Adolfo Velasquez - Renal Cell Carcinoma
Adolfo Velasquez, shares his inspirational journey…
Our Hero
In Adolfo’s words.. his MOTIVATIONAL story…
“Live with it or die from it”
Pre-surgical nurse - Kaiser Hospital, South San Francisco, Ca
Hello, My name is Adolfo Velasquez, I was born and raised in San Francisco Ca., and first generation born in the U.S. I begin my story on September 4th 2010, that’s the day that my father passed away after a five-year battle with dementia, strokes and encephalitis, my mother passed 20 years ago from complications with colon cancer. At that time, in addition to being my father’s main caretaker, I was working three jobs as an Academic Counselor at City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University and raising a blended family, I have three adult kids, two adult step-kids and four beautiful grandchildren.
At my father’s funeral I remember some folks telling me how God would reward me for taking care of my father, four months later in late January of 2011, soon after my 51st birthday, after going back and forth with my primary doctor at Kaiser Hospital about some pain I would feel off and on, but never too long or painful, I went through what I thought was the passing of kidney stones. After a series of tests including a blood, urine and CT exam, I had a seemingly unimportant appointment with an Urologist not knowing what lied ahead. At the appointment, the Urologist was direct and showed me an image of my kidneys and told me that I had a tumor measuring 12.1cm on my left kidney; he mentioned that the tumor is much bigger than what he usually sees. Not fitting any of the criterions, I was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer (Renal Cell Carcinoma) Stage 3 because of its size. With surgery being the only option to remove the tumor, the date was scheduled for February 22nd 2011. An additional CT exam showed that I also had several “spots” (i.e. nodules) on my lungs; it wasn’t until a few years later I would find out that I had over 15 “spots”! Researching online, as I did often in Academia, I found that, statistically, the percentages of survival were grim, less than 8-10 percent of patients survived 2-5 years, I remember telling myself that someone had to be part of the 8-10 percent and that I would be part of it.
The night before surgery on Feb 21st, as a big lover of music, I attended a concert with my ex-wife to see/hear R&B star Prince, telling myself, that if it’s my time to go then I’m going out with a bang. Adding to that musical night joining Prince on stage was my favorite musical artist Carlos Santana and Sheila E, it was quite the send off. Was I already living with it?
The morning of surgery on Feb 22nd with little sleep since because of the concert, I was admitted to Kaiser Hospital. After changing my clothes to the hospital gown, I laid on a gurney while the pre-surgical nurse was prepped me before being wheeled off to surgery, she said “you have two choices, live with it or die from it” words that forever will be embedded in my mind, body and spirit, I knew at that point that I wanted to live with it. While home, a dear colleague of mine from CCSF gave me book to read, while recovering at home, called The Anti-Cancer Diet by Dr. David Servan-Schrieber, a physician and cancer researcher who was diagnosed with Brain Cancer (Gioblastoma) at age 31 and given a few years to live, he would live for 20 years after diagnosis. After reading the book I told myself that I wanted to be a survivor like Dr. Servan-Schrieber, I found his story very inspirational and further fed my motto of live with it or die from it. Inspiration I would need, three months had passed by since surgery and time for the next CT exam, the image showed that the spots on my lungs had grown, confirmation of metastasis, I was now stage 4.
At the time in 2011, new types of medicine had been developed and used with kidney cancer called Targeted Therapy; traditional chemotherapy didn’t work well with Kidney Cancer. After going through two lines of targeted therapy, Sutent and Inlyta, CT scan images showed that all the “spots” went away, in other words, there was No Evidence of Cancer! However, in 2014, a spot was found on my right lung. After several months of observation, images showed that the spot (mass?) kept growing. On September 4th 2014, I had my second surgery to remove that mass, initially the surgeon thought they removed it all, but found microscopic cancer cells a week or so later. Around this time Immunotherapy had been recently approved for kidney cancer, I would do immunotherapy for several months, hooked to an IV every week for approximately one hour. Less than a year later my oncologist stopped the Immunotherapy since my routine CT exams (done every three months since 2011), showed that there was again, No Evidence of Cancer, to date, there has been No Evidence of Cancer from the pelvis to my neck since!
In January of 2019, I started having what I thought were spasms in my right arm, after a few appointments with my primary doctor, she referred me to a Neurologist and asked that if I could video record the “spasm” to do so, it could shed light to what was going on. On April 5th, 2019, a month after becoming chair of the Academic Counseling Department (EOPS- Education Opportunity Program & services), I had an appointment scheduled with the neurologist. The day before, I was able to video record one of those “spasmodic” episodes. After showing the recorded video to the Neurologist, I knew by the look on her face that this was not going to be good news. She said that the “spasms” in my right arm were seizures! Immediately I was put on anti-seizures medicines, aspirin and worst of all Steroids, along with having my drivers license taken away. A CT exam and later a MRI revealed that I had a small mass in the frontal lobe of my brain. The events of that morning did not prevent me from attending the San Francisco Giants home opener and the first game of the season. Living with it?
In July of 2019, after a few months of heavy medications and radiation I opted to have the mass removed. Surgery occurred on August 20th 2019. After three days in ICU, I was transported to an inpatient rehabilitation hospital for two weeks and was released on Sept 4th 2019. That same evening I would be back in the Emergency room with pain in my lower back, after a series of tests, an image showed that I had developed blood clots on both lungs, a condition called Pulmonary Saddle Embolism. In the ER, I would hear the doctors use the words fatal and catastrophic. I immediately went into denial, relying on my usual jokester self, yet remaining calm despite having trouble taking full breaths. Doctors would soon give me Coumadin, a first line anti-coagulator (blood thinner), but my body rejected it, doctors then inserted an IVC filter near my right lung to catch new blood clots. I was then given another blood thinner Xarelto, this time my body accepted it, I’m on Xarelto for life. The IVC, which was supposed to in for only a few months remained in me for almost a year, it took time for the blood clots to dissolve naturally. But at the same time, because the IVC filter had been in for so long it latched to my lung, after two failed attempts by one doctor, I was referred to specialist to have it removed June of 2020, the last attempt was successful!
To close out 2019, on Dec 5th, I had an emergency procedure using lasers to breakup kidney stones that were near my right kidney, the urologist was concerned the stones could block the passage way and cause my kidney to shut down. The stones were not giving me any symptoms, rather, the stones were found with the CT scan I get for the cancer.
Since January of 2011, I’ve been getting CT exams looking for cancer, from the pelvis to the neck, every three months and beginning this year every six months. Since 2019, I get an MRI, looking for growths in my brain, every 3-4 months. I recently had another CT exam in October 2021 and continue to show No Evidence of Cancer. Coming up in December 2021, I will get the next MRI. But regardless whether it’s the CT scan or an MRI and although I go in with positive energy, I’m always faced with a sense of uncertainty, an uncertainty that cancer patients know all so well.
As a result of everything I’ve been through since 2011 and especially since 2019 (a game changer) and after returning in 2020 to my role as chair/counselor, I decided to retire after a wonderful 20-year career of serving students in education effective July 1st 2021, a difficult decision to make, but one I had to make. In August 2021, I started my own cancer support group in San Francisco sharing my cancer journey experiences, knowledge and wisdom to 5-6 people going through their own cancer journey. Having participated in another cancer support group, provided by Kaiser Hospital and community groups, and from my participation in the Crack the Wellness Code webinar sessions, I was ready to begin my own. My plan is to expand on the group in 2022. Additionally, I’ve given motivational talks and have shared my cancer journey to Doctors, students in college, and several individuals including family members, helping where I can. I close with a quote that I recently saw from the great artist Pablo Picasso that reads, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away” which I am doing and will continue to do as long as I’m able. Live with it or die from it!”
A big thank you to Adolfo Velasquez for sharing his inspiring story with us..
Dr Lopamudra Das Roy, on behalf of our Breast Cancer Hub family