There is a time when every oncologist must come to terms and decide when they must tell their patient or parents of the patient that he/she probably is not going to live for much longer. Well, that was my situation about 3 years ago when I was diagnosed with a tumor in my heart. And after gruesome heart surgery, I found out I had heart cancer!
When the surgeon took out 99% of my original tumor and later a biopsy showed it was a malignant tumor in my heart, I did not even realize the challenges ahead of me and what I was going to face soon after I got the call about having cancer. At first, I had no idea what that even meant and what I would have to do in order to prepare to fight.
Throughout my life to the age of 22 I was always a, healthy, athletic, in shape kind of guy and getting cancer for me at that age just was not an option. I was in the best shape and health of my life, I never thought it would happen to me!
Sarcoma of the heart is one of the rarest forms of cancer and diseases a person can face in a life. It is so rare, an example of this would be, "one study reviewed more than 12,000 autopsies and found only seven cases of primary cardiac tumor. At Mayo Clinic, on average only one case of heart cancer is seen each year" (Mayoclinic.org).
Because of my rare condition I was likely going to die soon due to the severity of the placement of my tumor(a major important organ) , the size as it was, which determined it to be a late stage tumor, and because many patients who have had heart cancer died soon after, even if they received a transplant because the cancer cellls would often travelor metastisize into the brain or the spine quickly afterwards.
My oncologist at the time who was world-renown for his research and work on sarcomas decided to give me a couple rounds of very agressive chemotherapy. A special cocktail that was less than 50/50 likely to work. The reason was to kill the cancer in the rest of my body and to stop it from traveling anywhere else from my heart. Especially the spine and the brain!
In order to do this, the treatment involved chemotherapy so horrific and deathning that I felt I was literally dying slowly and withering away each day. Everyday of chemo slowly made me sicker and sicker, while draining me mentally and constantly causing me phsycial weakness. And breakdown of my body. I went from a bodybuilding muscular shape of 200lbs to a mere 135lbs wet in a matter of 3 years!
Everyday was a struggle to wake up and go on, even my parents had to help me get dressed and shower because I was so weak from the chemotherapy. Everyday for almost 5 months we drove into NYC from central NJ with all the traffic to get treatments that lasted up to 9 hours all day, every day. Sometimes I would even go home with chemo running throughout my system 24/ 7 it was so agressive. Every morning I was deathly ill and sick, from throwing up and vomiting non-stop. Nothing the Drs. gave me for nausea helped, even the strongest anti nausea patches, pills, etc didnt do anything.
However, as terrifying and difficult the situation was I was determined to beat this thing and live on! I would mentally have to tell myself everyday, every hour, every sec that this would be over someday and the pain and sickness I felt would be gone! However, at the same time I needed to learn to accept it, and deal with it emotionally and mentally and being able to recognize that that my life was now different and it would probably never be the same again. And I would have to change with it no matter what in order to be able to fight
Everyday I looked at going into NYC as a battle, and an eventual war could be won! Each treatment I was able to complete was a little battle and victory for me but I needed to look at the whole picture. I needed to not win the battle but the war.
So after 4 rounds of the most gruesome and nastiest drugs and chemo known to man (literally) I was able to be put on the list for a new heart. Because luckilly it seems the chemotherapy looked to have worked. Because the cancer cells didnt travel anywhere else to my body and metastasized I was now eligible to be put on the list for a heart transplant. In order for me to recieve the heart though I had to wait in the hospital until it came from the form of a donor. About 3 months later the new heart came!
It was late one night and I just got off the phone with a friend when the nurse came in all estatic that they found a donor match for me! And I was likely going to have the heart transplant in a few hours! I was so frightened and scared because of the amount of pain I faced with the first heart surgery and I knew this one was not going to be easy.
I called up Evan Centopani a ifbb pro bodybuilder and friend who had earlier came to visit to me to help cheer me up and I asked for his mentality to help keep me strong through the fight of my life getting a new heart. And on his advice on how to fight the pain.
But mentally I kept grinding on everyday, fighting every sec through the pain from coming out of surgery and healing from such a rough recovery knowing, hoping, and telling myself this would be over one day. All I had to do was keep fighting everyday, keep fighting.
Through all the blood sweat and tears I am happy to say I made it and am still alive today with a new heart transplant! But, I unfortunately have not had an easy road after, because about a year after my transplant I was later diagnosed with cancer in my collarbone which later had to be taken out. And then recently again in this April I was dianosed with cancer in one of my vertebraes of the spine and femur.
So far my spine has been treated with radiation after the petscans. I recently had such an agressive dose that was so strong it actually fractured my back spine!
Recently in July of 2015 my oncologist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute told me some devastating news that there was a reaccurance of cancer to my heart! Two new tumors started to grow! And now I am fighting for my life again. I have heart cancer! As of next week, 10/12/15 I start radiation to the heart which will last over 7 weeks long and I have to go everyday 5 times a week! Right now I am fighting to stay and some of the reasons I am really fighting and doing everything I can to stay alive is for my girlfriend, Kristal who is the love of my life and her two kids. (I plan on marrying her as soon as I can afford a ring!) Currently with me being unable to work because of my rare condition it is very difficult to help support my family with my medical bills, the well being of my two kids, and have money for my well being.
I am asking for donations to help pay for my past medical expenses some of which include my past surgeries, medications, hospital stays, ambulance rides etc some of which insurance has not covered due to the me being too risky of a candidate to do surgery on. So my parents had to pay alot out of pocket to help me to where I am at today.
Along with your spread of awarenss of heart cancer and positive messages to keep me strong and fighting, I know I can beat this and one day the pain and suffering will all be over. And I can finally live a somewhat normal life again without worrying about the stress of suffering all the time.
Cancer has greatly affected my life from the way I feel everyday to the different activities I can do. For instance, I used to be a bodybuilder weighing in at 200 lbs all muscle and was a young strong kid at the age of 22 when I first got diagnosed with one of the rarest cancers in the world, Heart cancer! After battling cancer for over 3 years I now weigh a mere 135 lbs! So my body alone has taken a massive beating after the chemotherapy and not being able to eat. The two open-heart surgeries I had to undergo, one being a new heart transplant! Cancer has also not allowed me to work any job due to my condition even when I graduate with a degree from a great school because I am too sick and am fighting for my life. Currently my radiation schedule is 5x a week for 7-8 weeks. So I wont be able to work and have any form of income to take care of myself.
I overcame the adversity of having cancer by having my family and friends support. I also found praying helps because it gives me faith that everything will be ok in the end and I was born for a reason no matter what the outcome is or when I die. Also, just having to deal with the fact of dying or trying my hardest to stay alive has really changed my outlook on how lucky I am to live day and have the people who I love close and around me.
Cancer at first truly affected by outlook on life and all my personal goals in a negative way because I did not care about anything but just getting healthy and able to live the life I used too. I really did not care about getting a job like all my friends because I was fighting for my life. However, with the support of my girlfriend, Kristal and my family and praying to God really has made me have a new positive outlook on life that once this radiation is over everything will go back to normal and I can live a somewhat normal life again.
This adversity has molded me into a much more compassionate person who can really relate to anyone going through a really tough time. I can really identify with anyone going through a hardship than I ever could before because I never had to suffer like I do now. I never knew what real struggle was, and what it is like to fight for your life and your health just to live life and wake up everyday.
Thank you everyone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0-4KfPHWvc
MusclarDevelopment a hardcore bodybuilding magazine along with animalpak did a article and also shared my story and you can read it at:
http://www.animalpak.com/html/article_details.cfm?ID=623
My blog: Called my Journey Against Heart Cancer which gives greater detail of my story for those who are interested visit:
http://theheartcancerexperience.blogspot.com/
Thank you for reading my story about dealing, battling, and experiencing heart cancer, bone cancer, femur, and spinal cancer!
-Chris Slavin
When the surgeon took out 99% of my original tumor and later a biopsy showed it was a malignant tumor in my heart, I did not even realize the challenges ahead of me and what I was going to face soon after I got the call about having cancer. At first, I had no idea what that even meant and what I would have to do in order to prepare to fight.
Throughout my life to the age of 22 I was always a, healthy, athletic, in shape kind of guy and getting cancer for me at that age just was not an option. I was in the best shape and health of my life, I never thought it would happen to me!
Sarcoma of the heart is one of the rarest forms of cancer and diseases a person can face in a life. It is so rare, an example of this would be, "one study reviewed more than 12,000 autopsies and found only seven cases of primary cardiac tumor. At Mayo Clinic, on average only one case of heart cancer is seen each year" (Mayoclinic.org).
Because of my rare condition I was likely going to die soon due to the severity of the placement of my tumor(a major important organ) , the size as it was, which determined it to be a late stage tumor, and because many patients who have had heart cancer died soon after, even if they received a transplant because the cancer cellls would often travelor metastisize into the brain or the spine quickly afterwards.
My oncologist at the time who was world-renown for his research and work on sarcomas decided to give me a couple rounds of very agressive chemotherapy. A special cocktail that was less than 50/50 likely to work. The reason was to kill the cancer in the rest of my body and to stop it from traveling anywhere else from my heart. Especially the spine and the brain!
In order to do this, the treatment involved chemotherapy so horrific and deathning that I felt I was literally dying slowly and withering away each day. Everyday of chemo slowly made me sicker and sicker, while draining me mentally and constantly causing me phsycial weakness. And breakdown of my body. I went from a bodybuilding muscular shape of 200lbs to a mere 135lbs wet in a matter of 3 years!
Everyday was a struggle to wake up and go on, even my parents had to help me get dressed and shower because I was so weak from the chemotherapy. Everyday for almost 5 months we drove into NYC from central NJ with all the traffic to get treatments that lasted up to 9 hours all day, every day. Sometimes I would even go home with chemo running throughout my system 24/ 7 it was so agressive. Every morning I was deathly ill and sick, from throwing up and vomiting non-stop. Nothing the Drs. gave me for nausea helped, even the strongest anti nausea patches, pills, etc didnt do anything.
However, as terrifying and difficult the situation was I was determined to beat this thing and live on! I would mentally have to tell myself everyday, every hour, every sec that this would be over someday and the pain and sickness I felt would be gone! However, at the same time I needed to learn to accept it, and deal with it emotionally and mentally and being able to recognize that that my life was now different and it would probably never be the same again. And I would have to change with it no matter what in order to be able to fight
Everyday I looked at going into NYC as a battle, and an eventual war could be won! Each treatment I was able to complete was a little battle and victory for me but I needed to look at the whole picture. I needed to not win the battle but the war.
So after 4 rounds of the most gruesome and nastiest drugs and chemo known to man (literally) I was able to be put on the list for a new heart. Because luckilly it seems the chemotherapy looked to have worked. Because the cancer cells didnt travel anywhere else to my body and metastasized I was now eligible to be put on the list for a heart transplant. In order for me to recieve the heart though I had to wait in the hospital until it came from the form of a donor. About 3 months later the new heart came!
It was late one night and I just got off the phone with a friend when the nurse came in all estatic that they found a donor match for me! And I was likely going to have the heart transplant in a few hours! I was so frightened and scared because of the amount of pain I faced with the first heart surgery and I knew this one was not going to be easy.
I called up Evan Centopani a ifbb pro bodybuilder and friend who had earlier came to visit to me to help cheer me up and I asked for his mentality to help keep me strong through the fight of my life getting a new heart. And on his advice on how to fight the pain.
But mentally I kept grinding on everyday, fighting every sec through the pain from coming out of surgery and healing from such a rough recovery knowing, hoping, and telling myself this would be over one day. All I had to do was keep fighting everyday, keep fighting.
Through all the blood sweat and tears I am happy to say I made it and am still alive today with a new heart transplant! But, I unfortunately have not had an easy road after, because about a year after my transplant I was later diagnosed with cancer in my collarbone which later had to be taken out. And then recently again in this April I was dianosed with cancer in one of my vertebraes of the spine and femur.
So far my spine has been treated with radiation after the petscans. I recently had such an agressive dose that was so strong it actually fractured my back spine!
Recently in July of 2015 my oncologist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute told me some devastating news that there was a reaccurance of cancer to my heart! Two new tumors started to grow! And now I am fighting for my life again. I have heart cancer! As of next week, 10/12/15 I start radiation to the heart which will last over 7 weeks long and I have to go everyday 5 times a week! Right now I am fighting to stay and some of the reasons I am really fighting and doing everything I can to stay alive is for my girlfriend, Kristal who is the love of my life and her two kids. (I plan on marrying her as soon as I can afford a ring!) Currently with me being unable to work because of my rare condition it is very difficult to help support my family with my medical bills, the well being of my two kids, and have money for my well being.
I am asking for donations to help pay for my past medical expenses some of which include my past surgeries, medications, hospital stays, ambulance rides etc some of which insurance has not covered due to the me being too risky of a candidate to do surgery on. So my parents had to pay alot out of pocket to help me to where I am at today.
Along with your spread of awarenss of heart cancer and positive messages to keep me strong and fighting, I know I can beat this and one day the pain and suffering will all be over. And I can finally live a somewhat normal life again without worrying about the stress of suffering all the time.
Cancer has greatly affected my life from the way I feel everyday to the different activities I can do. For instance, I used to be a bodybuilder weighing in at 200 lbs all muscle and was a young strong kid at the age of 22 when I first got diagnosed with one of the rarest cancers in the world, Heart cancer! After battling cancer for over 3 years I now weigh a mere 135 lbs! So my body alone has taken a massive beating after the chemotherapy and not being able to eat. The two open-heart surgeries I had to undergo, one being a new heart transplant! Cancer has also not allowed me to work any job due to my condition even when I graduate with a degree from a great school because I am too sick and am fighting for my life. Currently my radiation schedule is 5x a week for 7-8 weeks. So I wont be able to work and have any form of income to take care of myself.
I overcame the adversity of having cancer by having my family and friends support. I also found praying helps because it gives me faith that everything will be ok in the end and I was born for a reason no matter what the outcome is or when I die. Also, just having to deal with the fact of dying or trying my hardest to stay alive has really changed my outlook on how lucky I am to live day and have the people who I love close and around me.
Cancer at first truly affected by outlook on life and all my personal goals in a negative way because I did not care about anything but just getting healthy and able to live the life I used too. I really did not care about getting a job like all my friends because I was fighting for my life. However, with the support of my girlfriend, Kristal and my family and praying to God really has made me have a new positive outlook on life that once this radiation is over everything will go back to normal and I can live a somewhat normal life again.
This adversity has molded me into a much more compassionate person who can really relate to anyone going through a really tough time. I can really identify with anyone going through a hardship than I ever could before because I never had to suffer like I do now. I never knew what real struggle was, and what it is like to fight for your life and your health just to live life and wake up everyday.
Thank you everyone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0-4KfPHWvc
MusclarDevelopment a hardcore bodybuilding magazine along with animalpak did a article and also shared my story and you can read it at:
http://www.animalpak.com/html/article_details.cfm?ID=623
My blog: Called my Journey Against Heart Cancer which gives greater detail of my story for those who are interested visit:
http://theheartcancerexperience.blogspot.com/
Thank you for reading my story about dealing, battling, and experiencing heart cancer, bone cancer, femur, and spinal cancer!
-Chris Slavin