Featured Image Credit: Mark Sevillano Jr. via Today
Topics: California, Cancer, Health, News, US News, Parenting, Food and Drink
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: California, Cancer, Health, News, US News, Parenting, Food and Drink
A California man was diagnosed with cancer after the doctor failed to take his initial symptoms too seriously.
Mark Sevillano Jr. has spoken out about getting the crushing news that he had cancer, just as he was beginning to have a more healthy lifestyle.
Speaking to Today.com, he remarked that he had a stressful few years before deciding he wanted to change some things in his life.
In 2021, Sevillano's 11-year marriage ended in divorce, and the dad-of-two was dealing with a lot. At the same time, he was in college completing his teaching degree.
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He graduated and it was towards the start of the year 2024 that he thought things had settled down and marked a great opportunity to get other things in order.
At the start of 2024, he opted to go gym three days a week and start eating healthier foods and things were starting to look up.
However, the 41-year-old from Santa Fe Springs, California remarked that he started to notice an issue and it was causing him great discomfort.
He said: “I felt better and just when I started feeling better, I … couldn’t really swallow my food comfortably."
He noted that drinking water would often help get the food down his throats but after two months, his symptoms began to worsen and he chose to go to the doctor to get to the bottom of things.
Sevillano remarked that the doctor didn’t seem all that concerned and only reluctantly ordered a swallow test.
Before he could undergo the exam, he visited the emergency room, where he learned he had esophageal cancer.
Sevillano commented: “I would have never imagined that I had any cancer, let alone esophageal cancer.
“I’ve never even said the word esophagus. It was not on my radar at all.”
He also noted that he realized he was losing weight but thought it was due to his healthier lifestyle rather than the cancer.
Speaking about the attitude of the doctor, he said he didn’t seem too concerned as Sevillano was young and there was no family history of cancer.
Sevillano recalled: “He was like, ‘We’ll schedule a swallow test in the future. I’m not too worried about it'.
“Looking back on it, I was like, ‘Wow, there are so many red flags.'”
Sevillano even explained just how bad his throat got at one point, noting there came a point where he couldn't even swallow liquids, feeling as if his throat was a drain that was clogged and simply filling with water.
Despite getting significantly worse after a mass was found, it eventually progressing to cancer, Sevillano is now on the mend.
Surgery took place in October and was intense as doctors removed 6 inches of his esophagus, which is about 10 inches long in total, and a strawberry-sized tumor.
Doctors used his upper intestine to create a new esophagus connected to his remaining organ.
Following multiple rounds of chemotherapy, Sevillano improved and currently remains cancer free and will undergo regular scans for five years.