My symptoms had been mounting for months. Malaise and fatigue had been my companions each day as I awoke. I had also noticed a subtle pain in my right upper quadrant of my abdomen for the past eight weeks.I tried ignoring these issues-attributing them to my workaholism over a lifetime. Moreover I decided that my abdominal pain was a result of the daily weight lifting routine before my nighttime runs.
The day in question started routinely. I had showered and then went to the medical center to start a ten hour stint in the emergency room. Around 7 p.m. that evening I got home and started my nightly 4 mile run. I can remember it like it was yesterday. The temperature was around 25 degrees and the snow started to fall. I had worked ten days straight and so looked forward to these periods of solitude.
I recalled that the discomfort I had been feeling in my right abdomen had started up agin during this run. When I came home, as I opened the door of my condominium my whole world started crumbling down around me. I had difficulty breathing and felt an excrutiating pain in my right ribs as I collapsed. As I lay on the floor the pain came in waves. Even though I didn't know it at the time, I had lost 15 lbs and had a fever of 102 degrees. I somehow made it to my car and drove to the trauma center of s large medical facility around Detroit. The staff thought I might have an acute abdomen so all they could do was to give me IV fluids and oxygen. I could have nothing by mouth and only tylenol for the pain. It was one of the worst nights of my life. The next morning after a battery of tests, I called my father to come in. While he was standing next to my bed, the emergency room physician walked in and said he had some bad news. The tests, he said had shown that I had cancer all over my liver. They were going to keep me in the hospital to find out the primary source. Tears started crawling down my face as my father held me. We were both speechless. Here I was a naturopathic physician and semi- vegetarian looking death straight in the eye at 50 years old. One week later after a very painful biopsy I was told I had one of the rarest liver sarcomas in the world.
© Mark Roby 2010
