I noticed a small white dot on the side
of my tongue
and they said oh you're you're young you
just had your first child you're working
16 hours a day in a high-stress
environment eating and swallowing was
very difficult and it became very clear
that there was something more sinister
going on than just stress and in the
beginning I was met with a very
antiquated approach
there was nothing creative going on it
seemed incredibly barbaric to me
[Music]
I got a call from the team there and
talked to him briefly on the phone fine
with a clinical trial read about it and
said this is exactly what we were I was
looking for and Grant said now I'm done
like we made that decision it was a very
difficult decision and I'm done I said
like one more and we sat in the room
with with dr. votes and dr. Karev dr.
Blair and first of all I was surprised
because I had been to about four major
institutions prior to going to the
University of Chicago and only met with
one doctor each time and here we were in
this room was with the team with three
three doctors each in their own
specialty but clearly working together I
still don't understand how surgeons say
the only thing we can do is cut your
tongue up we have to cut your tongue up
first up cut your tongue up and I go why
should that be the first step
why should you sacrifice that important
organ not only for grants was a chef it
needs it for his culinary abilities but
for an average guy that wants to talk or
kisses life and so at no point here do
we rule out surgery
we have brilliant surgeons but it is not
what we want to do first and so what we
already had experience with at the time
was to start out with chemotherapy to
try and tame this tumor to take the
inflammation down take the size down and
then go in with chemotherapy and
radiation so we were concerned at the
time that even though he gave the
patient chemo and radiation therapy if
it came back in a lymph node or maybe it
was like 90
think on another note if it regroup it
would be much harder to treat
[Music]
years and years and years later it
really helped me become a better chef
engendering the spirit of teamwork
allowing us to grow take wonderful ideas
from other members of the team and
implement them into our programs so
really you know that individualistic
approach it it never gets you it never
gets you far you have to work as a team
in order to succeed and again it's the
same in the restaurant I feel strongly
that's the same in the medical
profession but I think the re-entry into
like normalcy takes a long time it's a
very mentally challenging experience to
go through but you know I mean he's got
tons of ab kits and it's been it's been
great
there was a lot of obviously anxiety
about not only was I gonna live or die
but was I gonna be able to continue my
life's passion and now all that's
dispelled I've been doing what I love to
do for for 12 years since treatment and
I think the restaurant me as a person me
as a chef art better than ever