Gavin C.

About Gavin C.

March 28, 2018. “Well, we found cancer.” My wife, Retha, immediately fell apart. “No no no! It’s ok! And here’s why. We caught it really early, so you have a choices on treatments.

January 17, 2019. Prostatectomy surgery. It was to be standard surgery using the Da Vinci robot. But there were complications. For ten years, I was living with IBS-D. My colon stopped functioning. Not absorbing fluids. I was extremely dehydrated, despite drinking 3 quarts of water a day. For all intents and purposes, I was dying. The surgeon went in to find a prostate 50% larger than normal, and an inflamed rectum. Despite the surgeon’s best efforts, a three hour surgery became a 10 hour prostatectomy with a rectal resection and temporary ileostomy to be reversed 8 weeks later, and then a hernia repair in October. An entire year of surgeries and recovery. I may have been the one who went through the process, but Retha is the one who had to go home alone while I was being cared for in the hospital. When I arrived home, she had to care for my wounds, do the grocery shopping, go to work daily, all while I could only lie down or sit on the couch convalescing. After a year of recovering (2020} we’ve grown so much closer, even after 40 years of marriage. I’m still cancer-free, and oh so grateful for my Retha for caring for me