Hey, everyone, Nathan Rich here again.
Recently, as you know, I've been quite distracted by a health condition and
today I want to give you an update to keep you in the loop.
As I mentioned in the video about my health, I've got a very large tumor in
my bone and I've consulted several doctors about it, all of which gave me
different answers. But since the video was released, I've continued to seek
out doctors and there's been a little bit of a change.
I wouldn't call it good news exactly, but it's more good than it is bad.
At the time of my last video, I had consulted with four doctors and I had
just done a bone scan, but I hadn't yet seen the results.
So here's what's new.
The bone scan results came back.
Please remember, I'm not a doctor, so I'm just telling you my understanding
of things. This is not medical advice for anybody out there.
The way a bone scan works is they inject you with radioactive particles and
then after you wait a few hours, they scan you to see where those particles
are in your body. Apparently, your body will move them to areas that it's
trying to heal. So the scan can't give you any diagnosis, but it can sort of
tell them where to look.
My scan clearly showed the tumor that we already know about, but there was a
few other little hot areas.
But the doctor who interpreted the scan told me that none of these were
likely issues. So in other words, it doesn't seem that I have any additional
tumors. So that reduces the already low probability that I had a more serious
disease than just the tumor.
And it also reduces the chances, that were already low, that it's cancer.
So actually, that part is good.
It doesn't rule out cancer.
It just means that it's less likely that it's cancer.
I've consulted with three more doctors since the last update.
Two of the new doctors said they believe the tumor is likely Enchondroma,
which we already knew was the most likely situation.
So not a big difference there.
One of them said I should wait and check back in three months and another
said I should wait and check back in six months.
And the third doctor said I should do a biopsy to make sure.
So that's the update.
I'm currently considering everything I've heard and it does sound scary,
waiting for several months when two doctors said it's best to do the surgery
ASAP. I may very well end up waiting anyway, because that does seem to be
what most doctors are saying.
And a lot of people have been mentioning a biopsy and one doctor did say I
should get a biopsy, but another doctor pointed something out, which is that
apparently with this kind of tumor, if you get a biopsy, it's quite possible
that you will get a negative result because the cells that they got didn't
happen to be cancerous when in fact, you did have cancer the whole time.
And I'm not sure if I'm going to do a biopsy now, because if it tells me that
I don't have cancer, according to this doctor, that hasn't really ruled out
cancer, ironically.
And if it tells me that I do have cancer, that still doesn't change the
treatment. I still need to do everything the same.
I still need to watch and see if it grows and do something about it, if that's
the case. So I haven't made any decisions about this yet.
I'm still thinking.
And by the way, I've already recorded four other videos before this happened.
So it may seem a little bit odd that in some videos I'm magically rejuvenated
and then I'm back to how I am now, slightly less rejuvenated.
For example, the video that just came out about Taiwan, I recorded that
before I found out about this tumor.
Now, as far as everybody contacting me with suggestions and offers, I really
do appreciate it. I want you to know that I probably did read your message,
but I don't have the time to respond to almost any of the messages right now.
So please forgive me.
If you sent me an email, if you make comments on my videos, I most likely did
read what you said. So thank you.
And also, I do want to take a moment to thank my extremely supportive
subscribers on the Chinese platform Bilibili.
They cast a wide net and were actually able to help me get a clear, useful
opinion from a top doctor, right when I needed it most.
So really, thank you guys.
It worked. I am now at a point where I don't need any further help finding
doctors and hospitals because I've got seven opinions and there does seem to
be somewhat of a consensus forming.
And I do value the doctors' opinions based on their skill sets, their
specialties in that kind of thing.
So, again, thanks for that.
I have some serious thinking to do about what I'm going to do next.
And waiting is not exactly good news.
It doesn't mean that I don't have any serious issues.
It just means, wait.
You know, it's...
It's news that's better than worse.
It's definitely some good news in there, and I'm happy about that, but I'm
definitely not out of the woods yet.
In the meantime, I am putting my life back together after this somewhat scary
news, and I will definitely let you know how things are going with me.
There will be a few more videos that were filmed before this happened.
So again, I might be jumping around a little bit on my channel between how I
am now and seeming quite normal and then back to how I am now.
So I think there's about three more videos that haven't released that I'm
going to be releasing soon that are that way.
I will give you guys a new update soon.
As soon as I know something new.
I really just need some time to weigh my options and figure out what to do.
So this is just a very quick update.
There's more videos coming soon.
And thank you very much, everybody, for your support.
It's not a hollow thank you.
I mean, really, you guys help me see a doctor that I wouldn't have seen
otherwise. And I got some pretty good information from him and helped to
build this consensus of what to do.
I probably will end up waiting.
I probably will not do a biopsy now, but I really need to think about that
because there's not too much harm from doing it.
But I also don't want to buy myself a false sense of security if it says that
I don't have cancer...
I don't know. As you can see, I need to think a lot about this.
But what I want to do is solve the problem.
And that's the most important to me.
So thanks to everybody who's hooked me up with doctors and opinions, and I've
got a lot of opinions via email and and comments and everything like that.
So I really, really appreciate it.
I really. It's very, very touching to know that, you know, there's people
in the world with much worse problems than I've got.
But to me, this is serious.
And when I had a serious problem, you guys really came through for me.
So thank you. I appreciate it.
Bye everybody.