Video: Avoiding Stomach Removal after Stomach Cancer Diagnosis

Hi, my name is George.

I’m 51 years old, a father of three, a boy, girl, boy. Oldest is 17,  and the youngest is 11. I’m happily married. Really all my free time is dedicated to my family. And when I’m out with my family, I’m doing trathlons and training. That’s what I enjoy.

About a year and a half ago, I turned 50 and I went in for a routine colonoscopy. My gastroenterologist at the time really insisted that since I was going in already for a colonoscopy, that I have an endoscopy as well.

I couldn’t think of a reason why he needed to do an endoscopy, and I remember that we had a little bit of an interchange as to why. And really the reason was it was just routine and he wanted to make sure that since I was going in for a colonoscopy already that we just checked everything.

And I really believe that that was Godsend because lo and behold, my colonoscopy was clean, but the endoscopy came back and he found some tumors in my stomach. The tumors ended up being cancerous and a shock, obviously to everybody because I was in I had no symptoms and I was in great health.

It was only a year and a half ago, but to me it feels like a lifetime.

All I could think of was how’s this happening? You know, I had no symptoms. I felt great. I you know, I can’t believe this is happening to me. I didn’t know of anyone who had stomach cancer. It felt like something that happened to people who were much older.

I didn’t even know where to start. Really overwhelmed is is probably the best description I can give for how I felt in that moment in addition to you know fear is probably the other big one.

So before coming to life works well in the center I visited uh about five or six doctors. These were specialists who had been highly recommended, you know, all over the country in Florida and even I even went to MD Anderson and so forth.

And they all had the same uh the same really explanation and course of action that I should take, which was to have my stomach completely removed. It would have had a significant impact on the quality of my life because of the way I would have had to eat and try to keep nutrition in, so it was a big deal.

The first thing I did as I went through all that was thankfully the tumors were small enough that they were able to remove them endoscopically. So I did have the tumors removed, but they all shared with me that I needed to act quickly because those tumors could come back. And the big fear was that it would metastasize.

My triathlon coach, when I told her that I had stomach cancer and I would have to stop training because I was going to have surgery to remove my stomach because that’s what all these doctors I had seen recommended.

She told me, you can’t do that without going to see my friend Dr. Minkoff at LifeWorks Wellness Center. Erin got me sent an email and she got me in to see Dr. Minkoff within a within a week, it was incredible.

And I remember seeing Dr. Minkoff that first time and you know the he’s a very special person, he’s obviously incredibly knowledgeable. I just felt he was very honest and straightforward with me. He told he explained exactly what I had, what the challenges were, and what his philosophy and how he would treat me.

I was nervous, uh, scared, and you know, all these things are going through my head. And he really did a great job of walking me through it.

At that visit, I felt very much heard. They understood my case before I came in. It was obvious that they had gone through all the information that they had requested, which was all my medical records and scans and so forth. So when I came in, they knew exactly who I was and and what I had, which I thought was also very helpful and impressive.

I think the biggest thing for me was Dr. Minkoff was very much focused on the rest of my life. And he said that and that’s something he’ll never forget. You’ve  got a long life ahead of you, and we want we have to make decisions based on making sure you’re in the best situation to live that life.

And that was like an eye-opening moment because I realized and understood that he was looking at my wellness and my health from a much broader perspective. And he was talking about having to address and understand what the causes of this were and how to fix it long term so I could have a long, healthy, fruitful life.

My treatment plan was customized to my situation.

It’s been a year since I finished my treatment at this point. When I finished the initial treatment, Dr. Minkoff looked at my results and said, you know, the results that we have are better than we could have ever expected. There is no trace of any tumors or any sign of inflammation or anything.

I mean it was really miraculous.

So now that my treatment plan at LifeWorks Wellness Center is complete, I feel great.

As the last few weeks before it ended, I was really feeling much better. I felt good. I had energy back. I, you know, I felt positive. I felt like we were making progress. But really, after it finished and I got the results back, it’s been fantastic since.

I continue to come back regularly for my customized treatment and maintenance, but from a physical standpoint, I’m in the best health I’ve ever been.

I continue to get checkups from my primary doctors back in Miami uh along with the test that Dr. Minkoff orders from me here and everything looks great.

From a mental and emotional point of view, I can tell you that I feel amazing as well. I’ll never forget when Dr. Minkoff said that there was no trace of any cancer in anywhere in my stomach or anywhere else. I just couldn’t believe it. There was I have no words to describe that. I never anticipated that it would be such a drastic improvement.

It was just incredible to me that in such a short time I was so drastically improved.

Really feel that I’ve gotten a second chance on life, and I owe that to Dr. Minkoff and LifeWorks Wellness Center.