After coming back from working in Antarctica for eight months, Lucas Graychase of Bangor felt the healthiest he had ever been. However six months later, in Could 2021, he noticed a physician for persistent again ache and left with a terminal most cancers prognosis. Graychase, 46, acquired an MRI, which revealed a ruptured disc. However …
After coming back from working in Antarctica for eight months, Lucas Graychase of Bangor felt the healthiest he had ever been. However six months later, in Could 2021, he noticed a physician for persistent again ache and left with a terminal most cancers prognosis.
Graychase, 46, acquired an MRI, which revealed a ruptured disc. However the technician additionally observed one thing suspicious — a darkish spot on his liver.
“I didn’t have any signs. Not one of the bloodwork confirmed something. It was an unintended discover,” Graychase stated. “Whoever learn these photos was paying consideration. Then the race started.”
He acquired one other MRI, a colonoscopy and a liver biopsy. His medical doctors decided he had terminal colorectal most cancers that had unfold to his liver. He had stage 4 most cancers, and was given 3 1/2 years to reside.
Almost a 12 months later, Graychase continues to be working as amenities director for the Brewer Faculty Division, overseeing main work on the metropolis’s two faculties, together with upgrades to their air flow methods, the set up of a generator at the highschool and updates to insulation to make the faculties extra environment friendly.
“So long as I’m bodily in a position, I’ll get the district to the place they have to be and hopefully put together that, within the occasion I’m not capable of do it, they will proceed on and received’t be not noted to dry,” he stated.
Graychase finds the shock prognosis baffling.
He underwent intensive medical exams earlier than he labored as the one controls technician at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the first U.S. analysis station on the continent, from February to October of 2020. These exams included blood work, chest x-rays and ultrasounds of his gallbladder, abdomen, liver, all of which got here again clear. He was thought of too younger, nonetheless, to obtain a colonoscopy.
In Antarctica, Graychase’s job was to troubleshoot when lights, radar methods, dormitory temperature controls and different methods on the analysis amenities failed. This proved vital because the common temperature exterior when he was there was roughly 35 levels Fahrenheit beneath zero, he stated.
Graychase admitted he dislikes the chilly, and initially appeared into the place in Antarctica in jest. As he realized extra, nonetheless, he felt compelled to use.
“It wasn’t on an inventory of issues I wished to do, however how do you say no to a possibility like that?” he stated.
Again in Maine, inside per week of his prognosis, Graychase had a port inserted in his chest and acquired his first chemotherapy remedy. He now undergoes chemotherapy each two weeks.
Graychase stated his first spherical of aggressive chemotherapy helped maintain issues at bay; his most cancers didn’t unfold or develop. The medical doctors then switched to a upkeep remedy, which Graychase stated “failed miserably.”
“We requested for an additional scan and we noticed the tumors began to develop, so I used to be placed on a distinct aggressive remedy, and my most cancers numbers decreased about 25 p.c,” Graychase stated.
The fixed aggressive remedies, nonetheless, depart him about 10 days every month throughout which he feels “what I think about to be my new baseline. I don’t ever really feel good, however I’m practical.”
Except for fatigue, lack of urge for food and nausea, Graychase stated the remedies triggered extreme issues along with his nerves.
“For nearly six months I couldn’t attain into the fridge with out gloves — can’t wash your arms with chilly water, can’t drink something chilly,” he stated. “It impacts the nerve endings so it feels such as you’re swallowing shards of glass.”
He has acquired 23 chemotherapy remedies all whereas persevering with to work as Brewer’s college amenities director, a job he accepted whereas working in Antarctica.
Graychase’s sister started a GoFundMe on-line fundraising marketing campaign to assist pay for his chemotherapy remedies. Greater than 260 individuals had donated practically $37,400 as of Wednesday afternoon.
“They’ve managed to handle the monetary finish for this primary 12 months, which permits me to deal with consuming, getting the correct amount of sleep, and staying bodily wholesome,” Graychase stated. “That being the one factor I’ve to deal with, I believe, has made all of the distinction.”
Brewer Superintendent Gregg Palmer referred to as Graychase “one of many bravest, most devoted college workers one might ever hope to seek out.
“He has skilled and taught our upkeep division and upped our amenities sport in each attainable method. All this whereas he was, early on in his time with us, recognized with and battling most cancers.”
Except for receiving chemotherapy and dealing in Brewer faculties, Graychase continues to analysis new remedies and medical trials which may be choices for him.
“I’m not able to go,” he stated. “I’m not in search of 50 or 60 extra years, however I really feel like life owes me a minimum of 20.”
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