If I suddenly disappear and am never heard from again....

[iw5000]

...just wanted to let everyone know what's up.

Went in to have a rib injury checked due to a jiu jitsu injury two weeks ago. Being feeling tired a week prior to hurting it training. So i went in for an Xray. Pulled rib led to a finding of a blood clot, which then led to being admitted in the hospital. This led to further tests, which then found cancer. Which then led to about two weeks of hell....doing two surgical procedures and about 15 procedures/tests (PET scans, CT scans, brain MRI, colonoscopy, endoscope, etc...). Half those days couldn't even eat, due to fasting before tests. After these were done, next thing i know i am starting Chemo. WTF? Classes on it. More tests. Then the chemo.

My head is spinning.

Went from being a guy in his forties who was active and doing shit, living life, having fun.....to suddenly a guy with Stage 4 cancer and maybe looking a death sentence. In just two weeks. On the last part there, I can't even really speak to that to much, the odds. I'm trying to not read to much into that shit, as doctors and everyone else is telling me one's mindset can go a long way in overcoming things. I have to bank on that.

Tough road ahead for me.

Appreciate every day you are healthy, you never know when things will change.

[spas12]

Only a lurker here but enjoyed reading hundreds of your posts over the past 8 or so years. It is heart wrenching to read this. Wishing you all the best.

[kylet357]

You'll be good bro.

[markopolo]

Get better soon EyeDub... I'll be thinking about you

[hebbnh]

Wow. I’m not sure that I can adequately express how much it pains me to read that. My wife’s family recently lost a good friend to stage 4 cancer, so this really hits home. All the best to you IW, I know you’ll give it a hell of a fight.

[probaddie]

If I've gathered anything about you reading your posts on this forum, it's that you're too fucking stubborn to die. You'll get through this. Godspeed.

[bradman]

Can I have your Xbox?

[Slick]

Well, shit. I did not expect feels when I clicked on an IW thread. Good luck with the fight, man.

[wings]

I wish you all the best in your fight against cancer.

[lustindarkness]

You got this bro.

[GodMars]

Jesus Christ, man. Pulling for you and hoping for the best. Or atleast more time to keep working toward a better outcome.

[Will]

You've already beaten countless CODs, all of which are cancer, so you'll beat this too.

[Pegasus Actual]

Shit, came to see if anyone bothered to make an E3 thread and saw this. Sorry to hear man. It's always been fun arguing with you on here and occasionally playing some Xbox. Good luck.

[TheHawkNY]

I'm so sorry to hear. I hope you'll pull through, we'll all be rooting for you.

[Dumien]

Alot of the people I love have battled cancer but the best story I have... involved martial arts.

I had a friend in highschool get injured being flipped during karate training. That concussion led to the doctors finding her brain cancer. She's still in remission.

I have no doubt in my mind that I'll be adding "my internet friend who got injured doing the jiu jitsu" to the list of winners.

Surround yourself with people you love. The fight is going to be tough.

[Disgruntled Jigglypuff]

Well shit. We all love you bro.

[Broadband]

I hope you pull through, iw5000. I know we argued a lot in the past, but cancer is no joke.

[illram]

Dang. My heart goes out to you and your family. Stay strong and fight it. All cancer gives a shit about is it's lame K/D ratio, not the objective, so you should win this one like you always do.

[iw5000]

Signed in today, saw this,....can't say thanks enough for all the support. Brought some tears to my eyes. Every little bit helps.

Chemo session #2 starting next Tuesday, so onward and forward.

Funny side story about gaming, as this is a gaming site. Ironic how things circle back in life. With all this shit going on in my life, I have had to go pretty much cold turkey on many of activities. Kayaking has stopped. Jiu jitsu has stopped. Not so much the cancer and chemo stopping me from doing those, but my battle with blood clots the past month, and being off and on Cumadin, Heperin and Lovenox. Can't risk bruising and bleeding.

So an activity I can do is play video games. I haven't played much this spring because nothing has really caught my interest and then cold turkey the past month with all the shit going on. But with things settled in a little bit now, I have got back online. Played a little bit more of PUBG, and you know...I can't even put to words how just escaping to a gaming world for a while, ...what it does for stress and anxiety. I'm not thinking about some article I read online about my survival odds, I'm just in another little world shooting some mother-Foxtroters. I feel normal. It relaxed me.

So to wrap this up, first day back, I'm playing PUBG, ....and then this finally happens for the first time after a few months of trying...




finally! Got my first win. Only had to kill two people to get it, but i'll take it lol

Even the smallest things can make a day great.

[markopolo]

Good on you, EyeDub5k. Thanks for the update and keep on fighting!

[GodMars]

Jun 14, 2018 10:10:05 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Signed in today, saw this,....can't say thanks enough for all the support. Brought some tears to my eyes. Every little bit helps.

I think about how you are doing every day, man. Not joking. I was glad to see this update.

[Disgruntled Jigglypuff]

The fact that you signed on again brought a tear to my eye...

[ChloeB42 (Alexcalibur42)]

Keep up the good fight man, I know it ain't gonna be easy, but you have my condolences. Kick cancer's ass.

[snes chalmers]

Keep your head up, and keep on keeping on IW

[tooros]

I never look in here since ditching CoD. Shizzle. F uck etc.
Everyone is right though - no one who maintained a KDR so high, for so long, would do anything to Foxtrot that up. You'll be right.
'Bump in the road.

[iw5000]

Wanted to give everyone an update.

Time flies by.

I posted all my stuff last June 8th. I had just started my first chemo round on June 6th. My diagnosis was a Stage 4 Undifferentiated carcinoma, in my Esophagus. Caught it late, it had spread to most of my lymph nodes, brain, and stomach. After all my procedures, the doctors rushed me on chemo, as that's all that could be done. Try to reduce what was in me, as cutting things out wouldn't work (surgery was not an option) as it had spread. They measured the amount of cancer in me, it's spread, by a test called the CEA test. Carcinoma Embryonic Antigen test. This type of GI tract cancer emitted a protein, that doesn't really exist in adult bodies (only in fetuses)So a normal range was between 0.1 and 2.0. Mine was around 4,200. The goal was to get me on a very heavy hitting dose of a chemo drug called FOLFOX (actually a batch of three drugs), plus another immuno therapy drug called herceptin. Try to control this as long as possible before my body would wear down from chemo. So 8 rounds were scheduled over about 5 months. Get that CEA test maybe below 1,000, and have my kidneys, white blood cells,etc...all hold up and not fail.

The doctor told me that if this Chemo treatment didn't knock things down in a fast manner, i might be dead by the winter. Stage 4 Esophagal cancer is already bad enough, medium lifespan is like 10 months, with a 5-15% survival rate.

Anyways, long story short this hopefully gives hope to people in the future who also find themselves or someone they know up against this crap. The chemo plan i was on, started working. Working very well. I pretty much spent 5 straight months living on chemo. Some days walking around with a pump on me. Dealing with all the annoying side effects, which were a lot. Sores. Cold Neuropathy, Cold sensitivity, nausea, acidic taste in my mouth, lack of appetite, etc...Plenty of fun. But....Each round started knocking this cancer down about 40 to 60%. My CEA test numbers started dropping. First 2,600, then 1,900, then 750, then 361, then 71, 39.....

....pretty much to the point that after my last chemo round on Sept 12th, which lasted two weeks, my CEA test dropped to 6.1!! The doctor took a bunch of tests (brain scans, PET scans, etc..) and miraculously, no signs of cancer anywhere. Nothing. Nada.

Needless to say, I am pretty happy. This shit can come back, so the battle isn't over. Next battle is to hope i stay clear for 90 days now that i am off chemo (but staying on the Herceptin drug, but it isn't toxic) But for now, i have no cancer and am in no danger of dying anytime soon.

I was lucky. My treatment worked. I also went full on hard mode on eating healthy too. Very little processed sugars, tons of veggies, clean meals. Vitamin stuff too. Other things like curcumen, etc.. I also didn't miss any work, tried to keep to being as 'normal' as possible as they kept preaching the right mindset can go a long way. Also had a ton of good friends and family who kept me going too, like with kayaking and jiu Jitsu. After a few weeks off in June, i went right back to training jiu jitsu 2 to 4 days a week. Just grinded right through the nausea and other side effects. It wasn't easy, but ....death is a good motivator.

Anyways, thanks for the support up there. And hopefully my story can help someone who finds themselves in a bad way against Cancer. Treatments are improving every day and new things are now available.

Thanks!!

[hebbnh]

That’s awesome news, IW!

[markopolo]

Good to hear IW!!! Keep fighting the good fight!!

[GodMars]

IW, your latest update made me so happy I’m sitting here teared up. Keep on going, man.

[TheHawkNY]

Best news I've heard in a long time. That's awesome!