Butchie Beats Cancer, An Intro

This past Thursday evening, 6/25/20 I went to sleep with an odd pain in my abdomen. I woke up a few times during the night but it wasn’t piercing or anything that required an immediate ER visit or anything.

When I woke Friday morning, 6/26/20, I was still having the pain and nothing really seemed to affect it. I went to the Kaiser Urgent Care where after speaking with the doctor, we all agreed it sounded like my gallbladder may need to come out. The dr ordered some labs and they did an ultrasound on my abdomen.

Dr comes back in the room about an hour later to let me know there’s good news and bad news. Good news: labs and ultrasound came back with a healthy gallbladder. Bad news: there were masses – abnormalities on my liver. He let me know this could be a few things – a cyst, pocket of fluid and possibly…. cancer.

He sent me straight to the ER at St Joe’s for further diagnostics.

At St Joe’s, I was given a ct scan of my pelvis and abdomen. The ER doctor came in and let me know that there were indeed many masses on my liver and some in my colon. Obviously they hadn’t done a biopsy yet but the dr let me know what we were looking at. Of course I asked if there was any way this was not cancer but no, there wasn’t any way it wasn’t cancer. I was admitted for the night and scheduled for a colonoscopy on Saturday 6/27/20.

During the day on Saturday, I was visited by the doctor who will be my oncologist(https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/…/benjamin-scheier-576… ) He let me know that even though we were waiting for the official biopsy to be completed, he’s seen my condition many times as it’s very common in the cancer world. The cancer originated in my colon and moved on to my liver. There’s also a nodule on my lung which may or may not be cancer but is the least of our concerns at this point. The liver is too engulfed in masses to consider surgery at this point, and they want to go after the colon to stop it from spreading the cancer. He was already formulating a plan and seems very smart/competent/compassionate.

After a long day of waiting and the colonoscopy prep the night before, I was finally wheeled down and given my colonoscopy. They confirmed the masses were there and extracted samples for biopsy. I’m currently waiting for those results to come in but my oncologist has a plan we’re ready to put in place after confirmation of the type of cancer. I’ll be getting a port placed under my skin, hopefully this week where I’ll receive my chemo treatments. Chemo should start in 7-10 days from this past Saturday.

This is a hard fight and a long battle but I do have a few things on my side. My liver is still operating normally and I’m young and healthy. I’ve got a great network of family and friends supporting me, both near and far. My amazing girlfriend Emily is committing to helping me through this fight.

A lot of people who I’ve told want to help. I appreciate that and we will take you up on offers shortly. For now, let us figure out what this looks like and where our needs lie.

For now – texts, thought, prayers, vibes etc are all welcome and what I need. If you really feel the need to help physically somehow, we could probably begin stockpiling medical masks, disinfectants and the like. I’ll be on a heavy chemo cocktail and will be extremely immunocompromised. I will not be able to go out other than to my treatment and I also unfortunately will not be able to have visitors. We can totally set up zoom/gchat/FaceTime dates.

I feel very loved and supported right now. Thank you all for that.

Text me/my family if you want/need my address.

We are setting up this blog for easy access to information as it comes. There have been offers to set up a Gofundme and meal trains. Stay tuned for more info on all that.

Thank you again for all your love and support. It means so much right now.

-Matt AKA Butchie
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️