Survivor Series – Cancer Survivors in the Region: Matt McCall

Survivor Series – Cancer Survivors in the Region: Matt McCall

Every cancer survivor tells a different story. Some wage long, patient wars of attrition against the disease, some fight a short and dramatic battle. No one story is the same. For people like Matt McCall, sharing their unique experience is one of the most important things they can do.

In October of 2015, Matt noticed an unusual change to his testicle. Initially, he did not think much of it but decided to get it checked out regardless. He went to a urologist with his wife that weekend, and the doctors diagnosed him with Stage 1 Testicular Cancer. For Matt and his wife, it marked the start of a battle, but one he never thought he could lose.

“Losing really wasn’t an option for me," he said. “I knew I was going to beat it. There was no doubt about it. It’s really about the mindset that you have. If you go in thinking you can lose, you may. If, you go in thinking you’ll beat it, you’re going to.”

Fortunately, early detection meant that one surgery removed the cancerous mass. Matt got sent on his way with directions to keep an eye out. Unfortunately, the cancer returned, and in July of 2017, he started a harrowing new fight.

“I was going on a sales call for work when I doubled over my steering wheel in pain because of the way the tumor was pressing on my kidney,” Matt recalled. “That’s where stuff kind of got crazy. Our family doctor and family friend got us into Pinnacle Hospital. We found out after a day or two in there that my creatinine level was over 10, which is basically kidney failure.”

Matt’s situation quickly escalated, as he couldn’t eat, drink, or pass any fluids. The hospital rushed in a small army of doctors to figure out a game plan. They looked to transfer him to St. Mary’s Medical Center to do a surgery that would give Matt nephrostomy tubes, which would essentially replace the function of his kidneys temporarily.

“The oncologist called St. Mary’s and told them I needed to surgery,” said Matt. “But their surgeon had actually left for the night, so they wanted to do it in the morning. My oncologist said, ‘This guy can't wait through the night. Waiting until the morning can't happen in his condition.’”

That did the trick, and an ambulance carried him to St. Mary’s, where the operating room got filled to capacity. The surgery saved Matt’s kidneys, and he spent roughly the next week at St. Mary’s. Though stabilized, his situation did not get much better. Since his kidneys were still in a failure state, his doctors worried that the traditional chemotherapy method, made famous through its use on Lance Armstrong, would further shut down his kidneys.

“My oncologist recommended that we go to the University of Chicago,” Matt said. “So, we went up there and met with the number two guy for testicular cancer treatment in the nation. We got our plan together, but it’s crazy to think of all this happening in a week and a half.”

His chemotherapy treatments were intense. In what’s called BEP 3x, he would spend weekly cycles going to Chicago for treatment as many as 5 times a week. It was a grueling process, both mentally and physically.

“I’d come home from Chicago every night completely wiped,” he said. “I can still remember coming in, having to carry these two bags, basically kidneys, on the outside of my body. I’d sit down, put the bags on the table, and just put my head down – completely exhausted.”

Yet Matt persevered, and got declared cancer free in September. He attributes his success to two main things, his family and faith. Matt, his wife, family, and in-laws are all very religious.

“I have a family that’s full of faith and a church family,” said Matt. “I had a lot of prayer warriors supporting me. My wife’s grandmother shared a verse with us that says, ‘I will not die, I will surely live and tell the works that the Lord has done,’ and that became my theme verse for everything.”

Getting your life back on track and returning to normalcy can be almost as challenging as the battle itself, but Matt took it in stride. Despite losing almost 30 pounds over 3 months, he went back to work part-time almost a month to the day after finishing treatment. Even more impressively, he took it upon himself to challenge his body by doing a 5K walk/run.

“I started working full time about two weeks after coming back part-time,” he said. “And then, I participated in the Turkey Trot. I walked the majority of it on Thanksgiving and jogged in the last quarter of a mile.”

He’s also started offering his advice to other men battling testicular cancer in a number of Facebook groups. Despite its notoriety, it is still classified as a rare disease, impacting 1 in 250 men at some point in their life. Networking with other men who have shared or are going through similar experiences is very important to him.

“It’s humbling to see all these guys just now beginning their journey,” said Matt. “They’re like, ‘Well, what happens here, or what happened there?’ Then, the guys who have gone through it answer those questions or spouses’ questions. It’s being involved in those that’s something I really wanted to be able to do.”

Matt often surprises people now, because his outlook on life has only gotten more optimistic since his fight. To him, it’s just as important to have a positive mindset coming back as it was for the battle itself.

“You don’t dread the little things,” he explained. “You know, today, I don’t think it ever got out of the thirties. Yeah, it’s cold, but you know what? I’ve got a coat, heat in my house, and there’s people that don’t have that. You don’t look at a rainy day as a bad thing, you go, ‘Hey, I get to see flowers in the spring.’”