On July 14, 2021 2 days before my 48th birthday, I woke up nearly paralyzed and unable to breathe well. My back had been hurting so my wife was sleeping in the other room so I could have the bed elevated. I called out to her and she came running and immediately called 911. We are thinking I have a herniated disc and this was gunna be a rough ride, but maybe finally get some help for the terrible back pain. After several hours and an mri at our local er, the doctor, who had been very curt or disgusted that we needed medical attention, came in and closed the door. I knew right then something horrible was about to be told. She said they saw cancer on the mri in my back. In the next hour we were visited by a neuro surgeon and moved to an admitted room. Over the next day and a half and 500 phone calls and dozens of doctors...I was admitted into a surgery that we didn't know how it was going to turn out. The morning of my birthday, July 16th, they wheeled me away for surgery at 8am. My wife in tears. About 2 hours later they went to get my wife since my surgeon had been called to another hospital for an emergency and she was able to sit with me in pre op for the next 5 hours. All of a sudden, they say we are ready and one last kiss from my wife and out the door she went again. Midnight that night the surgeon visited with my wife and told her he had to fuse t4 through t10  with rods and screws as my bones are so destroyed from what they are assuming is bone cancer. I spend the next 11 days in icu. Numb from my chest to my toes. My wife is feeding me and taking care of me. We still have no pathology results. I get sent home and thank goodness my wife works for a company that has allowed her to spend every waking moment with me. I was home for a few days and learning to walk very small amounts with my walker and my leg started hurting. I sit down and my wife gasps. Get up we are going to the er, she says. After 5 hours of sitting in a wheelchair they tell me I have a huge blood clot in my leg and I have to be admitted. Apparently this happened because I needed 4 units of blood during surgery. So as I am now a patient in the hospital again, and being visited by dozens of doctors every day and on complete bed rest,  which isn't helping my back surgery at all, they come in to tell me I have clots in my leg, lungs and brain. I have been on heparin for a couple of days by this time. My blood numbers finally start to show improvement and the cancer doctors are coming every day to tell me they still don't know. Finally dayv6 they come in and say ( this is now 3 weeks after I find out I even have a cancer) that the cancer is of an unknown origin, making it incurable. Obviously devastating news. The next morning a young man from radiologist office comes in and had new test results. He explains to me, without my wife there because of the covid time restrictions, that I have stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer. 
I have been out of work for a month, my wife is doing everything for me I used to do myself, taking care of our home. I'm on 7 different medicines at this point and next week I begin the radiation process. We got to have an mri on Friday the 13th and leaving there to get to my bone scan, the valet guy crashes our car that we have to trade in because we cannot afford it without me working. Short term disability through my work is a nightmare due to the fact that it is outsourced so no one at my company can even help me. I am on a blood thinner for the rest of my life so I have to be super careful learning to walk again. One day you are taking advantage of the freedoms we live. .the next day...this.