Ray Suarez's Battle with Cancer: Facing Fear and Facing Treatment —A Life Changing Journey
Experience the journey of recovery and courage with a man who pushes through to face his cancer head-on.
Here's what I cover with Ray Suarez in this episode:
1. A 275-mile bike ride that was much harder than it should have been was a sign of something wrong.
2. A diagnosis of cancer that involved having tumors removed and chemotherapy.
3. The experience of having a port inserted in the chest and the protocols involved with chemotherapy treatment.
Ray Suarez is an American journalist, author, and broadcaster who has experienced many personal and professional stress and setbacks, including a cancer diagnosis four years ago. He has since recovered and is now a podcast host.
Experience the journey of recovery and courage with a man who pushes through to face his cancer head-on.
"You have to assess for yourself what you think you can handle, whether you think it's worthwhile to try to get through this quicker rather than slower, and to assess what your odds are if you don't do it." - Ray Suarez
Ray Suarez is an American journalist, author, and broadcaster who has experienced many personal and professional stress and setbacks, including a cancer diagnosis four years ago. He has since recovered and is now a podcast host.
Ray Suarez struggled to complete a 275-mile bike ride with his son and attributed his fatigue to stress and age. When he began to suffer from gastro symptoms, he went to the doctor and was shocked to discover he had two tumors in his colon. He was recommended to have chemotherapy. Although the side effects were frightening, he followed the protocol, enduring the cumulative toxic effects of two drugs and a port in his chest. Despite the challenges, he pushed through, determined to beat cancer.
In this episode, you will learn the following:
1. A 275-mile bike ride that was much harder than it should have been was a sign of something wrong.
2. A diagnosis of cancer that involved having tumors removed and chemotherapy.
3. The experience of having a port inserted in the chest and the protocols involved with chemotherapy treatment.
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Ray Suarez is a colorectal cancer survivor. He just finished his eight-part podcast series called The Things I Thought About When My Body Was Trying To Kill Me. The podcast deals with diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from cancer.
I chalked it all up. I chalked it all up to age, stress, and personal setbacks. I was chewing this over, ruminating, and angry all the time.
Out of the 36 lymph nodes that they took adjacent to the colon, there was cancer in three of them. That meant chemotherapy.
Doctors were very straightforward, very concrete, and gave you the grounding to make the decisions for yourself.
Every drug, even a bottle of aspirin, comes with a list of possible side effects. The list together between the two drugs was horrifying, absolutely horrifying. You have to approach this with a kind of discipline and also a suspension of obsession with comfort.
The port was not exposed. It was subcutaneous. She would stick it through my skin into the mesh every time I would get an infusion. That was when I thought, yeah, this is the kind of thing that makes people complain about the system.
The last day of the last bunch of pills. There were four pills left and one dose left. The impact of these four pills is pretty marginal.
I did many years covering healthcare, sure. When it's you, it's very different. It stops being abstract, and it continues to be a miracle. Keeping hold of yourself after something like that is tremendously challenging.
I had to learn gradually to force myself to take it easy. I was tremendously angry after my cancer diagnosis. Religion helped. Getting better had to become job one.
If you could only do one thing to change healthcare in the US, what would it be and why?
What's one resource that you would recommend for cancer patients and caregivers?
Ray Suarez
Journalist, Author, Podcaster
Ray Suarez created an 8-part podcast series called "The Things I Thought About When My Body Was Trying to Kill Me." The series discusses diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.