumor tested positive for cancer.”<\/p>\n Ummmmmmmmm……What? \u00a0Are you kidding me? I don’t think I believed him at first. \u00a0I am 24 years old. \u00a0How the hell can this happen to me? \u00a0I don’t really know how to describe the first day of living with this news. \u00a0I guess at first I didn’t believe it. \u00a0I just forgot about it. \u00a0I was still in the hospital because I had to stay overnight. \u00a0I did not really think about the cancer. \u00a0I guess I did not really think about anything. \u00a0I just wanted to get some sleep.<\/p>\n I woke up the next day, January 8th, and was ready to get the hell out of the hospital. \u00a0My mom came by and we waited for the doctor to come by and talk to us. \u00a0The doctor explained to us what we needed to do. \u00a0He gave us one name to look at and the rest of the research was up to us. \u00a0It was at this point where everything hit me. \u00a0I started crying and my mom started crying. \u00a0I just could not believe that this was happening. \u00a0What do I do? \u00a0What do my parents do? Where do we go?<\/p>\n We finally got home and I could not contain my emotions. I was crying when I pulled up to my house. \u00a0My brothers came home to see me. \u00a0Mrs. Moore came by and informed me that Mr. Pizzuto and Mr. Nyhuis were thinking about me. \u00a0I lost it then. \u00a0I lost it walking into the house. \u00a0I think every time I walked into the bathroom I started tearing it up. \u00a0It was a very emotional day. \u00a0That day my mom was already on the horn with all kinds of different people. \u00a0She was getting names of any kind of doctors she could. \u00a0We needed a head & neck surgeon along with a skull base surgeon. \u00a0How the hell do we find one of those? \u00a0Well anyway. \u00a0My mother was on the horn with so many different people. \u00a0Everyone was giving us names of people they know. \u00a0Everyone in my family was calling to find out the news. \u00a0It was a crazy day. \u00a0We got some names of doctors and some names of good hospitals to go visit.<\/p>\n I had this new development in my life that I had to now deal with. \u00a0I am living with cancer. \u00a0This was hard to handle; however, I think the hardest thing for me to do was actually coming out and telling my friends that I am living with this. \u00a0I felt like I would be disappointing them. \u00a0The first person I told was Anna and it was so hard to do. \u00a0Admitting I had this awful cancer was just hard. \u00a0I was real hesitant at first to divulge this information to my friends. \u00a0I guess I was living in denial and just did not want to believe that this was happening.<\/p>\n The weekend came and went. \u00a0My uncle and aunt were up to come visit. \u00a0My other uncle stopped by also. \u00a0I was depressed about my situation, but I was still thinking to myself that I need to get through this. \u00a0My aunt asked if I was thinking about joining some cancer group online to help me through this. \u00a0I said probably not. \u00a0I had my friends and family to help me through this. \u00a0Their physical contact was more important than me talking to some people online about stories. \u00a0I thought all I needed was my family and friends. \u00a0That is all that mattered.<\/p>\n Monday January 11.<\/strong> We had our first appointment with a surgeon. \u00a0My parents drove with me to the city to go to Mt. Sinai Hospital. \u00a0We met with some doctors. \u00a0They told us to get a CT scan of the tumor. \u00a0The doctors were nice and very kind to us. \u00a0We were the only ones that this doctor had scheduled, so I was the only one that mattered. \u00a0This was our first doctors appointment, but not our last. \u00a0Tomorrow we have another appointment.<\/p>\n On Tuesday January 12<\/strong>, we were off to St. Lukes Hospital. \u00a0It took us a while to get into see this man. \u00a0We have heard amazing stories about this doctor. \u00a0He was a Head & Neck doctor along with a skull base surgeon along with a facial reconstruction surgeon. \u00a0The other hospitals would include two doctors to do the whole surgery. \u00a0This guy was just ONE guy. \u00a0The man. \u00a0Well anyway we met with this surgeon and he just blew our mind. \u00a0In good and bad ways. \u00a0This doctor was very honest and straight with us. \u00a0He explained what he would need to do in the surgery and it did not sound good. \u00a0A lot of cutting and drilling and some scary stuff. \u00a0He said he would have to cut through my facial nerve which meant that I would lose control of the right side of my face. \u00a0The doctor was very technical with his lingo and just blew us out of the water with his knowledge. \u00a0My mom and dad were a little teary eyed because the doctor was really candid and up front with the information. \u00a0The doc also told us we needed to get a PET CT scan. \u00a0A PET CT is a full body scan. \u00a0It looks for other signs of cancer. \u00a0We had to drive across the city to go to a new office to get the scan. \u00a0The city was cold that night. \u00a0There was not much to talk about. \u00a0We were all so overwhelmed from our meeting with the doctor. \u00a0We got to the PET CT scan office and sat in silence. \u00a0I went to a room to drink some special shake and an hour went by and off I went to the scanner. \u00a0Another half an hour went by as my body got scanned. \u00a0Here is where I did some prayers, praying that this cancer has not moved anywhere else to my body. \u00a0We drove home and just waited. \u00a0I could not eat. \u00a0I could not speak. \u00a0I was down and sad. \u00a0I was depressed. \u00a0Waiting for the results of this scan was the scariest thing. \u00a0I was talking to Annie and just saying how scared and nervous I was. \u00a0I was really lost and just did not know what to do. \u00a0My parents were being so great in this whole situation, but I still just felt alone. \u00a0Annie said that she was going to get in contact with her friend who was diagnosed with cancer and have her contact me. \u00a0I said OK hesitantly. \u00a0The email came no more than twenty minutes and it was a life savior. \u00a0That email really changed my outlook on everything in my life. \u00a0It was like Alyssa knew what I was thinking and said the perfect things to comfort me. \u00a0That email made me feel good about being nervous and scared. \u00a0It just made me realize that as long as I have a positive attitude that I will get through this. \u00a0So thank you much to Anna and Alyssa. \u00a0You two are the reason for me turning this thing around.<\/p>\n Wednesday January 14 – <\/strong>Today we had to go back into the city to meet with the radiologist. \u00a0It was a pain in the ass, but we needed to go. \u00a0The hospital was around Union Square, so we drove on in. \u00a0We got to the office and were waiting to see the doctor. \u00a0I was signing in with a nurse in the back when my mother got a phone call. \u00a0I heard a phone ringing and I knew it was hers. \u00a0I got back to where my parents were and I asked my mother who called. \u00a0She told me it was the doctor who called. \u00a0The doctor that is going to do the surgery. \u00a0He said he got the PET CT scan and it came back negative. \u00a0There were no signs of cancer anywhere else in my body. \u00a0That single piece of news was the best and happiest thing that we could hear. \u00a0That made my day. \u00a0Nothing could bring me down. \u00a0I was on top of the world. \u00a0We met with the radiologist and he told us the plan for the treatment after the surgery. \u00a0He is from Ridgewood, so that was nice to hear.<\/p>\n 2010 has been a roller coaster ride so far and I have no idea what is in store. \u00a0All I know that everyone that I know and everyone I have met have been so great. \u00a0My family and friends have been so loving and caring so far. \u00a0The people that we have met at the hospitals have been so comforting. \u00a0They have taken care of us and have made us feel at home. \u00a0I will be getting surgery soon to get this evil thing out of me. \u00a0The doc said that he is going to WAR with that tumor. \u00a0My face might be droopy and I might not be able to hear out of my right ear, but that does not matter. \u00a0As long as the cancer is gone then I will be happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2010 has not started out as a normal 24 year old, like myself, would like it to. \u00a0Being young you think that nothing bad can ever happen to you. \u00a0You are on top of the world. King of the Mountain. \u00a0Anytime you get sick, you play it off as you are just sick. \u00a0You might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-cancer"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allaboutmatt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}