Cancer, which destroys the lives of millions of people every year, can be quite frightening. Cancer can have a wide variety of symptoms that may seem insignificant. 43-year-old Michael Miller learned that he had stage 4 cancer at the hospital where he went with cold symptoms. Miller stated that it all started with a cold.
HE WAS GOING TO A MASSORAT TO RELIEVE HIS BACK PAIN
“It all started with fever and chills, but it always went away, so I ignored it. Then my back started to hurt. Initially, I went to a chiropractor to help with my pain. But about a week later, I collapsed on the living room floor as my back pain got so severe. ” Miller was rushed to the emergency room, and evaluations revealed that Miller had a large spinal abscess and a pelvic abscess that appeared to be the source of the E. coli bacteria.
FIRST TO SEE IT LIKE ONE PREPARING TO DIE
“The initial diagnosis was unclear,” said Charles Friel, Chief of Colorectal Surgery. We knew he had sepsis that had spread to his spine. This has become an urgent problem.” said. Dr. Frank Shen said, “When I first saw him, he looked like someone preparing to die. His body was trying to fight a severe infection. He was extremely weak and essentially paralyzed. Without treatment, the next possible step would be death. I had no choice but to get him operated on.”
THE INFECTION WAS OVER his entire spine
Doctor Shen continued: “What was particularly challenging and extremely unusual in Mr. Miller’s case was the extent of the spinal infection.” Normally, infections like this are limited to smaller sections of the spine. In such cases, we would remove the bone and ligaments and replace them with rods and screws. In this case, however, the infection was in the entire spine, from the base of the skull to the tailbone. It was wrapped around the spinal cord and nerves, so I had to surgically drain the infection while trying to preserve as much ligament and bone as possible to avoid the need for fusion and stabilization with rods and screws.”
ONE and a half weeks in intensive care
As a result, Doctor Shen performed a more technically demanding procedure called skipped laminectomies, in which he removed portions of bone and ligaments from all other vertebrae, from the base of the skull to the tailbone, to reduce compression and irrigate widespread infection. After spinal surgery, Miller was unable to move. “I was in intensive care for about a week and a half. I was completely paralyzed,” he said.
IT WAS LEARNED THAT THE CAUSE OF INFECTION IS CANCER
“Waking up and trusting others to feed me was a huge shock.” A comprehensive evaluation that included endoscopy and CT imaging revealed that the cause of Mr. Miller’s life-threatening spinal cord infection was perforated rectal cancer, also known as colorectal or bowel cancer. Full cancer staging showed stage 4 rectal cancer with liver metastases.
Almost completely healed
About 11 months after Miller’s initial presentation, Doctor Friel and hepatobiliary surgeon Victor Zaydfudim, MD, performed a combined procedure to remove rectal cancer and liver metastasis. Mr. Miller has almost completely recovered after treatment and there is no evidence of a recurrence of the cancer.