About Us

Doug’s Health History:

I was 53 years old when I received the news of my aggressive Prostate Cancer. What a shock! It’s not unusual for men to have Prostate Cancer, in fact most men do get Prostate Cancer.  However it’s usually not fatal. In my case, I had a Gleason Score of 8 out of 10, making it time sensitive to be treated.

I was living in Alaska at the time of 2005, and they did not have a Cancer Clinic. I asked my doctor; “if you were me what would you do”, his answer was; “go to the Cancer Treatment Center in Zion, IL.”

It was a great place to go and thankfully my wife Angela took a leave of absence at Nordstrom to join me. It was going to take 3 months to complete the 36 radiation treatments. We were assigned an apartment off hospital grounds; it was a complex that accommodates cancer patients. A bus would show up every few hours to take you to the hospital for treatments and meals. After completing my treatments successfully, I was ready to go home. They offered many different plans to kill the cancer, and I chose 24 ERT and 12 Tomo radiation treatments.  In hind site, I should have chosen a different therapy as radiation is the gift that keeps on giving and 12 years later the radiation treatments caused bladder cancer. I did everything I could to keep my bladder to include BCG treatments. Eventually the cancer took over, and surgery was all that was left. I had a great surgeon Dr. Koppie, and she explained that when she gets in there to remove the bladder and sees anything on my prostate, she will remove it as well. So, you guessed right, she had to remove my prostate as well.

Adjusting to this major surgery, as most of you know, is no easy task. I did well for a while until infections of the urinary tract became the norm, culminating to sepsis that sent me to the ICU and damaged my right kidney. The decision was made to go back in for repair surgery as a blockage of the ureter was the problem. Dr. Koppie went back in and re-did where the Ureters attached to the ileal conduit. It was a success!

I still experienced bacteria build up and occasionally infections with antibiotics as a solution. Antibiotics are a good thing sometimes, however not all the time.  My gut was getting disrupted and microbiome harmed. I like to be healthy through diet exercise and supplements, so I went to an alternative doctor to rebuild my digestive system. The antibiotics would cause leaky gut allowing food particles to pass into your blood stream; not good. I started to rebuild my gut with good acidophilus, fermented foods, and baking soda to create alkaline atmosphere.

Along the way of this ostomate's path I have learned a few things and felt the sense to share.  We all have our own way of doing things and you may have found some I have not thought about. I’m at a time in my life that giving back could help someone else going through similar things. My website will have all kinds of helpful tips, products I have used, recipes, faith, and other categories to help understand and enjoy life.

I plan to do free seminars to spread the word.  Check my calendar or ask your hospital to engage me.