My Story with Cancer

Hello, my name is Oscar Crowe. I’m going to go into a biography of what has happened in my life for the last few years. So, introduction. A few years ago, I was strong, I was healthy, and my job title was Truck Driver, Truck Driver Operator. So let me tell you a little bit about me. Okay, so being a truck driver, my life was very stressful and only that, it took me away from my family for a while. And driving on the roads daily, at some point was a trainer and training other drivers how to actually do the job, paperwork and time management. Techniques: how to back up and keep eye on the road, and just showing a new driver what it was like to drive a truck and everything. And of course, they would become another driver of the company, which I was driving for. So therefore, that’s part of my life that would happen between 2006 to about 2014 and latter years of 2012 to  2014, I was actually a driver trainer 

Then one day my wife said, Hey, can you come home off the road and take and find a local job? Sure, so, therefore, I did. And got into operating things called VAC trucks. If you don’t know what a VAC truck is, it’s like a short truck with a big tank on it and a blower motor that would basically suck up anything that would fit into a six-inch hose. And it could be stretched for a while, you know, a couple hundred feet, at the max probably, and the shortest feet would be like you know. Maybe 10 to 50 feet. You know, that’d be the ideal operating distance for the hose and everything in a local right area. Back up to a waste pile of either grain or whatever, corn, beans, whatever. and suck it all up and go take and dump it. 

Okay, So, therefore, I was working for a company here in town at that time. Attitude, my personality. was I would say pretty vulgar and and and pretty, well, just just hard headed and and basically a butthead. And just a boss kind a sometimes, I went about  having that kind of personality and just telling other members of the team what to do, how to do it. More experienced people, you know, I give them a task you know. Like say, You need to help me find the hose, and then we’ll set this hose up, and my main job was just operating the truck itself. While they be more independent. So it was a life. It made a little bit of money, and I was more money-oriented, goal-oriented. So that was, you know, part of my life there.

Now on the family side, you know. I love my family, I love my wife and kids. I’ve been through the years we have had. Four kids ranging from 27 years old to 11 years old. A lot of the younger years while I was driving, they missed out. I missed out on a whole lot of the older kids lives. But my two older kids can probably remember me not being there except on the weekends. You know, me being there and just really at home, you know, being more authoritarian. Loving, but yeah, authoritarian and . My younger kids, as they I grew up I’ve become softer and parenting more fair and not so ridged, and there’s a reason for this. I’ll tell later in the story. But my older kids have grown up well and they’re doing okay. I’m proud of my kids, proud of my older kids that have successfully got a life of their own. They’ve got their job, they have a lot of my work ethics. You go to work, you come home, you enjoy life, and make that money, pay the bills, and stuff like that. You know. And proud of them.

My wife. Oh my goodness, let me talk about my wife a little bit. She’s wonderful. She’s been with me through thick and thin, the long and the short, Up the hills of the roller coaster, down the  hills of the roller coaster. She’s just a great – American, good woman. I can’t say enough about her. She’s wonderful, she’s creative, she’s expressive. She’s sensitive. She’s the world to me. You know. And I just want to include her in everything. And no, with my attitude and personality, you know, at first we met together as young Lucky and Go-Free and laid-back and charming and didn’t look too bad. If I say so myself, I was young when we got married, and things worked out just right. And just built a life with her. I’m so grateful that she has saved me all these years. And I know I need her.

As I was saying, you know my wife was important to me and life and everything, and sticking by me. A couple years ago, to be more specific, going back to 2023. We were living in Texas and I had a good job at that time and just living life and stuff like that. Making great income, and I was working at a sand mine and stuff and I saw all the signs and stuff of illness, and didn’t know what it was for sure. My bowels weren’t working right and stuff like that. I was just wonder what was going on and everything, eventually something happened. I lost my job and we had to move back to our home back in Illinois. And so therefore, I started working for a local company, doing the same thing as VAC truck Operator and sucking up material and dumping the waste and stuff. On about December of 2023 started getting sick. I felt a pain in my side and stuff and was trying to eat and drink. I went to our local emergency room and they didn’t help us too much. They gave me some magnesium and a enema and said, Well, go home, try that and see if that works, clears blockage or anything and let us know how it worked out for you. So did that and that didn’t work, and they really didn’t do any other workup on me and stuff like that. So we went in to work and told the boss that, “I work Saturday, but I ended up working like half that Saturday and said, ‘No, I have to go home and go to the hospital.’ So here it is of all days, Christmas morning, 2023.” And I’m laying on a couch, handing out gifts and stuff. Still in pain, and as soon as those were handed out and stuff, I said, “Well, I need to go to the hospital.” We ended up going to St. John’s in Springfield. And I mean, no more. I got there, took my vitals and everything, explained to what’s going on, and immediately that’s rushed to a waiting room. Staging and stuff, and more tests and stuff like that. Getting some CT scans, and stuff. They found obstructions in my stomach, and I was steadily getting sicker and plus they tried to use some kind of liquid stuff, try to get the stuff to go down properly.

On call was Dr. James Thiele a Colon Rectal Dr. One of the best Doctors, compassionate, skilled. If it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would be here today.  And so, therefore by December 26th woke up from an emergency operation that diverted my intestines so that I would have a ostomy. I don’t know if anyone ever knows what an ostomy is, but it creates a drainage point for waste (poop) into a  colostomy bag. It’s a bag that basically collects your waste from intestines. A stoma is created outside of the body bag covers the stoma and collects all the waste.  I had to empty the bag every few hours thru the day and change it every few days with a new bag. So from there, I wore that until April of 2024.  

In April of 2024 I went in to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. Gotta give large credit to the nurses’ teams and staff. The floor in which I was on. A great group of people, many blessings to them. They took care of me and waited on me and made sure that I knew how to take care of myself by changing the colostomy bag, until I got well enough so I could leave the hospital. I stayed there for about 5 days. And just a humbling experience. And here’s where transformation in my life really started. And transforming me to who I am today. And so I’ll tell you a little bit more about that after I tell you everything. 

Getting out of the hospital on December 31st, and it’s on the weekend. Come home, and then later, I think it was Monday, it was like Monday the 4th, or something like that. I call into my job and say, hey, you know, I just got out of the hospital. You have any light duty, anything I can do for you and still be employed? While still in this shape. You know, I didn’t know how bad at that time, how bad it was really gonna be. Everything was happening at that time. I’m now looking back on my past and looking at it. And they said, Nope, we have no lite duty work. We don’t have anything that you can do. To felicitate you a lot better, will just put you on unemployment and lay you off. And that was just, you know, a big blow to my career. At that time, I didn’t know that was the end of my career of truck driving. And so, therefore, It kind of feels unfair. How businesses can just kind of cut you off like that. You’re sick, we don’t have a job for you, so therefore, Got to go home, and we’re gonna just fire you. Bullshit.

Between the dates of January and April, my days were recovering from the surgery of the colon bypass and then taking care of the stoma and the colostomy bag everyday. To take care of a colostomy bag, if you have not seen one, it is a bag that collects the poop. I had to empty it a couple times a day. Every 3-4 days I had to change that bag out and take a shower and clean up real good being careful with that with my stoma. Then reapply a new bag after the shower. That lasted until April 2024. 

So, April of 2024. I was admitted to Memorial hospital , another few days in the hospital, where Dr. James Thiele would operate on me and remove the stoma and reconnect my gut back together and I would lose that colostomy bag. During the operation they did a biopsy and took a little bit of my intestine and lymph nodes, and sent those to the lab for a biopsy, unfortunately they found I had Stage 3 colon cancer.

Oh my goodness, it felt like my world was crashing around me now. I’m sick with cancer and everything. All the different thoughts of past stories of what cancer can do and how its going to shorten my life.  And you know, my wife, she stood by there with me. So, with cancer and everything, and next thing I know, I’m scheduled to have a power port installed. A power port is a device that allows me to have an infusion directly into my body and not have to have an IV in my arm every single time I need an infusion. And so, in June of 2024 I started chemotherapy. 

Cancer Care of Decatur.  And I’ll tell you that they are probably the greatest nurses and staff that you could know, So being at cancer care and needing infusions once every other week. I went through six rounds of chemo. And every day, every time I got an infusion, it was just one more piece of my life slipping away. Just feeling weaker, and less balance, resulting in chemo induced neural myopathy of my fingers and feet.

By November of 2024 I was done with my chemo and had a CT scan by December and then they declared that I was quote in remission or free from cancer. Then I had another lab test three months later which would have been something like February of 2025. That one was also clear. 

As the months of 2025 were going by I was getting stronger and healthier and started to resume normal activity. During June to October I started to drive for Door Dash delivering food.

September another Lab and CT, PET scan and it showed that my CEA marker was going to like 10 and then the other one a couple weeks later and it went up to 26. So what happened was they found that I have a spot that is showing up on my scan. Cancer Care then sent me to my colorectal doctor Dr. Thiele and he did an endoscope procedure and found that everything was good with the last surgery that happened back in April 2024. The next option was to actually go in and have another operation which was scheduled for November 19th of 2025 upon going to the surgery they removed as much as they could periphery in that area also did lower colorectal reconnection of my bowels. Basically cutting, slicing out the old one and reconnecting it back together. I was in the hospital for another few days, I left on the following Saturday and was home for a bit then something caused a complication.  I had to go back to Memorial Hospital that following Friday for surgery where Dr. Pacheco performed a sigmoidoscopy and removed some sort of blockage that was blocking my intestines. I was there for another 5 days in the hospital.

I’m at home recovering from it and that is up to date today 12/6 of 2025. 

Through all of this experience I have changed. I am more at peace, more humble and thankful for being alive. More caring and being there in the moment. I am still going thru stuff I have an appointment in February of 2026 that may be add to my story. If my CEA Marker is still high which indicates more cancer then it will be more chemo. If it is in the normal range then I will be still in remission.

If this resonates with you please leave a comment offer your story I may post it so that others can read it.