Pete Solomon survived Stage IV colorectal cancer | Colonoscopy | Ostomy Bag | Chemotherapy

DESCRIPTION

On this episode of the @CancerInterviews podcast, Pete Solomon tells host Bruce Morton how he a chemotherapy regimen helped him survive Stage IV colorectal cancer.  A colonoscopy led to his diagnosis.  Treatment included his having to wear and maintain a colostomy bag. 

Pete Solomon of Winthrop, Massachusetts, was in good health, swimming laps each day before going to his job with a library.  Then suddenly in September 2013, he found himself overwhelmed with fatigue.  When he saw his doctor, a number of tests were run, but none indicated anything unusual.  The doctor next called for a colonoscopy, and the polyps they removed were cancerous.  The colonoscopy was performed on a Monday, and Pete received a call with the bad news the following Friday. 

Two days later, Pete Solomon began radiation treatment.  Within the year he had two cycles of chemotherapy and two surgeries.  Things went well initially, but then the cancer invaded his lymph system.  After about a year, the cancer was gone, but so were five lymph nodes and part of his colon.

Pete says without question the toughest part of his treatment was his wearing a colostomy bag, which he had to do for approximately a year.  He says he kept working as he did prior to his diagnosis, people couldn’t see the bag, there was no odor and he doesn’t a great deal of pain associated with the bag.  Nonetheless, there was always a level of concern that something bad couldn’t happen anytime he went to a public place.

Exclusive of the bag, Pete Solomon said during his treatment, he experienced acute fatigue.  At times it got so bad he couldn’t “lift a pencil.”  He also suffered cognitive lapses because of the chemotherapy, and even though that regimen is in his past, he thinks to this day, his forgetfulness is tied to the chemo.

These days Pete says his health was very close to what it was, pre-diagnosis.  Where he now lives doesn’t have a pool, but it does have a gym.  He walks a mile or two on the treadmill and does some light weightlifting, emphasizing it is important to not try workouts that are on beyond one’s capability.  Pete says when your body tells you to sit down, you should sit down.

By way of advice, Pete Solomon says to trust your care team, as it makes its living battling cancer.  He suggests to trust yourself.  Set realistic goals in terms of what you want to do to get through the day.  Sometimes, he says, you will fail to meet those goals, but other days, there will be the excitement of exceeding those goals.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Colon Cancer Prevention Project: https://www.coloncancerpreventionproject.org

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: Greetings, and welcome.  This is the @CancerInterviews podcast.  I’m your host, Bruce Morton.  No two types of cancer journeys are the same in terms of their degree of difficulty, but one type of cancer that can be especially tough is colorectal cancer, not only in terms of the treatment, but the quality of life after the treatment.  Our guest on this segment is Pete Solomon of Winthrop, Massachusetts.  He survived Stage Four colorectal cancer, and we hope you will find his story to be informative and inspirational.  So now let’s get started, and Pete, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Pete Solomon: Thanks very much, Bruce.  Thanks for the invitation.

BM: We’re happy to have you, and we look forward to your story.  Pete, we start out our interviews the same way, and that’s our attempt to get to know you better. So, if you would, tell us about where you are from, what you do for work, and when you have leisure time, what you like to do, that sort of thing.

PS: Many people are fortunate because they fall into something they really enjoy and find rewarding.  I fell into things that I enjoyed and found rewarding.  I have spent decades, primarily in television, working as a sports broadcaster and I have gotten a chance to meet wonderful people and travel around.  That was great fun, but when I transitioned from being a local TV sports anchor to concentrate on play-by-play, I fell into another good opportunity.  I was offered a chance to work in a library, a special library for the blind and physically handicapped.  I spent seven years there and library work was very rewarding.  In the interim, I moved from one coast to the other, and I have been working at a suburban Boston library since 1998, primarily running the library’s circulation effort, so I feel like I go home from work every day and I feel like I have helped somebody and that’s a good thing.

BM: Okay, here’s a two-part question for you.  Part one, as I work backwards, regarding your answer, first in terms of the library, if you could be specific, what is the most rewarding part of that experience?

PS: Every day I help people in some way or another, helping them find a book, helping them with technology, but over the years, people sometimes use libraries as a last resort when they are concerned about where their life is going.  I have found AA meetings for people, I have helped people with temporary housing, every day is a little bit different, and every day we feel like we have helped somebody.

BM: Now, the other part of your answer concerned your sportscasting career.  If you could pick out, over all the years and all the games you broadcast, a singular moment, what would that be?

PS: That’s an easy question, Bruce, and I have an unusual answer.  I have been fortunate, I have done three first round games in NCAA basketball tournaments, major PGA events for the syndicated Golf Network, Inc., I have done some bowl games, but I remember a regular basketball game that was in the scheme of things was not that big of a deal.  Arizona State was playing Northern Arizona in a non-conference game, and we were there to telecast it.  About midway through the first half, I got a note from the sports information director.  I thought it involved some of the game’s statistics, but instead it said, “It’s a boy, 7.5 pounds, 22 inches,” and that’s how I found out I became a father.

BM: That is amazing and unusual, and I am sure that at one time or another, you have shared that with your son.

PS: I have indeed.  In fact, when he was a little boy, it’s funny because before he understood the process, he would tell his friends that he was born at a basketball game, as if for your halftime entertainment, a woman is going to give birth to a child, but now that he is a grown man with a life of his own, he has a better understanding.

BM: And to spice up the whole equation, it was all done on television, although the announcement might have been off-camera, his being ushered into the world certainly set itself apart from a lot of other people’s births.

PS: Yes, they put his vital statistics on the screen graphically, and I remember signing off from the game I was working that night with former West Virginia basketball coach Jody Gardner, and I said, “For Jody Gardner and my newborn son, Jim, thanks for joining us.”  That was a pretty big thrill.

BM: Now, we want to hear more about your life exclusive of cancer, because there might some people born with cancer, but most of us who have been on a cancer journey, we had life exclusive of cancer prior to that diagnosis.  So, Pete, if you could, describe what life was like for you in terms of what you were doing and what your health was like prior to your diagnosis.

PS: Interestingly enough, Bruce, my health was pretty good.  At the time we lived in a condo complex that had an indoor heated pool, and every morning I was up at 6:30 grinding out my laps, the idea being the fewer neighbors that saw me with my shirt off, the better neighbor I was.  But I was there every morning, I was in good physical condition, then I would go off to work.  Then suddenly, in September of 2013, I found myself overwhelmed with fatigue.  I couldn’t swim nearly as far as I wanted to.  I didn’t know what was going on, but I had a wonderful primary care physician, and I contacted him.  He gave me a series of tests, but initially, nothing presented itself.  Then I started bleeding.  He signed me up for a colonoscopy and the polyps they took out revealed cancer.  I had the colonoscopy on a Monday.  He called with the result on a Friday, and I pretty much expected it because I had all the symptoms.  The following day I was in Mass General Hospital in Boston for scans.  Two days later, I began a course of radiation, and over the next year or so, in addition to radiation, I had two cycles of chemo and two surgeries.  Things were going well initially, but then the cancer invaded my lymph system.  Then after a year or so, the cancer was gone, but so were five lymph nodes and part of my colon, but fortunately since then I have been cancer free, and I have been extremely fortunate.

BM: Now, I think I know the answer to this question, but even as a lay person I know the reputation of Mass General, but what we hear from a lot of guests on this program is that it is so important that your primary care physician, your care team as a whole is one that has earned your trust.  Can you say that was the case in terms of your cancer treatment regimen?

PS: Without question, Bruce.  When my PCP first called me, he had already put together a team for me, an oncologist, a surgeon, and a radiation doctor, and they followed me through the whole course.  They were great, they were easy to talk to, and I wanted to be a good patient.  I made sure I was on time for every appointment and every treatment.  Through all of this, they were just terrific, and they guided me through the whole process.

BM: We want to get back to your treatment.  The treatment for colorectal cancer sounds like it can be more invasive, more difficult than perhaps other types of cancer.  In terms of your treatment, what was the toughest part?

PS: I wore a colostomy bag for almost a year, and you never get used to it.  It is an amazing appliance.  You walk around and as best you can you go through your day.  I kept on working through much of my cancer.  People couldn’t see the colostomy bag, there was no odor, it’s just amazing how they’ve created this; but I never got comfortable changing it and it was just always there.  Other than that, I recall I didn’t have a lot of pain.  I spent my share of nights in the hospital and every time I was there, everyone I encountered was going through a lot more sickness than I.

BM: I worked briefly in health care, and I dealt with patients who had colostomy bags and there was staff there to take care of their maintenance, but you went on with your regular life when you had the bag.  It sounds like you’re the one who maintained the bag.  For somebody watching or listening now who could be on the verge of a colorectal cancer journey or is already on one, tell us what was the toughest part of that maintenance?

PS: I think just knowing that it was there.  I never had an accident, but just to know that it was there, it was a strange feeling because it is so foreign to what you are dealing, with your own life.  There was no pain involved, but I was always concerned when I went to a public place toward the end of my cancer care.  I went to a wedding I really wanted to attend.  I had some reservations if I was feeling bad, if the bag filled up at the wrong time of the church service; fortunately for me, none of that happened.  I didn’t look real great, I didn’t lose my hair, but I had the thin Albert Einstein look, but most people weren’t aware of the fact that I had a bag, nor did they care.  They were glad I was at the wedding.  I was a bad dancer before I had the bag, bad dancer when I had it and I am not a great dancer now.

BM: You mentioned the bag and maintenance thereof and it is great to hear you didn’t have any mishaps with the bag, but in terms of your everyday life, exclusive of the bag, what are some things you couldn’t do or couldn’t do as well?

PS: I couldn’t lift anything.  I could barely lift a pencil.  I did the best I could and wore out my assistant in the process.  His back probably still hurts.  As I said, I tried to live as normally as I could, and I tried to live within myself.  I didn’t try to do more than I could.  One of the things that you deal with, at least I did, I had chemo when the second round came about every other Monday and when I left, they attached a needle through the port that had been inserted in my chest, and would leave with what looked like a ‘man purse’ that flipped over my shoulder and that continued to feed chemo for the next two days or so.  Then on Wednesday, a nurse would come to my house and take out the needle.  It’s not painful.  It’s a minor aggravation.  There is a beeping noise, but I always turn off the audio because I am in a library.  That said, there are lights that go on and off.  My wife shares a bed with me and this contraption with the lights blinking on and off, she said it was like sleeping in a nightclub.

BM: We talked about the physical aspect of this, but you bring up chemo and I am going to trot out a term with which I suspect you are familiar, perhaps more familiar than you would like, but with guests we have had that have undergone chemo, they say that they experience to varying degrees, “chemo brain.”  Do you know what that is, and if so, how did it manifest itself with you?

PS: I had a little bit of that.  Sometimes there is a word you are looking for and you just can’t call it up.  Sometimes you are more forgetful than you would be, but I will tell you in being honest to this day when I have my little lapses, I still blame them on chemo brain and it has been a few years.

BM: Let’s go to the emotional piece of all this.  You have said that the treatment piece lasted a year, a year and change.  When you were in the midst of that one-plus year period, did you feel like there was light at the end of the tunnel, that this was going to come to an end, this treatment phase or did it seem like it was going to go on forever, and emotionally, how did that affect you?

PS: I had a wonderful support system, and unlike a lot of people who have had cancer that I have talked to, I wasn’t dealing with a lot of pain.  There was very little discomfort.  I had wonderful doctors and nurses and the support people at Mass General Hospital who were always very open about what to expect next.  The downturn came about halfway through the process when the cancer had invaded my lymph system, but people were really great about supporting me, in rooting for me.  There were people who came to the library who didn’t know my last name who made donations to cancer research in my name because they were just rooting for me.  It’s wonderful to see people step up when you are dealing with adversity and all the people around me couldn’t have been greater.

BM: I would think the person spearheading your support would be your wife.  If you would, describe the role she played in all this.

PS: I suspect that this was a lot tougher on her than it was on me because you have this feeling when someone you are close to is dealing with something.  She was great, she was very patient, and she remains to this day the most patient woman in the world, and I know how hard it was for her.  I was still able to do things.  Maybe I couldn’t carry the groceries, but I could take out the garbage So, we tried to live as normal of a life as we could, and having her there, and family members, I was very close to her family, that was great, that was extremely helpful.

BM: It sounds like things were evolving, it sounds like you were getting to the point in which things are just about done with the most difficult part, the treatment part.  Was there a time in which you felt the prospect of full recovery was just around the corner, that it was going to become a reality and if you had the realization, what was that like?

PS: It was great.  I was walking on the treadmill when I still had the bag on.  I felt like I was getting better, I felt like I was getting stronger, the doctors were so supportive, and they were guiding me, appointment by appointment, visit by visit.  They’d say you can expect this, don’t worry about that, and so, as you suggested, yes, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

BM: Now that that has happened, how would describe life as it is now?  If ‘normal’ was 100 percent, quantitatively, where are you are now, and elaborate.

PS: Taking into consideration my advanced age, I am pretty close to 100 percent.  We live in a different place now than where we lived when I was diagnosed.  We don’t have access to an indoor pool, but I am in the gym every morning, essentially lifting paper weights.  I enjoy life.  I feel good, and you hate to have the idea of cancer hanging over your head, but to be honest, every time I get a little twinge or pain, I say I hope I don’t have cancer of the wrist or cancer of the elbow, but once you have gone through it, it is sort of in the back of your mind, but right now I am feeling very, very good and very, very grateful.

BM: You were talking about going to the gym, you were talking about lifting paperweights, you already mentioned the treadmill, but again, for the benefit of somebody who is on a colorectal cancer journey or they have heard that they might be a candidate for such a journey, you have talked about your workouts, describe in more detail what your workouts involve because this is something for somebody on a colorectal cancer journey, this is something for them to aspire to for someone in metaphoric shoes similar to yours.

PS: I think the first thing you have to do is listen to your body.  Fatigue comes along with cancer, that is just a fact of life.  But when I felt good, I wanted to do something challenging, so I would do a mile or two on the treadmill.  I would just do something physical because that has sort of been my life anyway, and it was a part of life I didn’t want to give up.  Now that the cancer journey has ended, I feel that starting the day with something physical is a great way to begin.  That said, during the course of my cancer, I was always doing something, if even it was just a walk just because I was testing myself to see what kind of progress I was making.

BM: Okay, and in terms of testing yourself, you sound kind of ambitious in this area.  Have you ever attempted to do something and found that you met your match?  That your ambition pushed you to a place in which you were doing something that was a bit too much for you?

PS: Sure.  There were plenty of times when the match won, but it didn’t discourage me from continuing to try.  We talked about listening to your body.  When your body tells you to sit down, you sit down.

BM: Pete, we are going to wrap things up now, and we like to finish our interviews at the same place.  I’d like to hear your answer to this and in large part, you are speaking to people who are on a colorectal cancer journey or may soon be on one.  If you had a private audience with someone who is in that position and there was wisdom you wanted to share based on that experience, what would your message be?

PS: I have two suggestions.  One is to trust your team.  Trust the medical people around you.  These are people who make their living within the cancer community, and there is probably you can show them in terms of your cancer journey that they haven’t seen before.  So, show up for every appointment, try to be as positive as you can, ask questions, the doctors are working for you, not the other way around, and try to stay upbeat.  Secondly, trust yourself.  The human body is an amazing machine and sometimes you test it and don’t get there and sometimes you test it, and you surpass expectations.  I think if you can continue to do that and set makeable goals for yourself, it takes your mind off the idea that every morning when you wake up you say to yourself, “I’ve got cancer.  What’s today going to bring?”

BM: Okay, Pete.  I think that is going to do it for this segment of Cancer Interviews.  Pete, we want to thank you very much for sharing what you had to share.  We talked at the top about your story being informative and inspirational, and I think you checked both boxes with flying colors.  There is plenty for someone who is on a colorectal cancer journey or knows someone who might be, there is plenty of information and inspiration.  So, Pete, thanks again for being with us.

PS: Thank you.  Bruce, it was my honor.  Thank you.

BM: Thank you, Pete, and we hope what you heard can aid the cancer journey for yourself or a loved one, so until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

SHOW NOTES

TITLE: Pete Solomon, Colorectal Cancer Survivor – Winthrop, Massachusetts, USA

Pete Solomon is a colorectal cancer survivor.  He is a former television sportscaster who also helped others by working in a library for the handicapped.  Pete said he was in good health until he noticed he was becoming increasingly fatigued.

A trip to the doctor led a colonoscopy and a diagnosis of Stage Four colorectal cancer.  What followed included chemotherapy, resulting in the removal of his colon and five lymph nodes.  In addition to the occasional mental lapses that are a byproduct of chemo, Pete had to wear a colostomy bag.

Pete’s cancer journey eventually took a turn for the better, and physically he can do practically everything he could do prior to the diagnosis.  By way of advice, he suggests you listen to your body and trust your care team.

Additional Resources:

Cancer Interviews: http://www.cancerinterviews.com

Colon Cancer Prevention Project: https://coloncancerpreventionproject.org

Time Stamps:

05:49 Prior to his cancer diagnosis, Pete was in good health.

06:35 A colonoscopy revealed colorectal cancer, requiring a procedure that resulted in the removal of five lymph nodes and his colon.

08:50 Describes the toughest part of his treatment.

10:22 Maintaining his colostomy bag was no fun, but he was able to do it.

11:42 Pete is asked while undergoing treatment, what couldn’t do it?

13:34 He is asked if chemotherapy resulted in ‘chemo brain.’

14:23 Throughout the treatment and recovery process, he enjoyed a tremendous support system.

15:33 Pete said during recovery, his wife was extremely patient.

16:42 Describes what it was like when he felt his journey was on the upswing.

20:43 Pete has this personal message for anyone on a colorectal cancer journey.

KEYWORDS (tags):

colorectal cancer

cancer

cancer interviews

cancerinterviews.com

bruce morton

colorectal

pete solomon

chemotherapy

colonoscopy

ostomy bag