Nick McGrath

This fundraiser is personal to me - my cancer journey

This cause if important to me, because earlier this year I was told that I had cancer and the need for the best possible treatment suddenly became very real. 

About a week into 2025, I found out that I had an extremely rare, but thankfully non-aggressive, cancerous fluid (mucin) in my abdomen that was surrounding some of my organs (appendiceal pseudo myxoma peritonei for anyone that wants to look it up). It’s not exactly how I wanted to find out that I was 1-in-a-million, but there it was. The fluid originated from a slow growing tumour in my appendix that was grew for several years before it caused my appendix to burst releasing the mucin. I remember the sudden pain of it bursting almost 2 years prior to this diagnosis and I foolishly brushed off as a pulled muscle and didn’t get it checked out right away – Of course, I quietly googled the symptoms of a burst appendix, which matched the pain I felt starting in the lower center and moving to the right side of my abdomen, but I didn’t get sick or have a fever and I convinced myself that it definitely didn’t have anything to do with my appendix. After the discomfort persisted for a year, I stopped telling myself I was just getting old and fat and finally started talking to my family doctor about it. I was still brushing it off a hernia after bloodwork didn’t ring any alarm bells, but we scheduled a CT scan and that’s when things started happening fast –

I had a few more scans and tests the next day to confirm there wasn’t any cancer in my lungs, colon or liver – and there wasn’t. A couple days later, on a Saturday when we were supposed to be celebrating my wife Kristin’s 40^th birthday, I was having diagnostic laparoscopic surgery to look around inside my belly with a camera and take some biopsies. The surgery and biopsies confirmed that I had the “best case scenario” – a Low-Grade Appendiceal Mucinous Neoplasm that wouldn’t spread outside the abdomen, wasn’t passed on genetically, could be fully treated with another larger surgery and had a high likelihood of disease-free survival even after 10 years. Yay! I briefly celebrated the “good” news with Kristin, who is a brilliant Radiologist in Halifax and knew all the possible worst-case scenarios that still lay ahead, and then we beefed up our travel insurance so we could still take our 4-year-old son, Emmett, to Walt Disney World and make some awesome memories.

On Feb 6, 2025, just two days after returning from the magically happy bubble of Disney, I was asleep in a Halifax operating room for the big one, the mother-of-all-surgeries, the Sugarbaker. For those like me who have never heard of the Sugarbaker Technique (or Complete Cytoreduction with Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy for long), it’s the biggest surgery they do in Halifax and it’s… intense. I was completely under anesthesia for 12 hours while surgeons cleaned all the mucin (fluid) from my abdomen and organs and removed any tissues that were too affected by the disease. Finally, they gave me a type of heated chemo for 90 minutes to kill any cancer cells they might’ve missed before finally closing me up with 54 staples down my belly and waking me up again. During the surgery, I lost my appendix, gallbladder, 10cm of my small intestine, 10 cm of my large intestine, my omentum (a fatty apron thing behind your abs) and the peritoneum on my right side (the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity). However, I kept my spleen, I didn’t need an ostomy bag and I went straight to the intermediate care unit instead of the intensive care unit, so once again, this was a best-case scenario with no complications.

I’ve heard that recovering from major surgery can be as risky as the surgery itself and there were many serious complications that could knock things off track for me in those first couple week. Thankfully, my surgeon put me in the best possible position to avoid all of those potential problems, which allowed me to get back to my daily life in record time (huge thanks to Dr. Ashley Drohan who is an absolute rockstar). Also, the nurses in 6B IMCU made those first few days as enjoyable and painless as possible (special thanks to Chloe and her student Abby and to Rebekah and Ariel), helping me get up out of bed the day after surgery, getting me moving every day for walks down the hallway and pampering me with those weird heated shampoo cap things so I could feel sort of pretty again. I am very thankful to say that the worst part of my recovery was having a tube in my nose for a week, which was still awful by the way (0/10 would not recommend). But overall recovery has been fast and smooth with many highlights:

Feb 7 – first day post op – got out of bed and sat in a chair for an hour to get the blood flowing – almost passed out, but held it together.

Feb 8 – Up and walking the hall with lots of help and a walker. Sat in a chair for ~4 hours which was apparently a big accomplishment

Feb 11 – epidural removed and able to manage pain using only Tylenol without issues

 Feb 13 – digestive system started to wake up so I can consider eating food again

Feb 14 – NG tube is removed from my nose, and I was allowed to eat a popsicle. This was a glorious day! Also got moved out of the IMCU to a regular hospital room.

Feb 15 – Feeling well enough for a visit from my son, Emmett. He brought me a Gruffalo stuffy to keep me safe :)

Feb 16 – Able to eat solid foods!

Feb 17 – All remaining IVs and drains removed in preparation to go home soon

Feb 18 – First day back home! 2 days earlier than expected.

Mar 1 – Feeling well and mobile enough to travel to Wentworth ski hill to see Emmett take his very first skiing lessons.

Mar 17 – follow-up with surgeon – lifting restrictions removed and pathology came back with no concerns.

Apr 8 – Built a snowman with Emmett

Apr 24 – Biked 10 km on rails to trails

May 6 – exactly 3 months since surgery – biked 30kms and felt great -

If my recovery timeline is any indication of the quality of care I received from QEII doctors and nurses, then I can’t say enough for the amazing work they did.  Along with huge support from family and friends outside the hospital (especially from Kristin coming to visit each day in hospital and bringing delicious homemade food to eat for my first few meals once I was able… I’m celiac, so it was a big bonus not to worry about the potential for gluten cross-contamination in hospital food), I’ve been able to get back to normal life even faster than I could have hoped. I’ll be following up with imaging every 6 months for the next 5 years, but today I feel better than I have in the past 5 years and I’ll take that win.