The Case of the Right Treatment at the Right Time

Kaz Aylott shares what went right for her husband when his neuroendocrine cancer was discovered.

In mid-December we had a rare date night at a new local Indian restaurant. The food was delicious, and my husband Tim and I both enjoyed plenty of it. Throughout that night Tim had a lot of discomfort and pain in his gut. Initially he thought it was indigestion or food poisoning but as the pain continued the next day, he realized that it was something more and went to Urgent Care. There he was referred to the ER.

The ER doctor’s initial thoughts were that maybe appendicitis was causing the intense pain, so he ordered a CT scan. He returned to report that unfortunately it was nothing as mundane as appendicitis but rather what he described as a carcinoid tumor.

Providentially the ER team had recently made a similar diagnosis and had established a connection with Dr. Eric Liu, Chief Medical Director of Surgery for the Neuroendocrine Institute at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers and Co-Founder of the Healing NET Foundation. Tim was able to consult with Dr Liu right away, and after a week of running scans and tests, Dr. Liu did a bowel resection. The surgery went well with the removal of some mesentery tissue where several neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) had grown, and Tim spent Christmas in the hospital recovering. It seems that the largest of the tumors had been pressing against the intestine wall, and food was getting stuck, which caused the intense pain that alerted Tim to something being wrong.

We are so grateful and thankful that God and the Universe conspired to bring all the pieces together so swiftly. We’re thankful to the restaurant for such a delicious meal, which led to us eating more than usual. And it was serendipity that the Emergency Room doctor was familiar with neuroendocrine tumors and had just recently seen a case and knew of Dr Liu. We were so fortunate that Dr Liu was able to see Tim within days and had a surgery time slot available. Tim’s appointment with Dr Liu was five days after our dinner date, and then surgery was just a week later!