A month after contracting COVID-19 in January 2021, Nicholas Pastuovic was drained, had a extreme cough, skilled scorching flashes, and woke in the course of the night time “drenched with sweat.” He fearful he developed lengthy COVID and made an appointment with a physician. Testing revealed a shocking reason behind his signs — a watermelon-sized tumor in his chest.
“To hear you might have most cancers is horrifying,” Pastuovic, 61, of the Chicago suburbs, tells TODAY.com. “(But) I figured that I’m going to seek out out what I must do and do it.”
Difficulty respiration, exhaustion
After contracting and recovering from COVID-19 in early January 2021, Pastuovic felt nicely sufficient to take an annual journey to Florida along with his spouse. At dinner on the final day of his journey, he felt very sick.
“I assumed I used to be coming down with the flu as a result of I bought scorching flashes,” he says. “I went to mattress, awoke in the course of the night time simply drenched with sweat.” He additionally skilled a “horrible cough” and felt exhausted on a regular basis. He began losing a few pounds, too. Over the subsequent few months, his signs would come and go.
“Probably the worst factor you are able to do is … use Doctor Google,” he says. “It appeared like what I had from what I googled was what folks had been experiencing after COVID. It was lengthy COVID.”
By June, Pastuovic’s spouse insisted he go to a physician. The nurse practitioner within the workplace ordered blood work and scheduled a CT scan for him. His blood work revealed an elevated tumor marker, indicating he may need some kind of most cancers. The CT scan revealed the situation of a tumor in his chest.
“It was a pair weeks later and so they did one other CT scan and the factor had grown considerably in two weeks,” he says. “It was very quick rising.”
The tumor grew to the scale of a small watermelon. Doctors biopsied it to grasp the kind of most cancers it was and found it was one thing referred to as a germ cell tumor, a most cancers that types from nascent reproductive cells. Pastuovic mentioned his tumor was not staged. While germ cells usually migrate to reproductive organs, a few of Pastuovic’s didn’t, which is why the tumor grew in his chest.
“These germ cell tumors are often from the reproductive organs,” Dr. Zaid Abdelsattar, director of the division of thoracic and lung transplant surgical procedure at Loyola Medicine, tells TODAY.com. “(Pastuovic’s tumor) was in his chest and particularly it’s within the heart of his chest behind his breastbone.”
Doctors stay uncertain as to why Pastuovic developed a germ cell tumor in his chest.
“I want we knew why this stuff occur,” Abdelsattar says. “There will not be sufficient instances worldwide to attract a correlation or affiliation with a number of threat elements. So, it’s actually exhausting to say. And for him, he by no means had any household historical past of this.”
In hindsight, Pastuovic realized that he had hassle respiration for some time.
“It turned extra labored. That was beside the persistent cough, like a hacking cough,” he says. “It was actually exhausting to get a deep breath in.”
Pastuovic met with docs at Loyola Medicine in Chicago to find out about his remedy plan which included in-patient chemotherapy. For six days, he can be within the hospital receiving varied chemotherapies 5 of the six days. On the final day, he acquired fluids earlier than having the ability to go dwelling. In complete, he spent 4 weeks within the hospital.
“It was brutal,” he says. “Per week to 10 days after my first spherical I had the paramedics in my home taking me again to the hospital as a result of all of my numbers — particularly my white blood cell depend numbers, would drop.”
He was capable of keep dwelling after his subsequent rounds of remedy, although he acquired a blood transfusion to assist bolster his white blood cell depend. Between rounds, he reduce his hand and developed a blood an infection that required one other hospital keep. Doctors eliminated his chemotherapy port at the moment as a result of they fearful an infection would settle there. Luckily, he didn’t want it anymore. Going by chemotherapy through the COVID-19 pandemic felt isolating at instances however Pastuovic is grateful for the kindness of the nurses on the oncology flooring. He additionally targeted on a purpose that saved him motivated by remedy.
“My mindset was, ‘I need to go to Florida in February,’” he remembers.
Before hitting the seaside, Pastuovic wanted to endure surgical procedure to take away the remaining most cancers. By this time, the tumor was softball-sized.
“The seriousness of the surgical procedure was fairly vital as a result of there have been main blood vessels intertwined with this tumor,” he says. “When they bought me into the working room, I assumed they had been planning a celebration as a result of there have been in all probability 15, 20 folks there.”
After a nine-hour surgical procedure the place docs cracked open Pastuovic’s chest “like open coronary heart surgical procedure,” employees informed Pastuovic’s spouse the surgical procedure went nicely. After a couple of days within the hospital, Pastuovic returned dwelling.
“That was a cakewalk in comparison with chemo,” he says. “You’re sore however that restoration wasn’t that massive of a deal fairly frankly.”
Treating a uncommon most cancers within the chest
Pastuovic’s tumor was positioned in an space the place if it continued to develop it may create a variety of issues for him.
“Anything that grows in that space has the potential to invade into the center, the most important blood vessels, the lungs on both facet and even the bone,” Abdelsattar, who carried out Pastuovic’s surgical procedure, says. “It’s a uncommon form of tumor.”
Pastuovic’s tumor grew into the pericardium, the sac surrounding the center, a part of a blood vessel to the lung and his lung. That meant Abdelsattar and his crew wanted to take away the tumor from his chest surgically. But earlier than he may do this, he handled the most cancers with one thing referred to as VIP chemotherapy, which is “very sturdy” that works for the sort of most cancers.
“(It) helps shrink the most cancers and it kills the vast majority of it,” Abdelsattar says. “There’s nonetheless residual illness that stays there after it shrinks, and we go forward and resect it.”
In Pastuovic’s case, docs eliminated all the things together with a number of the constructions.
“We take away the most cancers, we eliminated a part of the blood vessel that provides the lung, and we eliminated a part of his lung,” Abdelsattar says. “All of it got here collectively as one massive block.”
This allowed the crew to take away all the remaining most cancers cells.
“The physique is wonderful so it might probably care for most of this stuff without having something to get replaced,” Abdelsattar says. “We didn’t go away him with any residual deficit or any lack of perform.”
Following surgical procedure, Pastuovic had no proof of illness. While it’s been two years since surgical procedure with none indicators of most cancers coming again, Abdelsattar says they’ll nonetheless monitor him with blood exams and scans for the subsequent three years.
“He’s doing nice,” Abdelsattar says. “He went to his daughter’s wedding ceremony. All of that might not have been doable if we didn’t have the crew and experience to do (this surgical procedure).”
‘I reside my life slightly in another way’
Pastuovic’s dream of creating it to the seaside in February 2022 got here true.
“Six weeks after surgical procedure, I used to be in Florida, strolling the seaside,” he says.
Doctors additionally wanted to take away a nerve that helps the diaphragm, which suggests strolling can typically be difficult.
“Basically, solely half of my diaphragm works. So, respiration at instances is usually a little exhausting,” he says. “Over time, it has gotten higher.”
His respiration improved a lot that he was capable of stroll in Quito, Ecuador, which is greater than 9,000 toes above sea stage, with out respiration closely.
“I walked up a cathedral, about 150 steps, to get to the highest,” he says. “I made it at that elevation.”
It felt like a constructive factor to have the ability to stroll with ease above sea stage on that journey as a result of Pastuovic was there to stroll his daughter down the aisle this summer time.
“Everything was nice,” he says.
Pastuovic says that earlier than his most cancers analysis, he typically had a unfavourable outlook on life. Being within the hospital for about 40 days, typically alone, helped him shift his mindset.
“No matter how unhealthy issues are, how unfavourable any person’s pondering is you will discover it in your self to have some constructive ideas,” he says. “I reside my life slightly in another way (now).”
He says he goes out of his technique to praise folks for good service or variety deeds and says he needed to share his story to thank the medical employees that “saved (his) life.”
“I’m attempting to reside my life day-after-day prefer it’s my final day,” he says, “and never dwell on unhealthy stuff,”
