Hello family & friends. Watching a colleague of mine go through his cancer journey and share his thoughts, feelings, and experiences has been provided peace, focus, inspiration, and determination to live the life we have been given.
On the evening of September 18th, I went to the Vanderbilt ER with abdominal pain and bowel concerns. After a CT scan, a tumor was discovered in my sigmoid colon and I proceeded to need urgent surgery on the evening of September 20th, to remove the tumor and a colostomy placed. I have been diagnosed with stage III colon cancer. I had a port placed on October 31st, and begin 6 mo. of bi-weekly chemotherapy treatments on November 15th. Four weeks after the last treatment in May, 2020, I will have surgery to reverse my colostomy.
I want to reassure all of you that I am doing well and I have already returned to work on Oct 5th, as soon as I was cleared by my surgeon on October 4th. I am extremely positive and surrounded by positive friends and family and I will beat this and use this experience to improve the lives of my patients, families, and future students. My plan is to continue to work during treatment and sail through treatment with minimal downtime.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to work extra shifts and I did have to stop my clinical teaching job at APSU, for this semester and maybe the spring semester also. My part-time home infusion job has also been put on hold, barring me from accepting any new patients until I have recovered from treatment and future surgery.
I will plan to update with treatment schedule and when I feel the urge to share my thoughts and feelings.
Love you all,
Anthony, Tony, T-Dawg, or any other names you may call me... LOL.
