After Dad's Cancer Diagnosis, a Family Had Their Stomachs Removed — Here's How They Celebrate Thanksgiving (Exclusive)

Thanksgiving dinner will last longer than usual for the Myers family this year.

Three members of a California City, California family had their stomachs removed after dad Greg Myers was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2021. A food-loving family plans to get together and eat small bites of food, chew and chew, then come back for a few more bites a few hours later.

“We were eaters who became grazers,” says Kori Myers, Greg’s daughter, 30. “We’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving for a week now because of how much leftovers we have — we’re all eating a lot less.”

Basically, the Myers family feels incredibly lucky to be celebrating the holiday together,

“I’m so grateful,” says Kori. “My dad saved all of our lives.”

Greg Myers.

Courtesy of the Myers family

Greg Myers and his wife Kristie are foodies. The couple met in kindergarten, started dating in their senior year of high school and married in 1993 when they were 21 years old. They both played three sports – he played football, basketball and baseball, and she played volleyball, basketball and softball. “We were a pretty active family,” says Kristie. The couple and both of their children are black belts in Tae Kwon Do.

In February 2021, Greg Myers started having trouble swallowing. He felt as if food was stuck in his throat. “It got worse and worse and worse,” he says.

After three months he went to the doctor thinking it was acid reflux. In June 2021, at the age of 49, he had an endoscopy. Doctors found 3 cm. a mass at the junction of his stomach and esophagus. About a month later, he was told it was stage 2 diffuse gastric cancer.

“It was devastating news,” says Greg Myers, now 52, ​​an Air Force veteran who works as an Air Force software developer. “It was terrifying.”

He was referred to City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Research and Treatment Center in Antelope Valley, about 45 minutes from his home, and began chemotherapy in August 2021.

After undergoing magnetic testing as part of the Inspire study, Greg learned that he had the CDH-I genetic mutation. People with the gene have about an 80 percent chance of developing diffuse stomach cancer. Women with this gene have about a 60 percent risk of developing lobular breast cancer.

Greg and Kristie also discovered that there was a 50 percent chance that either of their two children – Kori and their son Tyler, 28 – would be positive for the gene.

They both are.

Corey Myers.

Courtesy of the Myers family

Greg Myers had his last truly decadent family meal on Christmas Day 2021, two days before he had his stomach surgically removed. “We did our best,” says Kristie, 52, who works as an aviation program manager.

They served prime rib, mac and cheese and “overindulged,” says Greg.

Adds Tyler’s current wife, 28-year-old high school agriculture teacher Amber Donat, “We stuffed ourselves.”

Greg Myers had his stomach removed on December 27, 2021.

Two days later, on December 29, the children had an endoscopy and a biopsy.

In Tyler, doctors found stage 1 stomach cancer cells. In Kori, they didn’t find stomach cancer — but according to research on this type of cancer, even if the biopsy is negative, the cancer is likely still there, Kristie explains. “This type of cancer usually doesn’t have any symptoms until stage 3 or 4. It’s usually very difficult to beat by then.”

Both children made the difficult decision to have their stomachs removed prophylactically.

Tyler after and before stomach surgery.

Courtesy of the Myers family

“It was a tough choice,” says Tyler Myers, an administrative assistant for Coast Guard and Air Force veterans. “I just didn’t want to wait until one day I had cancer and it was too late.”

Tyler Myers had his stomach removed in January 2022.

Kori Myers had her stomach removed in March 2022 — and five months later, in August 2022, she had a double mastectomy, followed by breast reconstruction surgery in December 2022.

“It was very difficult,” she says. “This is going to change the rest of my life whether I like it or not.” She planned to spend 20 years serving in the Air Force. “I loved my job, I loved being in the army,” she says.

But without a stomach, he has to be near a hospital and can no longer travel the world at a moment’s notice. A side effect of gastrectomy is “dumping syndrome,” she says. “If I eat something—carefully as I can—my body will try to reject it, my heart rate goes up, and I become so exhausted and tired that I have to lie down. Because I can’t tell when that’s going to happen, it makes me unfit to deploy. ” She was retired from the military due to health reasons.

Kristie recently got three seahorses tattooed on her left arm — sea creatures also don’t have stomachs. And, she got a tattoo of a huge octopus representing herself with her arms around them. “I felt like I should be an octopus,” she says, recalling caring for her son and husband after the surgery.

Kristie and Greg Myers.

Courtesy of the Myers family

Family members lost a lot of weight after the stomach was removed. Before the surgery, Tyler weighed 250 pounds and now weighs 160 pounds. Before his diagnosis, Greg weighed about 300 pounds, now he’s 165. Kori now weighed 140 pounds. up to 110 lbs.

They all still love food. Greg still cooks for his wife, even though he can’t eat much. Kristie and Greg regularly send each other Instagram recipes and beautiful food pictures.

Now, Kori explains, the family initially loads meals with protein. Carbohydrates and sugars are difficult to process. But usually, she says, if they eat some protein first, their bodies can handle the carbs and sugars a little better. Since they cannot eat salads or raw vegetables, they take vitamins to get the nutrients they need. But

“The ability to digest solid food is completely different when you don’t have a stomach,” says Dr. Gregory Idos, 48, a gastroenterologist at City of Hope. “You have to change your lifestyle. You have to change your diet.”

The stomach is where food is stored and broken down before it travels to the small intestine, where nutrients are absorbed, the Cleveland Clinic explains. After a gastrectomy, people must eat smaller and more frequent meals.

Without a stomach, people can still eat solid food, Idos says. A diet rich in proteins and low in carbohydrates is more easily absorbed by the body and prevents diarrhea. He says patients also need to make sure they have vitamins A and D and other ‘fat-soluble vitamins’ because absorption is more difficult without the stomach.

“It’s different for every patient, sometimes it can be okay to eat solids, but most of the time you’d have to grind or puree it so others can absorb it better,” says Idos.

The Myers family says they now chew each bite about 100 times before swallowing. For Greg Myers, he says he just chews and chews and chews until the morsel of food “goes mushy in my mouth and then I swallow — now I have a feel for it,” he says.

After Greg underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy, as well as surgery to remove his stomach, he was cancer-free for about a year. Then the cancer returned to the peritoneum, the lining of his abdomen.

He underwent 5 procedures known as hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in which his abdominal cavity was bathed in a heated, highly concentrated chemotherapy solution to eliminate any remaining cancer.

He was cancer free again from August 2023 until a month ago. He recently started chemotherapy again.

“We’ll get through it,” Greg says. “I want people to know that it was scary when I got the diagnosis. But it gives me a lot of hope for the future.”

The Myers Family.

Courtesy of the Myers family

The family is advocating for genetic testing and regular testing for stomach cancer.

“I’m really passionate about early detection and getting insurance to pay for the testing done – just like a colonoscopy,” says Kristie.

This Thanksgiving, the family plans to go camping together at Dirt Diggers in the desert near Ridgecrest, California.

“We will still be cooking all day. We’ll still eat everything,” says Kristie.

The turkey will be made in a portable convection oven that uses charcoal. “We can all still eat it – just little bites,” says Greg.

And they will enjoy every moment they can be together.

Kori Myers says it sounds crazy, but she’s thankful the tumor was there and her dad’s doctor didn’t just give him heartburn medicine, but sent him for more tests.

“My dad saved all of our lives. It could be in the next few years that we all disappear,” she says.

Tyler says he considers himself “cured” of cancer. Kori Myers says that because of preventive surgeries, he will most likely never get cancer.

“It’s really gratifying to know that they can come together on Thanksgiving and be together knowing that we’re curing their cancer or preventing their cancer,” Idos says.

Greg’s cancer is now considered stage 4. He is currently trying to eat 500 calories a day, but the rest of his food is given by IV. He still cooks for his wife. His children try to eat as many calories as possible.

“It’s extremely rare, but it has happened,” says Kori. “It could happen to other families and I just hope they can fight it like we did,” says Kori. “I feel so happy.”

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Source: HIS Education