Joel's Journey
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Joel's Diagnosis (The short version): My husband, Joel, just celebrated his 25th birthday in the hospital. He was diagnosed with a rare form of stage 4 colon cancer, which lines the cavity of his stomache. The cancer is using his blood to travel through his body. When Joel awoke from his unplaned, emergency surgery, he was surprised with 27 staples going up his stomache. As well as an illiastomy bag on the right side of his belly. An illiastomy is when they take the end of your small intestine and reroute it through a hole in your stomache, made during surgery. Your bowle movements will then come out of your stoma and into the bag. They have also removed a large tumor and most of his colon. The left over tumor is pressing against his kydney and still causing quite a bit of pain. Joel is curretly going through blood transfussion chemo therapy. The doctors say there is a 20% survival rate for this form of cancer. We refuse to fall into that other 80%, as Joel is young, strong, and healthy. We have God on our side and that's all it takes.
Joel's Journey (Full story): For almost a year, Joel lived his life in consistant pain that only got worse with time. He had no answers as to why this pain was present or what it was. Every day, he suffered more and more and everyday, we would come up with a new prognosis. the last couple of months before finding the root of our problems, I watched Joel get up every morning for work and rock back and forth in agony and ask me why he had to live this way. Why wouldn't the hurting just go away? He would beg and plead with God to just take the pain away. Then he would pull together all of the strength he had... he'd get up.. and go to work. He'd push through 8 to 12 hour shifts as an industrial athlete, doing hard-core work. Most days inside of a freezer. Then he would come home and almost immediately fall asleep, wake up, and repeat. Joel has been the strongest person i've ever known, sense day 1 of this journey.
About 4 months ago, Joel's pain got so bad that nothing would take it away, he never had a break. We went to the ER and begged them to help.. We were almost immediately dismissed with nothing but a perscription for gas pain. Another week of steadily increasing pain and we were back in the ER. Again, we were dismissed. Then a third time.. Joel kept fighting for an answer and mustered up the courage to go in again and plead with the doctors to find what was causing his pain.
Finally, on the last visit to the hospital, Joel was refered to a gastroenterologist. A specialist to look at his stomache and insides. We finally had hope that we could live a normal life again and they were taking us seriously. He was going to be cured!
The days leading up to the specialist visit were the absolute worst. Joel was in so much pain he couldn't move. I would have to hold on to him and pull him up just so that he could stand on his own. He was literally screaming in agony. It was unbearable to even watch. Still not knowing what was wrong, we were shoveling down every over the counter substance we could find to ease his symptoms, from abdominal pain- back pain- extreme heart burn- to preassure that would just not come out.. He felt like his insides were going to burst. Nothing was working and while we waited out the days leading up to his appointment, he would just lay there, curled up on the floor; the only place he felt any sense of comfort... and just rock back and forth, crying and pleading for relief.
The appointment finally came around. As soon as the gastroenterologist came in, he saw the pain Joel was in, rushed over to feel his stomache, and told us there was fluid in his stomache. He seemed pretty concerned and promptly ordered Joel to a 24 hour liquid diet to prepare for an immediate colonoscopy. The doctor was sure that Joel had iether Chrones disease or Ulcerative Colitis. For another 24 hours Joel suffered and pleaded..
The day of Joel's colonoscopy came. we could never have prepared for what that day had in store for us.
We came in thinking we were there for a standard colonoscopy exam and that we would finally leave with the answers we had waited so long for. Joel cried that morning and I held him and told him that it was all going to be ok. I told him that after today, no matter what the results were, it would be good because we finally would have the answers to start getting better and get our lives back. The pain wouldn't rule his life anymore and that is truly what we believed. Mid-way through his exam, I guess they had stopped because there scope wouldn't go any further... there was an obstruction. Joel's mother went back to see him as he woke up from the anesthesia and as i was setting in the waiting room, I heard him scream out loud, from down the hall. The entire waiting room of people looked up with concerned faces. He continued to scream until his mom came out and told me he was being rushed to the ER. What now? It seemed like every time we took a step to get him better, we'd then take two steps back...
In the ER we were told that Joel was going to have to go through an emergency, exploratory surgery. They weren't sure what was wrong. He wouldn't stop screaming in pain. The doctors thought that iether, during the colonoscopy exam, they nicked his insides or.. the chrones disease had gotten so bad that it caused a hole. His mom and I walked along side his bed into the surgery room, kissed him one last time, and had to let him go to sleep for surgery. At this point, it was setting in with me just how serious Joel's situation was and every possible out come was running through my head.. Every out come accept the one we got. After a few hours waiting in anticipation, the doctors finally came out to tell us Joel was awake. Still unaware from all of the pain meds and anesthesia but.. awake. So Joel had no idea yet that he had even had a surgery. He was already out of it on pain meds before they even decided to go through with the surgery so he was never told what he was about to go through.
The doctor calmly walked in and I could immediately tell that something was wrong.. He was doing the whole "don't alarm them", routine, that doctors do when they are about to tell you something horrifying. He invited us into a private room and sat us down.. Then he explained that he had removed, "most of... a good sized tumor" from Joel's colon. He also removed a small part of his large intestine, a little bit more of his small intestine, and then two thirds of his colon. He went on to tell us that Joel now had an "illiastomy bag". Which is where they pull out the end of your small intestine and sew it to the outside of your body. Rerouting your bowel movements to come out of the intestine on your stomache and into a bag, which he will wear over the intestine. It wasn't over yet... We were then informed that the tumor was indeed, cancerous.
Later we would find that Joel has a rare form of colon cancer. It is stage four and has spread to his lymph nodes. The cancer is using his blood to travel through his body and cancer spots line the walls of the cavity that contain his organs.
The most painfully terrifying part of this journey was having to know that Joel would wake up not knowing what happened or that he had just went through major surgery.... He would have to look down and find that his organ had been sewn to the outside of his body.... He would see the 27 staples going up his stomache... He would have to adjust to a life altering scenario in an instant, with no preperation, no warning. And then we would have to find the right way and the right moment to tell him that he had this dangerous cancer inside of him.. I really couldn't bare the thought of him knowing.. I wanted to just hide it from him forever and not tell him.. I didn't want him to ever feel the heart sinking pain that his family and I just felt.
After Joel heard the news, he took it better than anyone could have. He has his days where of course, all that he's overcoming takes it's toll on him, emotionally. But he is so strong and has put all of his faith in God to heal him. He continues to pray and brings strength to everyone around him just by being his curageous self. He refused depression medication and has decided to fight this terrifying journey with just the support of his family and the lord. He is currently battling his cancer with chemo therapy and holistic alternatives, combined. We are willing to do anything to get through this and with the help of his loved ones, the community, and God, he will survive. He is already a survivor. He's indured being poked and proded for nearly 13 days straight in the hospital, had tubes shoved down his throat and nose, had tubes poked through his stomach to pull fluid from his insides- caused by the tumor. He's had staples put in and pulled out,had organs removed and organs pulled out and sewn to the outside of his body. He had to regain muscle just to walk normal and stand straight again, had all of his veins busted from being over used, carried around his own nutrition bag to feed his malnurished body through a tube in his arm. He has sat through his first day of chemo in total fear, allowed the doctors to explain to him the position he is in, he's been told he has only a 20% chance to live and chose to see it as, "He has a chance". How many people are strong enough to hear that? I know i'm not. In light of all that, I have to know that my husband will get through every bit of this journey. He will have good days and bad. But one day, he will have his life back. We will all have our lives back. God is enterfering and every day this cancer will grow weaker as Joel grows stronger. We just have to continue to have faith and trust that were not alone. Right now our goal is to just keep positive mind sets and heal with every bit of love and support that comes our way.
What Joel needs:
Our set goal is just a number. Any little bit helps and is so greatly appreciated. We will lose our apartment by January 3rd, as rent is due and we are now broke. Joel's car will be lost as well if we don't come up with enough for his car note and insurance. We will have to give our puppy to a new home if things don't start looking up. Hospital bills are pilling up and adding to the stress of everything Joel is enduring. There is a hollistic treatment that will cost 100 dollars per treatment that could greatly increase his odds of survival that Joel really wants to do and we can't even offer that to him due to our loss of income. The entire family is coming together to help make ends meet and simply can't hold everthing up alone. Every penny is helpfull, every prayer is helpful. We will be forever greatful to anyone willing to pitch in, rather its finantially or just sending your support and prayers. I will continue to update you all and thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read Joel's story!
Joel's Journey (Full story): For almost a year, Joel lived his life in consistant pain that only got worse with time. He had no answers as to why this pain was present or what it was. Every day, he suffered more and more and everyday, we would come up with a new prognosis. the last couple of months before finding the root of our problems, I watched Joel get up every morning for work and rock back and forth in agony and ask me why he had to live this way. Why wouldn't the hurting just go away? He would beg and plead with God to just take the pain away. Then he would pull together all of the strength he had... he'd get up.. and go to work. He'd push through 8 to 12 hour shifts as an industrial athlete, doing hard-core work. Most days inside of a freezer. Then he would come home and almost immediately fall asleep, wake up, and repeat. Joel has been the strongest person i've ever known, sense day 1 of this journey.
About 4 months ago, Joel's pain got so bad that nothing would take it away, he never had a break. We went to the ER and begged them to help.. We were almost immediately dismissed with nothing but a perscription for gas pain. Another week of steadily increasing pain and we were back in the ER. Again, we were dismissed. Then a third time.. Joel kept fighting for an answer and mustered up the courage to go in again and plead with the doctors to find what was causing his pain.
Finally, on the last visit to the hospital, Joel was refered to a gastroenterologist. A specialist to look at his stomache and insides. We finally had hope that we could live a normal life again and they were taking us seriously. He was going to be cured!
The days leading up to the specialist visit were the absolute worst. Joel was in so much pain he couldn't move. I would have to hold on to him and pull him up just so that he could stand on his own. He was literally screaming in agony. It was unbearable to even watch. Still not knowing what was wrong, we were shoveling down every over the counter substance we could find to ease his symptoms, from abdominal pain- back pain- extreme heart burn- to preassure that would just not come out.. He felt like his insides were going to burst. Nothing was working and while we waited out the days leading up to his appointment, he would just lay there, curled up on the floor; the only place he felt any sense of comfort... and just rock back and forth, crying and pleading for relief.
The appointment finally came around. As soon as the gastroenterologist came in, he saw the pain Joel was in, rushed over to feel his stomache, and told us there was fluid in his stomache. He seemed pretty concerned and promptly ordered Joel to a 24 hour liquid diet to prepare for an immediate colonoscopy. The doctor was sure that Joel had iether Chrones disease or Ulcerative Colitis. For another 24 hours Joel suffered and pleaded..
The day of Joel's colonoscopy came. we could never have prepared for what that day had in store for us.
We came in thinking we were there for a standard colonoscopy exam and that we would finally leave with the answers we had waited so long for. Joel cried that morning and I held him and told him that it was all going to be ok. I told him that after today, no matter what the results were, it would be good because we finally would have the answers to start getting better and get our lives back. The pain wouldn't rule his life anymore and that is truly what we believed. Mid-way through his exam, I guess they had stopped because there scope wouldn't go any further... there was an obstruction. Joel's mother went back to see him as he woke up from the anesthesia and as i was setting in the waiting room, I heard him scream out loud, from down the hall. The entire waiting room of people looked up with concerned faces. He continued to scream until his mom came out and told me he was being rushed to the ER. What now? It seemed like every time we took a step to get him better, we'd then take two steps back...
In the ER we were told that Joel was going to have to go through an emergency, exploratory surgery. They weren't sure what was wrong. He wouldn't stop screaming in pain. The doctors thought that iether, during the colonoscopy exam, they nicked his insides or.. the chrones disease had gotten so bad that it caused a hole. His mom and I walked along side his bed into the surgery room, kissed him one last time, and had to let him go to sleep for surgery. At this point, it was setting in with me just how serious Joel's situation was and every possible out come was running through my head.. Every out come accept the one we got. After a few hours waiting in anticipation, the doctors finally came out to tell us Joel was awake. Still unaware from all of the pain meds and anesthesia but.. awake. So Joel had no idea yet that he had even had a surgery. He was already out of it on pain meds before they even decided to go through with the surgery so he was never told what he was about to go through.
The doctor calmly walked in and I could immediately tell that something was wrong.. He was doing the whole "don't alarm them", routine, that doctors do when they are about to tell you something horrifying. He invited us into a private room and sat us down.. Then he explained that he had removed, "most of... a good sized tumor" from Joel's colon. He also removed a small part of his large intestine, a little bit more of his small intestine, and then two thirds of his colon. He went on to tell us that Joel now had an "illiastomy bag". Which is where they pull out the end of your small intestine and sew it to the outside of your body. Rerouting your bowel movements to come out of the intestine on your stomache and into a bag, which he will wear over the intestine. It wasn't over yet... We were then informed that the tumor was indeed, cancerous.
Later we would find that Joel has a rare form of colon cancer. It is stage four and has spread to his lymph nodes. The cancer is using his blood to travel through his body and cancer spots line the walls of the cavity that contain his organs.
The most painfully terrifying part of this journey was having to know that Joel would wake up not knowing what happened or that he had just went through major surgery.... He would have to look down and find that his organ had been sewn to the outside of his body.... He would see the 27 staples going up his stomache... He would have to adjust to a life altering scenario in an instant, with no preperation, no warning. And then we would have to find the right way and the right moment to tell him that he had this dangerous cancer inside of him.. I really couldn't bare the thought of him knowing.. I wanted to just hide it from him forever and not tell him.. I didn't want him to ever feel the heart sinking pain that his family and I just felt.
After Joel heard the news, he took it better than anyone could have. He has his days where of course, all that he's overcoming takes it's toll on him, emotionally. But he is so strong and has put all of his faith in God to heal him. He continues to pray and brings strength to everyone around him just by being his curageous self. He refused depression medication and has decided to fight this terrifying journey with just the support of his family and the lord. He is currently battling his cancer with chemo therapy and holistic alternatives, combined. We are willing to do anything to get through this and with the help of his loved ones, the community, and God, he will survive. He is already a survivor. He's indured being poked and proded for nearly 13 days straight in the hospital, had tubes shoved down his throat and nose, had tubes poked through his stomach to pull fluid from his insides- caused by the tumor. He's had staples put in and pulled out,had organs removed and organs pulled out and sewn to the outside of his body. He had to regain muscle just to walk normal and stand straight again, had all of his veins busted from being over used, carried around his own nutrition bag to feed his malnurished body through a tube in his arm. He has sat through his first day of chemo in total fear, allowed the doctors to explain to him the position he is in, he's been told he has only a 20% chance to live and chose to see it as, "He has a chance". How many people are strong enough to hear that? I know i'm not. In light of all that, I have to know that my husband will get through every bit of this journey. He will have good days and bad. But one day, he will have his life back. We will all have our lives back. God is enterfering and every day this cancer will grow weaker as Joel grows stronger. We just have to continue to have faith and trust that were not alone. Right now our goal is to just keep positive mind sets and heal with every bit of love and support that comes our way.
What Joel needs:
Our set goal is just a number. Any little bit helps and is so greatly appreciated. We will lose our apartment by January 3rd, as rent is due and we are now broke. Joel's car will be lost as well if we don't come up with enough for his car note and insurance. We will have to give our puppy to a new home if things don't start looking up. Hospital bills are pilling up and adding to the stress of everything Joel is enduring. There is a hollistic treatment that will cost 100 dollars per treatment that could greatly increase his odds of survival that Joel really wants to do and we can't even offer that to him due to our loss of income. The entire family is coming together to help make ends meet and simply can't hold everthing up alone. Every penny is helpfull, every prayer is helpful. We will be forever greatful to anyone willing to pitch in, rather its finantially or just sending your support and prayers. I will continue to update you all and thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read Joel's story!
Organizer and beneficiary
Miwa Hannah Matsuda
Organizer
Fairfield, OH
Miwa Hannah Matsuda
Beneficiary
