Motivational Speaker, Life Coach and Terminal Prostate Cancer Survivor, Matt Ode!! 😊👏
I am grateful to share with you the recording of one of our most popular interviews yet!! 😁 The interview is with my friend Matt Ode, who I'm so thrilled to have met and have the chance to now work with as he loves and serves the cancer community so well, beyond everyone's expectations. There were many inspiring lessons and motivational messages that Matt shared with us, but the one that stands out the most to me is the power of a positive mindset. Matt's cancer journey was really tough, to say the very least!! He was diagnosed with an 11cm tumor in his small intestine with other tumors in his lungs and all over his body at just 25 years old, for which he received chemotherapy for several months. Once his tumor shrunk to 3cm he had surgery, which triggered a series of events that almost killed him. Matt went into a non-induced coma twice, the first for 2 weeks, the second for 1 week, and experienced liver, kidney and heart failure. He spent 8 weeks in the hospital in total. However, his mom led 3 prayer vigils and hundreds of people prayed for him. During the last vigil, while his girlfriend held his hand, he finally woke up and had a second chance at life. He believed it was God was saying to him, "This isn't the end, it's only the beginning."
It took Matt one month of recovering in the hospital in bed to finally be able to take his first step, and even after that, he still ended up in the hospital a week later after battling depression without having his doctors and nurses there to help him. He decided he needed to change his life in order to survive to the next month and next year. As a personal trainer who had been in great shape, he had lost 80-90 pounds; but a little bit at a time he gained his strength back to where he is now, back to his normal weight and healthier and better than ever before! Matt's recovery was as much a battle of his mind as physical, if not more, as he was tempted many times to dwell on the difficulties of his circumstances. However, he chose, even through the darkest time of his life, and because of his faith, to encourage himself and do his best to inspire others around him.
So I hope that you'll get to listen to or watch Matt's incredible interview! I'm inspired by him and I'm sure you will be as well!! See the show notes below the song and verse if you'd like to read the details instead. 😊
God bless you! Sincerely, Bailey
Say I Won't by MercyMe (Wow, this song... 😲) Matthew 19:26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matt Ode is a metastatic testicular cancer survivor who survived multiple close brushes with death! He had an 11cm tumor in his small intestine, 4 major surgeries and spent 53 days in the ICU, including a 2-week coma, complete kidney and liver failure and cardiac arrest!! Matt's story will inspire you that anything is possible!! During his battle he lost 80 pounds, which was really hard for him as a personal trainer. Since then he gained his strength back and he's back doing what he loves, helping people with fitness, but now also helping young adults looking to overcome the mental, physical and emotional struggles of cancer so they can take back control of their life a relationships! He started a Facebook group called Young Adult Cancer Community : Taking Back Your Life From Cancer, which is a vibrant, thriving community of young adults taking action to live their best lives through and after cancer
1:15 Matt: Your biggest obstacles also produce potentially the biggest positive outcome, lesson, opportunity to grow in your life.
1:53 Q) How he was diagnosed?
A) 4 years ago in 2016 dx with stage 3c testicular cancer. Noticed minor back pains. He had just started dating his gf a month prior and had to stop hiking, etc. One day he started vomiting blood. They figured out he lost 2/3 his blood supply but couldn't figure out why he was bleeding. He had emergency surgery and the next day he woke up and the doctor had a blank stare. He and his parents were there; the doctor grabbed his hand and told him that he had cancer, an 11cm tumor in his small intestine and he had to be rushed to the main campus in the Cleveland Clinic.
Lesson: His parents were crying at the time… How could I be strong for his parents and Lauren? He stopped focusing on himself and the potential negatives.
When you receive bad new in life you can have 2 responses: Why is this happening to me? Or how is this happening for me?
Negative energy, blame others and yourself, have a pity party… vs. learn and grow from it; become better and help others who are going through something similar. I'm going t o be positive, I won't let cancer define me.
4:50 Bailey: It reminds me, 2 days after we had a motivational speaker came and talked about staying positive, but for you it came from inside of you and that's really remarkable!
5:20 Matt: The biggest thing for him is his faith. "To each your own with your faith but for me…" God had a massive purpose in his life. Without my faith I wouldn't be here today, I know for a fact. That was a massive part of his mindset. He has something bigger, somebody up there pushing me.
5:56 Q) The hardest moment in his experience?
6:05 A) Sharing the news with his girlfriend. He was so nervous when she got there because they had only been dating 2.5 months. They hugged and all his emotions let loose and we was so glad because he had been holding all his emotions in. And not knowing what the outcome would be.
7:10 Q) How did the snowball of events occur?
A) They did 50 tests on him. He was diagnosed with the highest stage of testicular cancer, stage 3c (there is no stage 4).
BEP - 5 rounds of Bleomycin, Etoposide and Cisplatin. He had all the complications. Nauseous, extremely tired, lost all his hair.
Right in the middle his 3 year old puppy was diagnosed with cancer and died; it was devastating to him. He started to not want to go to chemo; made excuses for 4-5 days. One day he woke up and asked himself if Duke, his dog, Lauren, his parents would want him to give up? Absolutely not. So he did one little thing to get better. What is one thing I can do today to help myself get to where I want to be? Eating something a little healthier? Getting up to do to chemo. Get up off his bed and walk a little bit, etc. If you feel like you're in a rock bottom situation, don't feel like you need to do everything at once. One little thing a day can get you to a massive destination in no time. A lot of times we want instant gratification and we never get anything done because we try to do everything at once. One thing every day, one thing every day.
One day he finished chemotherapy. He had lost 40 pounds, bald, super weak.
His dad decided to host an event to celebrate his chemo. Over 400 people showed up at 6:30am in 35 degree weather. He didn't even know 200 of those people. A lot of people said they were praying for him, you're in our thoughts and we're here if you need us. If you think you're alone, I promise you you're not! There are people who want to help you and pray for you. It was a mindset shift for him and he realized he wasn't fighting this alone.
After the event, his doctor told him there was good news and bad news. The good news was the tumor shrunk from 11cm to 3cm. The bad news was that it was wrapped around the inferior vena cava, which is a central vein from the bottom of the upper body to the heart. We will have to do a 10-12 hour surgery to remove the vein and we'll have to get 4 surgeons involved and we have no idea what the complications could be. It was really emotionally draining going into the surgery but he thought this would be the end of his journey.
Went into the surgery at 140 lb. it was about a 10.5 hour surgery and they cut his whole abdomen up, from one hip to the other, and when he woke up he knew something was wrong. It was 3 days later, He couldn't move, he couldn't talk and he saw that his whole body was swollen. He was close to 200lb at that point. He gained 50 lb of swelling. When they took the vein out his body went into survival mode - or he doesn't know for sure and his doctors can't explain it. Even worse, 2 weeks later he's out of the hospital and he had a draining tube but all of a sudden it just stopped. And within minutes he was rushed back into the ER because he's in so much pain. They rushed him to the Cleveland Clinic and drained 7 liters of fluid, which put him into complete kidney and liver failure. They drilled into his skull and cut a cone out because they thought he was going to have swelling in his brain. They put a catheter in his chest and neck because they thought he was going to be on dialysis the rest of his life and that's when he went into a 2-week non-induced coma.
14:10 Big story of faith here. When he was in the coma, his mom who is very full of faith, a Christian, hosted prayer services. Hundreds of people showed up. Half of them didn't even believe in God. In the middle of the last prayer service, he woke up. He believes it was God saying to him, "This isn't the end, it's only the beginning." His girlfriend would say to him, "Matt, it's time to wake up." He can't explain everything but for him this is why his faith is stronger and stronger every day.
15:19 A week later they took the breathing tube out of his mouth and the catheter out and he gets an arrhythmic heart beat, goes into cardiac arrest and they have to do 8 minutes of CPR on him and 6 nurses have to do the CPR. He then goes into his second coma, which lasts a week long. He was in the ICU for 3-4 weeks by now. It was Valentine's Day and he woke up. He couldn't move his fingers, thought he was paralyzed. His doctors said he had a very long road of recovery ahead. As the days progressed he started to move his body. It took about 3 weeks for him to take his first step.
3-4 nurses each day helped him rehab. He was 3 surgeries in by now, and they wanted to move him out of the ICU. They get him out of bed, but he still feels like something is not right. But he listened to his nurses and in 3-4 days he's walking a bit better, but he was getting way too dizzy, and his stomach is still off. They were wheeling him in his bed to his last phase of recovery when his stitches pop open, his spleen sticks out and they have to rush him in for a major surgery called open wound surgery. They couldn't close his skin back together so they used a football sized mesh to cover his stomach and he ended up back in the ICU room.
18:00 He had OFFICIALLY reached rock bottom at this point and remembers looking at the ceiling. It was one of the scariest moments of his life but also the most life-changing. He woke up, knew where he was, had a breathing tube in his mouth his hands and legs were strapped to the bed and for 2 days no one knew that he was awake. He had to just sit there and pray. He could say I've fought so hard and I'm done, just take me, I'm good. Or if you give me this second chance, I promise I'll make something of it. I'll do something so big that will shock everyone. And eventually he was released from what he calls his shackles, and in three days, he walked farther than he ever had in previous times in the ICU and recovery room. Eventually he was in his final stages of physical therapy. He had to learn everything over, things that we take for granted, like going from laying down to sitting up in bed, to sitting on a toilet. It took about a week. He was in the hospital over 50 days and about 40 days in the ICU before he was released.
Funny story, the day he met his girlfriend Lauren was March 17, 2016, and he was released from being in the hospital for over 50 days, on March 17, 2017, exactly one year from the time he met her. :) She never met the hospital unless she had to work, her birthday passed during that time, she never went out to be with her friends. His family was also there and friends and family came to visit.
20:20 Who is that person who you know will always be there for you? Many times we take them for granted. We know that they'll be there for us if we ask for help. If we can recognize them, who that person is, some time today or tomorrow send them a message and tell them how thankful you are for them. Not only will it make a massive difference in their life, but it'll make a difference in your day, too. Too often we let it slide when we know there are people in their lives, maybe we will be the one who is there for someone else.
A support system is so important. If we try to do it on our own, we will end up with anxiety, depression, PTSD, anger. But the support system will help us.