Hello to all of you out there. I hope this message finds you well. A lot has transpired since June 1st so, to catch you up...
On June 1st, I walked into an emergency room in Bozeman, Montana with side pain and 6 hours later I walked out with the preliminary diagnosis of advanced stage cancer.
By using a CT scan the emergency room doctor found abnormal masses in my left kidney, lymph nodes, and nodules that had metastasized into my lungs, representative of cancer in an advanced stage.
So… not the best start to the day.
With the help of a good friend with some hospital pull, I was able to get in to see a urologist the following day in the cancer center. After seeing the urologist that morning, he verified that I did indeed have cancer and, along with the lungs, I also had metastases in my lymph nodes, making this even more advanced than I thought initially.
So… worse news.
The urologist personally put me in with the oncologist that afternoon who, after going through all the film, said he was 99% sure that I had an aggressive form of cancer called renal cell carcinoma. It was in either the third or fourth stage, which is terminal, but he needed a biopsy to be 100% sure.
So… life changing news.
We immediately set up a biopsy for the following day and I started researching the best places in the country to care for advanced renal cell carcinoma. Jillian and I packed up the dogs and our stuff, my parents flew out, my mother and I flew back, we left one car and Bill and Jillian drove our remaining belongings out here in the other. Mass exodus in a big damn hurry.
I immediately came to the emergency room at Penn State Hershey medical center the morning after I arrived in town. My breathing was becoming quite labored as the blood began to build up in my lungs. A team of doctors was assigned to my case to try and verify exactly what kind of cancer I had and exactly what stage. The initial biopsy taken in Bozeman did not point in the direction of renal cell carcinoma and instead lent itself to either urothelial cancer or bladder cancer. A far outlier was the possibility of testicular cancer or the presence of multiple primary cancers as well. (This is one of the weirdest moments of my life. It's a lot to receive a cancer diagnosis and everything that comes with that, but to then have to play the wheel of misfortune game of "which cancer do I have and how long do I have to live?"...... Not a lot of fun. Especially when you consider that I have metastases in my kidney, lymph nodes, and lungs so I was in the final stages no matter what kind of cancer popped up. Basically, I'm asking how much time I have.)
With the initial biopsy pointing in a different direction than originally suspected, but yet inconclusive, we scheduled another biopsy for a different lymph area, a renal biopsy, and ultrasound. We did an ultrasound on my left testicle and found masses (at this point it may be easier to list the places I do not have cancer lol) and the doctors recognize that this, in concert with the fast rate and direction of the metastases, is indicative of testicular cancer (glimmer of hope you say?). Germ cell tumors from the testes were then found in the second lymph biopsy backing up this finding. There was still confusion about the way the malignancy in my kidney is behaving and the mass in my inferior vena cava isn't consistent with testicular cancer, showing the potential for a second cancer, but make no mistake this was incredibly promising news.
To summarize…
At this point, it looked certain that I have testicular cancer, but it’s possible that I also have another primary cancer. The doctors tell me that if the biopsies indicate this other primary source, it would make me a case study because it is so incredibly rare… so we crossed our fingers and hoped. Case studies are largely uncharted territory and incurable in my case. The best case scenario here is that it is just testicular cancer. The advancement of the metastases are still fightable and oftentimes curable in testicular cancer, whereas if it is any other cancer then... I'm in a real shit spot. At this point we needed the kidney biopsy to be positive about what we were dealing with and start treatment.
Fast forward 48hrs...
My kidney biopsy returned and the metastasized mass in the kidney consists of germ cell tissue from the testis!!!!! I only have testicular cancer and even in this advanced metastasized form, stage 3 of 3, the nature of this particular cancer means that through surgery and chemotherapy the goal will actually be to completely cure it. I never thought I would joyously exclaim to a group of people that I had wonderful news to share and that news would then be that I have testicular cancer .
Moving forward…
I will be doing 4 cycles of aggressive chemotherapy which will take 21 days per cycle to complete. 5 days hooked up to the juice in the hospital with a 2-week break at home for recovery. The testicle will be surgically removed at some point as well, but I'm not quite sure when. My assumption would be after the chemotherapy so that I'm no longer immunocompromised. Well, here we go...
Okay, now you are all caught up! I've been asked a bit about visitation and I'm really tickled by how many people would love to come see me. The hospital is largely operating under pandemic rules, especially on a cancer floor like mine, so it is really unlikely that anyone will be able to get in to see me unfortunately. I'll soon be immunocompromised by the chemotherapy anyway though, so I won’t be able to have visitors for a while.
Jillian has been trying to keep anybody in the loop that would like to be. She's been great about getting posts up on Facebook and connecting with individuals as well. You can find her here on Facebook at Jillian Thornton.
As many of you know, my summer gig is being out in the great outdoors guiding folks around the beauty that is the northwest. However, life has been turned upside down and those plans have changed. I have created this GoFundMe in hopes of helping Jillian and I get through the next few months of not only being out of work, but also paying for some out-of-network medical costs while I'm being treated here in PA. Anything helps and your generosity means more to my family and I than you'll ever know.
It's going to get a little bit bumpy from here on out so I'll reach out again when I can. If you reach out and I don't get back to you, please be patient. Wish me luck…
On June 1st, I walked into an emergency room in Bozeman, Montana with side pain and 6 hours later I walked out with the preliminary diagnosis of advanced stage cancer.
By using a CT scan the emergency room doctor found abnormal masses in my left kidney, lymph nodes, and nodules that had metastasized into my lungs, representative of cancer in an advanced stage.
So… not the best start to the day.
With the help of a good friend with some hospital pull, I was able to get in to see a urologist the following day in the cancer center. After seeing the urologist that morning, he verified that I did indeed have cancer and, along with the lungs, I also had metastases in my lymph nodes, making this even more advanced than I thought initially.
So… worse news.
The urologist personally put me in with the oncologist that afternoon who, after going through all the film, said he was 99% sure that I had an aggressive form of cancer called renal cell carcinoma. It was in either the third or fourth stage, which is terminal, but he needed a biopsy to be 100% sure.
So… life changing news.
We immediately set up a biopsy for the following day and I started researching the best places in the country to care for advanced renal cell carcinoma. Jillian and I packed up the dogs and our stuff, my parents flew out, my mother and I flew back, we left one car and Bill and Jillian drove our remaining belongings out here in the other. Mass exodus in a big damn hurry.
I immediately came to the emergency room at Penn State Hershey medical center the morning after I arrived in town. My breathing was becoming quite labored as the blood began to build up in my lungs. A team of doctors was assigned to my case to try and verify exactly what kind of cancer I had and exactly what stage. The initial biopsy taken in Bozeman did not point in the direction of renal cell carcinoma and instead lent itself to either urothelial cancer or bladder cancer. A far outlier was the possibility of testicular cancer or the presence of multiple primary cancers as well. (This is one of the weirdest moments of my life. It's a lot to receive a cancer diagnosis and everything that comes with that, but to then have to play the wheel of misfortune game of "which cancer do I have and how long do I have to live?"...... Not a lot of fun. Especially when you consider that I have metastases in my kidney, lymph nodes, and lungs so I was in the final stages no matter what kind of cancer popped up. Basically, I'm asking how much time I have.)
With the initial biopsy pointing in a different direction than originally suspected, but yet inconclusive, we scheduled another biopsy for a different lymph area, a renal biopsy, and ultrasound. We did an ultrasound on my left testicle and found masses (at this point it may be easier to list the places I do not have cancer lol) and the doctors recognize that this, in concert with the fast rate and direction of the metastases, is indicative of testicular cancer (glimmer of hope you say?). Germ cell tumors from the testes were then found in the second lymph biopsy backing up this finding. There was still confusion about the way the malignancy in my kidney is behaving and the mass in my inferior vena cava isn't consistent with testicular cancer, showing the potential for a second cancer, but make no mistake this was incredibly promising news.
To summarize…
At this point, it looked certain that I have testicular cancer, but it’s possible that I also have another primary cancer. The doctors tell me that if the biopsies indicate this other primary source, it would make me a case study because it is so incredibly rare… so we crossed our fingers and hoped. Case studies are largely uncharted territory and incurable in my case. The best case scenario here is that it is just testicular cancer. The advancement of the metastases are still fightable and oftentimes curable in testicular cancer, whereas if it is any other cancer then... I'm in a real shit spot. At this point we needed the kidney biopsy to be positive about what we were dealing with and start treatment.
Fast forward 48hrs...
My kidney biopsy returned and the metastasized mass in the kidney consists of germ cell tissue from the testis!!!!! I only have testicular cancer and even in this advanced metastasized form, stage 3 of 3, the nature of this particular cancer means that through surgery and chemotherapy the goal will actually be to completely cure it. I never thought I would joyously exclaim to a group of people that I had wonderful news to share and that news would then be that I have testicular cancer .
Moving forward…
I will be doing 4 cycles of aggressive chemotherapy which will take 21 days per cycle to complete. 5 days hooked up to the juice in the hospital with a 2-week break at home for recovery. The testicle will be surgically removed at some point as well, but I'm not quite sure when. My assumption would be after the chemotherapy so that I'm no longer immunocompromised. Well, here we go...
Okay, now you are all caught up! I've been asked a bit about visitation and I'm really tickled by how many people would love to come see me. The hospital is largely operating under pandemic rules, especially on a cancer floor like mine, so it is really unlikely that anyone will be able to get in to see me unfortunately. I'll soon be immunocompromised by the chemotherapy anyway though, so I won’t be able to have visitors for a while.
Jillian has been trying to keep anybody in the loop that would like to be. She's been great about getting posts up on Facebook and connecting with individuals as well. You can find her here on Facebook at Jillian Thornton.
As many of you know, my summer gig is being out in the great outdoors guiding folks around the beauty that is the northwest. However, life has been turned upside down and those plans have changed. I have created this GoFundMe in hopes of helping Jillian and I get through the next few months of not only being out of work, but also paying for some out-of-network medical costs while I'm being treated here in PA. Anything helps and your generosity means more to my family and I than you'll ever know.
It's going to get a little bit bumpy from here on out so I'll reach out again when I can. If you reach out and I don't get back to you, please be patient. Wish me luck…