February 12, 2005 "Bad News."
Mark called a couple of days ago and left a message to call him right away as he had "a bit of bad news." When I reached him, he told me that he had suddenly been diagnosed with cancer of the esophageal gastric juncture with metastasis to the liver and it was so bad that he had been given three months to live. He expected to be flown off the island to Hawaii or the Phillipines for further evaluation and treatment within a few days. I called his sister in Japan and had her contact him. He sent her an e-mail on this date explaining his situation. Here is that e-mail:

Hi Steph, Thanks for trying to call, it means alot to me. Mom has told me all about your place(in Yokosuka, Japan), and that you are happy as a clam. I like it here on Saipan too, but now I think that I will have to move on.
I'm sure Mom told you some of what is going on but I'll recap for you: For the last 4-5 months I have had alot of pain in my stomach. At first I thought it was just indigestion, and took malox ect., but later on I had trouble swallowing food. It would just get stuck right above my stomach, and would hurt alot before I could force it through with water. So the doctors thought it was regurgitation, and put me on regalin (kind of like prilosec), and some stronger antacids, told me to change my diet, and we would check it out if it didn't get any better. I had already changed my diet to mostly noodles and soup, an I stopped having more than 2-3 beers a week almost 2 years ago, so there wasn't much to change. Well, the pain stayed with me, and I developed another pain on my right side that was alot stronger. One night at work it got so bad that I went to the ER. They started me on an IV because I was dehydrated (my gut is not taking up water like it should) and gave me some pain med. The doctor was smart, and could tell that this might not be just regurge or acid problems, and scheduled me for an ultrasound of the abdomen the next day (this last thursday). I thought the ultrasound might show gallstones or something like that, but it showed several places on my liver where the tissue was of a different density than the surrounding liver tissue. This is about the time I started to get a little worried. Then we did a cat scan of the abdomen. After that many of the doctors that I work and play with started dropping by the ER to say hello and if they could help to let them know, another bad sign. then the GI doctor came by and took me over to look at the CT. He showed me where the esopagus started, and how large the passage was. Then as the pictures went deeper, near my stomach it got smaller, and then just was closed. Surrounding the esoupagus was a donut looking bunch of tissue, slightly darker, indicating more tissue of a different density. The end result of the tests were that the doctor told me that I had an esophogeal tumor that had spread to my liver. The next day I underwent an endoscopy, and they took biopsies to find out what kind of cancer I have. I haven't heard yet but generally this kind of thing goes pretty fast. There is not much they can do for me. Possibly shrink the tumors a bit and try to open my stomach a little every now and then so I can eat some solid food, but I think I'll probably kick the bucket in the next year. The doctor gave me all the liquid morphine that I need, and that helps alot. It keeps the pain down so that for right now my life is pretty regular. I am able to go to the beach and see friends and stuff. I am not weak or anything, I actually look really good, since I have lost a few pounds. I'll take some pictures and send them to you. This week the medical board will meet and send me to Hawaii to start some kind of treatment, but it is just to buy a little time, there is no possible cure. I think after Hawaii I will try to go to Bangkok and rent an apartment there. It is cheap and they are not freaked out about death. I think it would be a comfortable place to be, I have friends there, and they have good medical care. I don't want to burden mom with watching me whither away and needing to deal with all of the other things that will come up, so this is my initial plan. As things change or develop I will let you know.
Thank you so much for calling. When I came home and heard your voice I can't begin to tell you how much it meant to me, and how much it cheered me up. I will get mom a phone card, I think I have an extra that can be recharged, and if you will e-mail your phone number, I will call you. I miss you.