Derrick's cancer battle

It all started on March 6, 2024. I had scheduled an appointment for a colonoscopy at the Rudd Clinic in Toronto, through my personal doctor. There had been signs starting in November last year when I was working on a project out in Prince Edward County that something inside of me was not quite right. There was no pain, but there were signs. Sure enough, before I was off my gurney at the end of the colonoscopy, the doctor told me he wanted to talk to me in the recovery room. Unfortunately while I was coming out of the general anesthetic, the nurses in the recovery room told me I could leave and go home, so I did. I got a call later that day that the doctor needed to speak with me directly, so I went back down to the clinic on the following Monday to meet with him. It was then, on March 11 that the doctor told me I had rectal cancer. Needless to say, that is not the news I wanted to hear!

So, the journey began. Hold on, that is not how I have wanted to frame this. Cancer sucks and I wasn’t going to be beaten by it. I decided my mind set was going to be like an athlete training for a sport at the Olympics and each day was part of my training to beat it and with the help of modern day medicine and an excellent group of doctors, I was going to win!

There have been a number of challenges that I have worked hard at overcoming. There have been physical and certainly mental challenges but, the real life challenge of having to work while going through treatment has been very hard. Living costs money. My radiation treatment started in April. Six weeks, every week day at the Barrie cancer treatment center. I also started on my chemo pills, which had out of pocket medical costs. Then after a month off in June, the chemo treatments started in July. Six sessions, every 3 weeks, that were to run right through until October. I was a little lucky and managed to escape with little to no side effects with my radiation treatments, my chemo treatments were a different story! Basically, since the middle of August I have really been unable to work. The side effects from the chemo have been challenging. They forced me to stay in bed for large parts of the time and really just felt like crap for the past 3 months. This is on top of the 1000 chemo pills I have had to swallow and allow them to make my stomach feel like a bad night at the Brunswick House. This is where the work and life part has been the most challenging. Some of my side effects have been lock jaw, various muscles locking up so I can’t walk, unable to touch or drink anything cold, extreme sensitivity in my fingertips and feet, weight loss (which wasn’t such a bad thing! lol), some puking, my teeth feeling like they might fall out (they haven’t, although I did have one crack in half!), and the worst, by far, not being able to eat….anything! Oh yah, my liver has also decided that the drugs in my chemo treatment were about all it could handle and so no more alcohol for the rest of my life. I guess I can live with that. I will miss a good California pinot with my dinner and a beer after hockey!

Having said all that, I have had a lot of support from family and a lot of friends. I felt a little uncomfortable asking for help, but I could use a little these days and probably through Christmas and into the new year as I come out of my chemo haze and prepare for surgery to remove any remaining mass that might still be attached to my rectum. If you feel so inclined, any help would be very much appreciated.