Help Dr.Justin Day Fight His Toughest Battle with Cancer.

Cancer in our house has always been a regular discussion as My husband Justin, or Dr. Day diagnosed patients all the time. Yet here we are, not realizing in his own body a Sarcoma was growing. For the past month before diagnosis Justin was having weird symptoms with weight loss, loss of appetite, a persistent cough, and some night sweats, it wasn't until he started to get fevers that he realized something was going on and after a trip to urgent care to rule out strep, flu and Covid he realized with my persistent urging that he needed more of a work-up that would include labs and chest x-ray. So thankfully he went to the ER the next day.

I knew something was wrong.

Justin updated me throughout the night while he was in the ER. Then the bomb dropped on us. He called to say they were admitting him as they found a mass in his belly. I knew it must be cancer as they don't typically admit people into the hospital to stay for what appears to be a benign mass, so I knew it was not good at all.

The next morning I got a call from one of his old co-workers and it confirmed my fears, it was cancer and it was really, really bad. Now I had to tell my husband the news.

When I arrived at the hospital with our youngest 2 sons to visit him the afternoon after he was admitted the night prior, we all took a trip down to radiology department with my 15 year old son, Grayson, pushing his Dad in the wheelchair. Justin wanted to see the CT imaging himself. When Justin saw with his own trained eyes the imaging of this extraordinary tumor the look on his face told me all. His face fell and he said softly, wow, this was growing here and how could I not notice?

My world shattered. My sweet husband just realized this was horrible and what felt like a nightmare is now a reality, this gnarly tumor in his belly was not what he called a “Dad bod” or “beer belly” and he didn't even drink much, it was all distended from tumor.

I felt I should have known, as this guy had been training and doing triathlons and his belly shouldn't be that big for the shape he was in or the exercise and diet he fallowed. The rest of him is trim and in shape, he just had this belly and now we know that the basketball belly is a deadly tumor. How could I be so blind? It grew so quietly.

The next day they did a PET CT scan and a biopsy of the tumor. Thankfully he was admitted to the Naval Hospital where he had spent over the last decade working as a Physcian at. His old co-workers pulled strings and got him seen by surgical oncology and heme/oncology and tested him as soon as possible. It was confirmed that this is a rare type of Sarcoma that was now invading his walls of multiple organs and this type of cancer does not typically respond well to chemo or radiation.

The tumor is basketball like in size and it comsumes his abdominal cavity and is attached to his left colon, left kidney, adrenal glands, his spleen, part of the pancreas,. They will have to remove all of these organs I just listed and remove part of colon and remove the tail of the pancreas. They may still try chemo after his surgery as he doesn't have anything to lose and at this point any treatment he potentially responds to, will be to give us more time with my husband and Dad of our 4 children,

How does one of the kindest, gentlelest, most humble man I know get this kind of horrible diagnosis?

Then came telling our children and family about this advanced cancer. We have all been in shock. The clock is ticking and the window for any surgery to buy him time is open but as soon as it moves beyond the walls of these multiple organs that it is adhered to or enters his bloodstream then it will become inoperable. If in-operable then only end of life care would be offered. So we have no time.

We had hoped for in-person consults at Duke and Johns Hopkins but time won't allow anything but phone consultations and this urgent time-pressing surgery is moving forward.

Justin is scheduled for surgery next week on May 16th. He will be out of work since the day of his trip to the ER, which was last week. Then continue to be off work until after his surgical recovery and possible chemo treatments. During this time he doesn't receive a paycheck. We will have our military retirement pay but that won't cover all of our expenses.

Not all doctors are wealthy,

Justin Day just retired this past July 2023 from active duty in the United States Navy after 24 years of service. He started out flying Prowler EA6-B jet planes as an Aviation officer. Then when the news of retiring the Prowler plane came about he thought about his future and whether or not to stay in the flying world or pursue another profession.

His wife France had a chronic complicated medical history after ingesting a lye based tablet as a toddler and it caused lifelong problems to her GI tract.

Justin became more interested in medicine while I, his wife underwent multiple surgeries early in our marriage and later while he was in training I had a esphagectomy and gastrectomy surgeries. I utilized IV nutrition, hydration and IV medicine via ports and he would learn to access my I.V. ports and help me navigate these challenges throughout the years of our marriage.

Justin decided a career in medicine was what his next calling would be. He applied to all kinds of medical schools as he continued to be an active duty officer, once he was accepted into a medical school he decommissioned as an officer. Justin went to medical school on orders of the United States Navy and was there as an enlisted man. During those 4 years of medical school the Navy would pay him a salary and gave his family health benefits but he had to pay for medical school out of his own pockets.

So Justin and France had to take out several hundred thousands in medical school loans.

Justin had just retired as a radiologist this last summer and the $400k in school loans were finally just paid off a few months ago and we no longer have these huge monthly loan payments, his new job as a radiologist here locally at a private practice that provides radiology physician services at local Sentara hospitals was going to be the next start to his post-Navy career.

We had lived paycheck to paycheck while in the Navy with all of his medical school loan payments and were looking forward to saving more and having a bit more financial security that a higher civilian salary would offer. Nw that the school loans were finally paid we could play catch up with investments and our retirement goals.

Now here we are not even a year into his civilian career and he is unable to work due to the cancer that will take the biggest fight and test of his life. All he wants is to provide the kids and I with financial security. He is working to get his affairs in order. All I want is for him to live and not suffer. All oour kids want is their Dad healthy and to stay alive.

Unfortunately this advanced cancer is a tough one and the statistics are not in our favor. Yes, it may be that all we can hope for is more time together and a miracle.

A friend passed on these wise words to us. “Your diagnosis is serious and statistics support that you have a short time to live. But I also know you are the statistic of one. Only God knows the outcome and how long you have to live”

We have had many friends offer to start a Go fund me, we wanted to do it ourselves so we could share with you our story, keep the facts as accurate as possible in the future updates and share with you the very personal reasons of why a doctor would ever need financial help, many people think Doctors are wealthy and that depends on what their specialty is, how much in loans they have from medical school and where they live and work.

We are fortunate our house payments are low for this area and comparable to what many people may pay in rent. So we are not living this lavish lifestyle and Justin chose to serve his country at a huge pay loss. Active duty physicians typically get paid 50-80% less than what civilian physicians make. We have no regrets to our service to this country. I say “we” as our family also made sacrifices in that we had no control where we lived, and we were stationed far away from family. He was deployed throughout our marriage. We have also been mainly blessed by his service to this country and I am so thankful for the experiences and friends we have made along the way. Because of this service we now have a huge supportwe network of friends. We have gone through so much in our over 20 years of marriage.

My husband is a perfectionist when it comes to his job and is very methodical. The days he would have a very tough case such as having to break news to a young cancer patient he would carry that home with him. I would be able to tell how his day was within minutes of him getting home. I used to tell him how good of a physician he is because he cares so much. Plus he is one of the smartest physicians I know. When friends have had their own cancer or scary health journeys Justin has been there, offering to help to look at their studies and to interpret the medical lingo for them and answer any questions.

My husband is a man of character, he is a wonderful hands-on father and even does laundry, cooks and cleans. He has always treated me with the love, kindness and respect that all women deserve. He is my best-friend and the love of my life. I cannot imagine life without him and yet that is our reality.

He is now racing to get our affairs in order, will teach me the bill pay system he set up and explain what benefits the kids and I will have after he is gone. This is so hard and I want to avoid these talks or be in denial and just believe it will all be okay. We can't though and we owe it to our children to do whatever we can to provide security, their comfort and stability.

So it humbles me that we are here accepting the help of our friends, neighbors, family, and strangers!

Yet we also know how through these acts of generosity we will continue the kindness shown to us and as our kids witness the support, prayers, and help from others they will also do the same for others and continue their father's legacy of only putting out or giving goodness and kindness into this world.

His surgery will be next week, we have both of our parents flying in and our 2nd oldest son, Sammy, is a newly enlisted Marine and is flying home. Our oldest son, Caleb, just started a new job up in Bellingham, Washington and unfortunately does not have vacation time yet and won’t be able to fly out this week.

This sarcoma may be advanced but we feel blessed knowing we have some time together and we will pray for a miracle and hope to give him more quality time with us. I pray that throughout this fight that we are able to keep him comfortable. We will just have to see what comes next.

Thank you for your time, and help and for sharing this with others that may want to help and also keep us in their prayers and thoughts.

Blessings!

Update!

Night before surgery! Good news on MRI, his right kidney does have a lesion or concerning area, but not pressing or urgent and they will re-scan in 6 months! So good news! He will only lose the left kidney from the cancer, along with the rest of the organs I listed before. Surgery is tomorrow and will be 10-14 hours and he is in the hospital now! We will get back to hospital tomorrow morning at 6:30 am to see him before he goes back to the OR..