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But For Ohio State

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Tater_Schroeder's picture
December 17, 2015 at 6:12pm
56 Comments

One year ago today, I woke up with Stage 3 Carcinoid Cancer. I went to sleep that night without six inches of my small bowel and a carcinoid tumor that was attached to it, hoping the cancer was gone. But For Ohio State, I couldn’t write that second sentence.

For well over a year, I was chronically anemic and in a constant state of extreme fatigue as a result. We chased my symptoms around trying to find the cause. I had scopes done on both ends and swallowed an electronic pill fitted with a camera to document my entire GI tract. In the meantime, I found myself at the hospital for a blood transfusion just to keep my anemia in check.

The first time I saw a doctor at Ohio State was October 31st, 2014 (yep, Halloween. Still beats a colonoscopy on my birthday two months earlier). I was diagnosed with a possible carcinoid tumor that day and was without it less than 7 weeks later. It was after the surgery that the pathology report confirmed it was a carcinoid tumor. My oncologist formally ruled it Stage 3 Carcinoid Cancer since it metastasized to a nearby lymph node that was also removed.

This past September, I had my first of many surveillance CT scans to come. It showed zero signs of recurrence. My oncologist is hopeful that I’ve been 100% cured. He won’t make that call for at least nine more years of testing. Every time I go back for surveillance testing and although I deal with quite a bit of scanxiety (look it up, it’s a real thing), I am comfortable because Ohio State has world-class facilities, world-class doctors, and world-class staff.

I entitled this “But For Ohio State” because that was the title of the campaign following Les Wexner’s gift of $100 million to Ohio State for the Medical Center.  Now there are countless stories from the campaign like “But For Ohio State, Don would be unable to feed himself”, or “But for Ohio State, my world would be nearly silent. Now it’s loud and clear”. Les Wexner said, “But for Ohio State, I would have never been able to go to college”. And I say, “But for Ohio State, I might still have cancer”.

The ribbon color for carcinoid cancer, like all other neuroendocrine cancers, is zebra stripes. In medical school, students are told to assume the most common cause for a given symptom. Allegorically, if you hear hoof beats, assume horses, not zebras. I am the zebra. Carcinoid cancer is very rare and very often misdiagnosed for many years. Ohio State had me on an operating table to remove the cancer within 7 weeks of the first time they saw me. The five-year survival rate for carcinoid cancer is well below 100%, but I’m now believed to be 100% cured. But For Ohio State, right?

Of course, Ohio State isn’t the only institution in this fight. There are outstanding facilities and doctors all over the world. Cancer is a terrible, disgusting, appalling disease. It is relentless and it does not discriminate. We, as a human family, need to wage war on it. And we need you to be a soldier.

You can be a soldier in the war so easily. Offer to help a family member, co-worker, neighbor, whoever, if they are battling cancer or caring for someone that is. Give money to the Jimmy V Foundation or St. Jude’s. Don’t become a casualty of the war yourself by not complaining about routine blood draws at school or work, and follow up on anything abnormal. Be eager to have a colonoscopy or mammogram. You’ll find out you’re clear. Or, you’ll find out you’re not but you caught it early. Either case is welcome news compared to not going at all.

Whatever you do, join the fight. Be a soldier.

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

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