[00:00:08] Speaker A: My name is Nancy Farrow, also known as Mama Lou, and I'm the founder of Epic Experience.
Epic Experience mission is to empower adult cancer survivors and thrivers to live beyond cancer.
I hope that as you in the campfires of Hope living Beyond Cancer, you find hope, healing, and empowerment through stories and education. We aim to guide those impacted by cancer and more importantly, offer love and support to anyone out there who needs it.
This is beyond cancer.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Hello, everyone. This is Gail, Aka Sunshine. Today we have Manny de la Cruz joining us around the campfire. Welcome, Manny.
[00:01:21] Speaker C: Hello, Gail. How are you? Thanks for having me.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Doing great. It's so good to have you. Thank you for joining us. So first, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, where you live, and please always include one fun fact.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Okay, I'll try. So hello, everyone that's listening. My name is Manny Della Cruz. I'm a TC testicular cancer survivor, thriver, whatever we want to label it. I'm originally from Southern California. I grew up right near Disneyland, and I have lived in nine cities across nine states since I graduated high school in 2010. I'm a real estate investor. I'm currently pursuing my MBA, and I joined the military after high school in 2010 through a surface academy. And I served in the Marine Corps from 2015 up until this year. And I'm also an Epic Experience alumni. One fun fact about me is that I've lived in 34 states. No, that I've visited 34 states, so I only have 16 to either drive through or go through.
Do you have a favorite California?
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Yeah, right. The weather. Did you go to Disneyland a lot as a child?
[00:02:35] Speaker C: I did not, actually. I went whenever there was a planned school trip. Yeah, so school found a way to get us. It's just really expensive to get into the park. It's ridiculous, the upfront economics, getting into the door or getting in through the gate, and then food adds up after a while, for sure. I think I've only been maybe like, three or four times in my entire life, most recently back in August when I was visiting my family.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool.
[00:03:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, you mentioned that you're a TC cancer survivor, so let's talk a little bit about that. What is your diagnosis story? What kind of symptoms were you having? What did they do for treatment? All that kind of stuff.
[00:03:17] Speaker C: Yeah, so I was actually diagnosed pretty recently. I was diagnosed in January of 2022.
I guess it presented initially as just extreme excruciating pain in my left testicle.
It was terrible. Wow. I couldn't stand the pain. I was actually at work, and the pain presented itself. It was, like, right around 02:00 in the morning. It was an evening shift, a night shift, and I was just going to try to tough it out, see if I could take some Tylenol and kind of lasted for longer than normal, and I couldn't take it. So at the time, I sent a message to my girlfriend. At the time I asked her, where is the closest hospital?
Because in the place where I was working, we didn't have access to cell phones and computers, so it was kind of difficult to communicate with the outside world. So I sent her a message. I think I might have sent her an email or something. And I asked her, where was the closest hospital? Long story short, somebody just happened to be there, and they took over my Role, and I got in the car and I drove to the nearest hospital, and I went to a hospital near Baltimore.
They did the ultrasound. Long story short, there was an Er physician that kind of told it to me in passing. He's like, hey, by the way, you have oh. And he kind of just drove by the exam room, and there wasn't really anything to it. And of course, after so many hours waiting in the Er and just kind of just being on pins and needles for so long, you're just like, no, there's no way. I don't believe it. So the next morning so I guess at that point, I was up for quite a while. So the next morning, I just didn't accept it. So I chose to go to Walter Reed and I went through to their Er and I went to them and I told them the spiel. I gave them the ultrasound report, and I just kind of went home at that. So I think that was on a Thursday or Friday, the following, actually, the Friday, a urologic oncologist called me just out of the blue. Maybe not out of the blue, because they kind of had already called me. And he said, hey, you should probably come in for an appointment. And I was like, what's going on? So the next Monday, actually, I went in for an appointment, which was, ironically, the day that I was scheduled to close on my first home. As I mentioned, I was a real estate investor. So we actually had our closing appointment at 09:00 in the morning. We went through, got the keys to the new house, we left the company location, and I went to the old house, picked up a couple of things, and then I drove straight to Walter Reed. And then I sat down with the oncologist, and he kind of went over the results. He said, It's 100% testicular cancer. So at that point, that's kind of like when I found out. And the next shoe that dropped, he said, so that was on a Monday. And I think he told me that we could be in surgery the following Thursday or like, that same week.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: So it all went by very fast. So I had surgery on February 3. Yeah, the 31 January is when we closed. Surgery was the following a couple of days later. So that was the initial part. So they took the left one out, pathology came back, found out that I had spread up into my lymph nodes. At that point I was presented with the option of pursuing chemo or doing RPLND or retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. And at that point I just wanted to be done with cancer. I have, I guess, a background with it. My mom actually passed away from cancer a few years back, so I have a unique experience with it, having seen your parent go through it. So I just wanted to be done with it. So I wanted to go about it the most aggressive way, just get it done and over with. So the way he presented it to me, I said, well, more likely to get it through the RPLND versus the chemo, because I just didn't want to deal with the long term side effects of chemo at that point in time, which fertility was a big one, among other things. Because I was looking for a family. I am still looking for a family in the future. So we did the RPLND, that was in April 22, went through a couple of rounds of sperm banking. That was a wonderful experience. So we did the surgery and I think I was reclassified as like stage two or something like that. So initially it was stage one, and then it went up to stage two. Okay, so we thought we were good in April, we're in surveillance mode. And then the first set of surveillance camps in July, my tumor markers came back elevated.
I had that sit down with the oncologist and he said the cancer had come back because my HCG was elevated, and that can only mean one thing. So at the time I was not too phased by it because I guess one of our goals that my fiancee now at that time was to have kids. And that's when we had found out just a few days prior that we were expecting. So chemo didn't really phase me necessarily, so I was just like, all right, let's just do it, get it over with.
So a few days later, I was in the interventional radiology room getting my port placement. And I think within a week I started at the time three rounds of BEP. It shifted a little bit because I had a slight reaction to one of the medications. So I ended up doing four rounds of chemo from July until October. And then unfortunately that same month we experienced a loss. So that was a big letdown and not a fun time, which kind of ties into my camp nickname that I'm sure we'll get to. So we did chemo from October, and then next set of surveillance scans in November, there was an enlarged mass in my chest.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Oh gosh.
[00:09:29] Speaker C: So we ended up doing three rounds of biopsies across three months, know, across the holidays, and finally I just decided to get a second opinion because I wasn't know, it's probably nothing for an answer, so I just went to get a second opinion. I ended up going to IU I saw Dr. Einhorn, I saw Dr. Kessler out there, and we did our I forgot what surgery number that was at that point, but I had a thoracotomy at Indiana that was also a lot of fun. Spent about a week in the hospital and yeah, so that last surgery was in March. My port was removed in June of 23, and I went to the Epic Camp in August.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Wow. Okay. That is quite not even a year, right? Or a little over. It all started January of 22.
Is that where it all started, 22?
[00:10:20] Speaker C: Right. Around 15 to 18 months or so.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Months. Okay. So when they finally did the last surgery, was that cancerous?
[00:10:30] Speaker C: Yeah, it was, actually. So it ended up being positive for teratoma, which I guess thankful that I was teratoma and not the other variant, which would have required high dose chemotherapy and other various lines of treatment. So it was kind of a blessing and a curse that it was, but it wasn't something else, because that would not have been a fun experience, right?
[00:10:51] Speaker B: I would imagine so they removed it through surgery, but you didn't need follow up treatment after that. So ever since then so that was June.
Sorry. No evidence of disease since then.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Congratulations.
[00:11:08] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you. I had a first set of scans, got one, I think it was August or July. They officially said, no, you're good. You're no evidence of disease. And I was like, Wait, what? You're kidding, right? Because every point up until when they had told me that, they said, you're good, and then, like, a month later, they said, I'm not good because I was in that 1% or that half of that 1%.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Wow.
So this sounds like a very tumultuous period. What was the mental and emotional and you had this other thing going on, right? Your fiance was pregnant, and it sounds like she lost the baby. So, gosh, what was it like mentally, emotionally?
[00:11:51] Speaker C: So I figured out what my coping mechanism was, and just because of my background and having a military background and bringing the Marine Corps, I'm so used to being deeply involved in something and just being busy, I have to be doing something. So I think after the couple of surgeries, I was thankful to have the leeway with work, where I was able to take some time off for the surgeries and chemo, but I just couldn't just sit at home not doing anything, so I had to be doing something. So, as I had mentioned, we bought the house. We were renting out a portion of the house, so that took a considerable amount of time furnishing it, working at a tenant. I also had an idea, like, well, what else am I doing for myself and developing my personal identity outside of Manny as a Marine Corps officer? So I kind of had an introspective look at what I was doing for myself. So I had the bright idea of going and starting my MBA during my second round of treatment awesome.
Which was good and bad because I was busy. And what it really taught me is, it really taught me my limit of what I can take physically, emotionally, mentally, ollie Elise, if you will. And I just kept piling stuff on because I didn't want to just sit in the feeling, if you will, and just deal with, wow, I have cancer. So I just kept busy, and eventually I couldn't handle it anymore. I took a semester off from school.
I let some of the balls bounce, if you will. So, like, there's glass balls, rifle ball. So I was spending too much time and effort trying to keep everything up in the air, and I just said, I can't take it.
As I mentioned before, throughout the whole experience, there was a lot of ups and downs.
We bought a house, got diagnosed with cancer.
This happened. And it was just like every single time there was something good, it was overshadowed by something bad. So that kind of brings it into, I guess, the nickname or a kind of segue is like it was like riding a wave where you're high and then you're super low. So my nickname at camp was Wave Rider because it was about 18 months, and it's still going on right now, but that's my nickname.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
That is a perfect description of what that period must have been like, the highs and lows.
And that is a great nickname because you rode those waves, and here you are, right. Even though you're still writing them, I'm sure you are doing it. So how did again, it seems like your diagnosis and your relationships and all of it is all intermixed. How did your diagnosis affect your relationship with your girlfriend and then fiance and other family members and friends? How did all that happen?
[00:14:58] Speaker C: Well, so it accelerated a lot, at least between my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, it accelerated a lot in terms of how supportive she was during the initial diagnosis. And it just became solidified that she's the person.
She didn't waive her, so her and I got very close very quickly.
It happened multiple surgeries.
That's how I knew that I wanted to marry her even before, ironically, I had asked for her hand from her dad december of 22, before oh, my God. I was actually December 21, technically, before I was actually diagnosed. So maybe there was just yeah, I don't know. It was meant to be, definitely. So we got super close, and, yeah, I'm super thankful that she's in my life. And then in terms of friends and family, my family is all in California, so when I broke the news to them, it was rather difficult for them to try to help me through this experience from afar because I'm in Maryland. I did all my treatment in Maryland, with the exception of the surgery in Indiana, they're all in California. And the way my family and I all are, we're all very closely knit and interconnected. And when we experienced our I guess when my mom went through her cancer journey, we were all there in one way, shape, or form. We were all in the vicinity through most of her treatment up until she ended up passing in 2019. So I think they had a difficult experience trying to help me through the process, being supportive from afar. And they all were to the best of their abilities. They were super helpful. During chemo, one of my sisters started meal train. They would DoorDash meals to the house because we just didn't have time to think about it. And they were so helpful throughout the entire process. So my family, we also got even more closer. We had a group chat and I had a calendar of all my appointments. And they would know or they would remind me, hey, your scan is coming up, or Your infusion is on Monday or this your rest week.
We're all very involved. And then for my friends, I found out who the really good friends are. And I'm super appreciative that they were part of my journey and they were so willing to help out because I had no idea how much I needed other people. And that's one of the things that I learned throughout that time period of having cancer, is I learned to ask for help.
I'm not normally one to be willing to ask for help, to acknowledge that I need help, to acknowledge that I need to set things down and take a step back. But I didn't have much of a choice.
Yeah. So I kind of just allowed myself to open up to other people, which was probably one of the most difficult things to do.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah. How did your friends respond when you asked for help?
[00:18:05] Speaker C: Oh, they were there in an instant, no questions asked.
I would ask them for I forgot what I would ask him for.
One of my really good friends, he let us stay at his house during a few of the infusions the first week of the first treatment. We just got tired of being near the hospital, and we just drove down and we stayed at his house for a few nights and he cooked us dinner. He just knew he had an idea of how difficult it was.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: So we became very close. But yeah, all of them, anybody that I ended up asking for help, it was no questions asked. And that is not what I expected.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Well, yeah, that's the tough thing, is opening your mouth to ask and then finding that they're right there and so willing to do it, but we have to take that first step, right?
[00:18:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess startup, maybe not the startup cost, but it was exceedingly difficult for me.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: So that sounds like that's kind of how life was before you found Epic. So how did you find Epic and what made you apply to go to something like that?
[00:19:21] Speaker C: So I found out about Epic on Facebook.
The testicular cancer awareness foundation page? Chris posted something about it and his post read something to the effect that there was a camp and it was just guys with TC. And I was kind of super surprised because throughout, all the way up until I think I had my last surgery, I had not met another Fisticular cancer patient.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Really?
[00:19:54] Speaker C: Yes. It's like super common. There was a number of now good friends that were also getting treatment at Walter Reed that I met after the fact, but I had not met anybody else up until that point.
So I was just super eager to see what it was all about, to see if it was something just, I couldn't believe it. I was like, no way. Just a bunch of TC guys doing something at a camp in Colorado. I had no idea what to expect. So, yeah, I think I emailed Chris, like, the same day and we got some forms filled out and I think, yeah, I was in August, a couple of weeks later. I was in Colorado just a couple of weeks later, right. So, yeah, that's how I found out about it.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: So what expectations did you have based on the little you read or heard? What were you thinking you were going to get out of this experience?
[00:20:43] Speaker C: Honestly, I did an initial search on the website to see if it was legit organization. So when I got the packing list, the packing list, it had a certain amount of items and the background that I have, I'm used to being either super prepared or overly prepared for anything. So I need to know what I need to pack, what do I need to bring, am I going to do this thing, am I going to do this thing? And I got like a very standard packing list.
So I went in there, I had no idea what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised at what we experienced up in Colorado.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: What were your takeaways like when you came home?
What were some of the biggest lessons you learned that you have continued? I mean, you only went, what, three weeks ago?
[00:21:31] Speaker C: And this four weeks ago, was it August or was it September?
[00:21:36] Speaker B: Oh, it was beginning of September. So still fairly fresh.
[00:21:40] Speaker C: About a month and some change.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: What did you take away?
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Yeah, so there are other people going through very similar situations. Like, I got to the airport and there was a group of men hanging out, I think near baggage claim or around baggage claim. And I was like is that the group of guys? And then I saw Colin in his shirt. I think he called me because I was running late or something and I was like super uneasy. I didn't know. Just flying across the country meeting up with a bunch of dudes that you have no idea.
So it was super awkward for maybe like the first half an hour because we were there in the airport and then we got into the car and we just broke the ice because we all knew. And I think within I'd say I'm not joking within less than ten minutes, we were talking about fertility, we were talking about which one was taken out. We were talking about surgery, scars, symptoms. We were having some very deep conversations within the first 30 minutes of meeting these total strangers. And I had never connected with anybody instantaneously like that outside of another marine or another service member. And it was a very, I use the word interesting, but it was a very interesting experience to have that instant connection with somebody that just understood, that just knew. And I think the group of men that were in our car, we were just like best friends after that. I think it was like 4 hours up to the ranch, we got out of the car and we're all asking each other like what did you guys talk about? What did you guys talk about? But yeah, it was super cool.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: That is one of the biggest takeaways I think I got too is that you're not the only one who has experienced X. Fill it in the blank. And in your case, since you literally all had the same kind of cancer, even more so. And so if you've never talked to other people, to have that experience is hugely bonding from the get go.
[00:23:51] Speaker C: Oh yeah. And it was also kind of comical in some aspects to think about the stuff that we were thinking about because once you get diagnosed with cancer, admittedly at least I did, I can't speak for everybody but at least I did. I had some very morbid thoughts in terms of worst case scenario, what do I do? What happens if I have to get high dose? Worst case scenario, surgery. Blah blah blah blah blah. You can go down a black hole or a rabbit hole for all these certain situations and going into it I was just thinking like that's not abnormal. Like other people were thinking those same things.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: So that's one of the other takeaways is that you could think that you're alone in this as you're going through it, but somewhere there's somebody else that is experiencing a very similar situation, that is also trying to get through it, that is also trying to work through their highs and lows. And if somebody else can do it, so could I. And then so could anyone else that may or may not get diagnosed.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Well is there anything else that you would like to share with the people listening? Whether it's someone who's a survivor, whether it's specifically testicular cancer, any kind of cancer, or even maybe somebody who's a caregiver?
[00:25:06] Speaker C: Well, I think this is for either the individuals that are going through it soon to be survivors, one is to ask all the questions. There's no dumb question that you could ask.
In my case, I asked all the questions about the unlikeliest scenario in each one of those NCCN guidelines, process flowcharts. Like, I asked all those questions because I just wanted to know what was coming up next. So don't be afraid to ask questions.
Don't take no for an answer because I got told numerous times it's not likely to happen. But the type of person that I am and unfortunately how I got fixated on the diagnosis, I just couldn't take no for an answer. And I just needed an answer as to was it cancerous or not? Is it going to come back? Is it going to spread? Am I going to have to do this again? So just don't be afraid to advocate for yourself because at the end of the day, nobody cares about you more than you.
I was relatively belligerent about some of that, especially through the latter parts of my treatment, because I just wanted to be done with it. And then another thing is understand that the caregivers, the ones that are closest to you, they're trying their best, and it's also hard for them, too.
And just to know that they want to be there, they want to help, but just to be gracious, to be thankful. And ultimately I'm thankful for my wife. I wouldn't have gone through my experience if it wasn't for 100%.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you. Those are all very important thoughts. Definitely. Now we're going to just get a little silly. So Marshmallows over at Campfire slow and Steady or Flaming Crispy?
[00:26:51] Speaker C: I'm a slow and steady person.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Are you?
Yeah.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: There's a lot of flaming crispy guys up at the ranch and I was rather slow with it.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, Manny, thank you so much. Thank you for being vulnerable. I really appreciate you sharing your experience as a guy. Right. Feeling like you can't ask for help, you don't want to ask for help, and then seeing how people want to help when you are willing to do that. I really appreciate you sharing that and I really thank you for your time.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: Thank you, Gail. Appreciate it.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: Well, until the next time we gather around the campfire, keep living beyond cancer.
[00:27:38] Speaker D: Thank you for listening to this episode of Campfires of Hope living Beyond Cancer. For more information about Epic experience and our programs or to donate, please visit our
[email protected]. Music for this podcast is provided by Moonshiner Collective. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us so we can share our story with more people. Also, be sure to subscribe wherever you get podcasts so you'll know when new episodes are released. We hope you come back and join us for our next episode.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: Valentine's through the night. With some ghost America police still on our side, the family man and woke we will rise once again.
