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July 21, 2023
Check Yourself - With Guest Matt Sellers
Have you ever wondered about the courage it takes for a firefighter to step into danger every day? Now, imagine that same bravery but in a fight against a rare form of cancer. That's the story of Matt Sellers, a firefighter from Concord, North Carolina, who shares his personal battle with T Cell Lymphoma. From the initial symptoms to the joyous moment of returning to work, Matt's journey is one of resilience, perseverance, and the power of a supportive community.
Matt's story isn’t just about his personal recovery – it's a tale of the profound impact of the support he received from his wife, his friends, and the fire family during his struggle. These were the lifelines that kept him going during his hospital stay and the challenging process of recovery. Discover how Matt's experience emphasizes the power of positivity and the importance of seeking out the support of clinicians and family when life throws a curveball.
But, part of our journey with Matt isn’t just about his past – it’s also about the future. We uncover the importance of cancer prevention, the need for tracking exposures, and the significance of maintaining clean equipment. Moreover, we learn about the potential link between job-related issues and cancer diagnoses. As we wrap up our conversation, we express our gratitude to you, our listeners. You are the reason we bring these inspiring stories to light. So, don’t forget to subscribe, write reviews, and leave comments. Get ready to be empowered by Matt's story.
Matt Sellers is a Captain with Concord Fire Department, Board Member of the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance, and all around good guy! Matt is a T-Cell Lymphoma Survivor and is peer support leader for the NCFCA.
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Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:03.545 --> 00:00:04.847
This is All Clear.
00:00:04.847 --> 00:00:07.814
the Firefighter Health and Wellness Podcast, episode 6.
00:00:07.814 --> 00:00:10.788
Check yourself with guest Matt Sellers.
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I'm Travis co-host, eric, and we have a guest today.
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We have Matt Sellers, from the Concord Fire Department and also board member of the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance, and we are in a fire station, so you're probably going to hear stuff in the background.
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So, to share that, we don't pre-record.
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So, eric, how are you doing today?
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I don't mean to ignore you.
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We're doing good man.
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Yeah, excellent.
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How about you, Matt?
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How are you doing today?
00:00:35.027 --> 00:00:35.868
I'm doing great.
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Thanks for having me Excellent.
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Well, it's good to have you here.
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Matt is a friend of the podcast and a friend of all of us personally.
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So what we were hoping to do today is, matt, if you're willing, maybe you could tell us a little bit about your story and relationship you have to, what we're doing with our peer support, the cancer alliance, and how we've worked with Eric and all that good stuff, and kind of where you're at right now.
00:01:01.043 --> 00:01:03.113
Sure, i'd love to.
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So, yeah, it's kind of a long story and I'll try to narrate it down as much as I can not to bore you too much.
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In 2011, i was diagnosed with a very rare type of T cell lymphoma, and there's two types of lymphoma There's B cell and T cell, and T cell is more obscure than B cell.
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B cell is the more common lymphoma And, of course, i was lucky enough to get the rare kind and the kind that I had, the lymphoma that I had kind of for 1% of all the lymphomas in the world.
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So I should have bought a lottery ticket, i guess, at that point, but anyhow, it started in late February, early March of 2011, where I would notice I was getting lightheaded, jumping up in the middle of night, going to calls and stuff like that, and, just like any stubborn firefighter, just kind of put it off, get you know, i brush it off, i got up too fast, you know, got lightheaded in the middle of the night Not going to the doctor till you're dying.
00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:28.786
Yeah, pretty much Okay.
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It's pretty fun, which is seems to be a common thing that we need to change.
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It's one of the things that we do need to change.
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To continue on, i was not being able to eat.
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You know, we eat just a little bit and feel extremely full and just hurt in my gut and my belly area Did was working out.
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One morning I did, like one jump in Jack and noticed, you know, the pain in my abdomen was excruciating.
00:03:02.592 --> 00:03:13.848
I knew then that I'm going to have to go to see the doctor, so made appointment with a regular doctor, went to go see them.
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They drew blood and called me and said well, you're anemic, and was kind of threw me for a loop.
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I really didn't understand it at that point, kind of what that meant.
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He said we're going to set you up an appointment with a hematologist, oncologist.
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Well, we can't get you in for about three months.
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Was this your regular doctor that you were seeing?
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Correct, this is my regular family physician.
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Okay, so we haven't even got the specialist or anything like that yet?
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No, not at all.
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So he said they were going to set me up with an oncologist, a hematologist, and so it would take about three months to get me into one.
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And my wife, which is the bulldog of the family, said no, that's not going to work, we're going to find one on her own.
00:04:04.944 --> 00:04:27.411
So she did And within a week she had an appointment with my oncologist They're just still my oncologist today at the firm in practice, i guess and had an appointment and when it saw them they drew blood, saw the same things.
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So we want to do a CT scan.
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Did it real quick CT scan, jump out, see the doctor.
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He comes in and says listen, i think you have cancer.
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Showstopper, right?
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Yeah, i mean, that was like right to the gut.
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And he's like I don't know what kind.
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I have no clue.
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We're just going to start trying to do tests and try to figure it out.
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But in my opinion, you know that you have some type of cancer.
00:05:04.829 --> 00:05:10.110
And so I was like okay, so that means it could not be.
00:05:10.110 --> 00:05:14.891
Yeah also, but let's do what we got to do.
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So we started this was in March started doing.
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They took biopsies.
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They said that they didn't have any mass, so everything just looked cloudy in my abdomen.
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So they started taking tissue samples from my abdomen several different places, ended up taking a lymph node out of my groin, several different other biopsies and can't find it, can't find it, can't find it.
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And by this time I'm getting sicker and sicker and sicker, at this point where I can't do anything.
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I'm having, i'm out of work now And this has come up into April, right around Easter, and I was in the hospital still trying to figure it out, but I was really sick.
00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:19.348
So we're talking about a rapid decline in about what two, three months Correct.
00:06:19.348 --> 00:06:19.930
Wow.
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Now, how long had you been in the fire service up to this time?
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And, Eric, if you've got any questions, jump in too, because I'm probably missing the meat and potatoes of this.
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But how long had you been in the fire service when you noticed this significant decline.
00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:35.163
The fire service total.
00:06:35.163 --> 00:06:43.206
I started when I was, yeah, as a junior firefighter, when I was 16 years old, like in 1989.
00:06:43.206 --> 00:06:46.725
So you knew what was normal for your body.
00:06:46.725 --> 00:06:59.413
Yes, yes, and I had been with the city fire department for about five years when this happened.
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And so, anyhow, I get back to where I was and the doctors are still trying to figure this out and I'm laying in the hospital and they can't, they have no clue.
00:07:16.930 --> 00:07:41.069
And the doctor comes in and is like we don't know what to do, which one sends you down to Winston Salem, to the Baptist hospital, and they put me in the ambulance, drove me that from Huntersville to Wake Forest, winston, to Baptist hospital.
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They had, at this point I had a team on college.
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It's a team of hematologists, a team, just every kind of team, you can think of it in there all Trying to figure out what's going on.
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They're doing more biopsies, more tests every day, as down there for two weeks in the hospital, and I'm like, coming up on Easter and it's like can I at least try?
00:08:07.949 --> 00:08:09.892
you know, i'd love to go home for Easter.
00:08:09.892 --> 00:08:18.591
You know we're not doing anything at this point, so this will let you, we'll let you go home for Easter but you got to come back right after that.
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We'll do one more Biopsy because they're fighting back, for we think is cancer, we think it's autoimmune disease.
00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:31.927
You know, they don't know, they're Bickering back and forth about what it is.
00:08:33.303 --> 00:08:45.871
So went back for the final box in May and They took some of the small bowel Messentary and some of the flowers was full of this fluid, lymphatic fluid.
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So they took some of the fluid out and some of that small bowel Messentary and I thank God for the Pathologist that was working that day because he looked at it as like I I really don't know, but I think this is kind of what looks like and For testing and investigating it came out to be this T cell lymphoma.
00:09:10.253 --> 00:09:15.702
So They called me.
00:09:15.702 --> 00:09:21.121
It's like, hey, this was on like a Thursday or Friday, monday.
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You're going in the hospital, we're gonna start chemo.
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We really don't know how to treat it, but we're just gonna throw everything we can at it.
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And, by the way, you're going to stay in the hospital for a week and then Get chemo for a week and come home.
00:09:38.427 --> 00:09:42.302
You be home for two weeks and you get to come back And I was like.
00:09:42.743 --> 00:09:47.870
So when you received this diagnosis of T cell lymphoma, you knew you had cancer.
00:09:47.870 --> 00:09:49.240
Up to that point right.
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Was it any form of relief that you kind of knew where it was going, or was it more stressful?
00:09:56.041 --> 00:10:20.409
Uh, a little bit of both Travis, i mean, because now we knew what we had and we knew what we had to do to try to fight it and I Was able to focus everything on the fighting that and not just trying to figure out What you know, what was going on and how we want to deal with it.
00:10:20.409 --> 00:10:35.761
So I Knew that we were going to do what we had to do with chemo and whatever direction they wanted to go To beat it, because they told me I had about a 70% chance of Not making it.
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Wow, it was 70, 30, 30 percent chance that I couldn't.
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I could beat it.
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A 30% chance to beat it and 70 percent, 60%, not to.
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I Made up my mind that We were going to beat it whatever we had to do so now, at this time?
00:11:00.043 --> 00:11:05.605
I know you've mentioned this to me before you had a, you had a new kid Yeah, pretty much at that same time too.
00:11:05.605 --> 00:11:08.070
How did that stack up on you?
00:11:08.892 --> 00:11:09.913
That sucked.
00:11:09.913 --> 00:11:30.381
To be honest, my son was two, two and a half years old when I was diagnosed and I Lost a lot with him in that whole whole time being sick To where He knew.
00:11:30.381 --> 00:11:40.493
Visiting me at the hospital was how he basically got to spend time with me a lot, and we'd drive by the hospital Oh look, there's daddy's hospital.
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You know that's how he.
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You know what he thought of me.
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As you know, that's what he thought of was me being in the hospital.
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How old was he at the time?
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He was two and a half.
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Yeah, okay, sorry for interrupting, but I think that's a critical.
00:11:57.846 --> 00:11:59.071
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:12:00.721 --> 00:12:10.220
So like starting the chemo, so I would go in the hospital on Monday, stay till Sunday, get chemo for 24 hours a day.
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They let me out on Sunday or the following Monday, be home for two weeks, come back in for a week Again, all for two weeks.
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So I was in the hospital Every third week for seven days, for eight months And out of work and I guess oh, uh.
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So I was.
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I was fortunate enough to.
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I went on short term disability uh, and I had saved my sick and vacation time uh over the years and not wasted a lot of it Uh, so I was able to make up that uh, cause short term disability doesn't pay your full been a year your full pay.
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So I was able to make up that time with sick and vacation uh, which was good Uh, and so we're trying to work to get better Uh, my intention is to come back to work uh.
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And coming down to the end of the stretch of doing the chemo, um, and they had planned that we were going to have to do a bone marrow transplant at the end of all this Um, so they couldn't find a match uh for bone marrow.
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So they said, well, we'll just use your own Uh, and that's what they call an autoglis transplant, so where they harvest your own white cells from your body, freeze them and then give them back to you, uh, so when I went into the hospital for that, i was on uh of leave of absence at that point from the city, so I was not getting paid.
00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:04.360
I was having to pay out of pocket for my insurance.
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You know, back to the city, um, and when I was going in for the transplant, i was going to be in the hospital for a minimum of 30 days.
00:14:16.414 --> 00:14:26.615
So, in addition to worrying about your health and stressing about that, worrying about your family, now you had financial issues, financial issues.
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My wife, uh, and so I'm was back and forth at uh, wake Forest, um, at Baptist hospital, on and off the whole time.
00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:49.926
My wife would have to try to come and stay with me some, uh, she would stay in the state employees credit union house, which is a house there, uh, right there on campus.
00:14:49.926 --> 00:14:53.982
She could stay at free of charge and still come see me.
00:14:53.982 --> 00:15:01.861
But my son was still at home So we were having to have care for him.
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Uh, she's trying to split time between you know, home, wake Forest.
00:15:08.030 --> 00:15:14.845
you know taking care of me, because at this point I wonder what are there with me?
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you know, all the time.
00:15:17.375 --> 00:15:19.082
Uh, how about the fire family?
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How are they doing with it?
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So that was a great support group that I had, um, throughout the whole, the whole time when I was uh going through chemo and all that I we never wanted for a meal.
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you know, cut, cut my grass, you know, do whatever needed to be done around the house.
00:15:38.864 --> 00:15:45.767
Uh, and there was somebody you always wanted to come by and talk to you, which was fantastic.
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When I was in uh at Baptist we'd I'd have people, you know come in from the fire department and visit uh a good bit, and talking to them now, years later, is like, dude, we came in to see you that day and we didn't think you were going to be be there the next day.
00:16:07.126 --> 00:16:11.476
Uh, excuse me, and you still work with a lot of these people?
00:16:11.517 --> 00:16:15.344
I sure do, sure I do, and you're I assume you're well, i know you're close to them.
00:16:15.344 --> 00:16:16.686
Oh yeah, i'm close.
00:16:16.686 --> 00:16:30.787
Yeah, all right, sorry for interrupting the story, but this is all stuff that I've kind of seen happen myself, working in the same department as you, and sure it's pretty awesome, but so you're off the job, financially, uh, on the ropes, got your family you worried about.
00:16:30.787 --> 00:16:32.659
So what's the news?
00:16:33.735 --> 00:16:42.496
Um, so the news now is so we've got to do the this transplant, your own third day lose of absence.
00:16:42.496 --> 00:16:47.326
Um, we know you're going to be in the hospital for at least 30 days.
00:16:47.326 --> 00:16:52.538
So you, and the day you come home from a hospital you're not going to get to come right back to work.
00:16:52.538 --> 00:16:57.645
So I had to get an extension, uh, for another 30 days.
00:16:57.645 --> 00:17:04.376
Uh, and at this point the doctor's like dude, you're done working, you're.
00:17:04.376 --> 00:17:06.544
There's no way you can go back to work.
00:17:06.875 --> 00:17:08.721
So jar pads wouldn't have been in the cards for you.
00:17:08.721 --> 00:17:11.476
No, no, not at all, um.
00:17:12.277 --> 00:17:17.976
But the chief said you know, all right, great, let's.
00:17:17.976 --> 00:17:26.376
You know, as long as you can come back and if you're here for just four hours a day, you know we can.
00:17:26.376 --> 00:17:28.020
You don't have to.
00:17:28.020 --> 00:17:29.503
You know, just kind of be here.
00:17:29.503 --> 00:17:35.265
You know light duty, um, we can count you back as an employee.
00:17:35.265 --> 00:17:37.759
So that's what we started.
00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:42.336
You know, gradually doing that, uh.
00:17:42.336 --> 00:17:51.297
And finally, um, they said, okay, well, it's time to look at you know trying to retire, uh.
00:17:51.297 --> 00:17:53.381
So I went through that whole process.
00:17:53.381 --> 00:17:54.804
And how old were you at the time?
00:17:54.804 --> 00:18:00.785
Oh, 30, 38, 39.
00:18:01.355 --> 00:18:03.300
That's kind of young for retirement, yeah, yeah.
00:18:06.217 --> 00:18:15.029
And it's a medical disability retirement which is uh, not uh very lucrative.
00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:28.923
Uh, there's not a lot of money in that Uh, and then they tell you that you can only work, and I think I was able to make, I think, $20,000 a year if I worked anywhere.
00:18:28.923 --> 00:18:37.107
Wow, Uh, so ended up retiring January 1st 2013.
00:18:37.107 --> 00:18:40.538
Uh, by this time I would come.
00:18:40.538 --> 00:18:44.486
Yeah, i was on the mend.
00:18:44.486 --> 00:18:57.867
You know really well Uh, still having some issues, having to get blood or platelets every so often Uh, but the, the communications director, came and talked to me.
00:18:57.867 --> 00:19:00.502
He said Hey, yeah, i know you just retired.
00:19:00.502 --> 00:19:09.519
Uh, would you be interested in working part time for communications, cause I was a police officer, which is another story.
00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:10.401
We won't hold that again.
00:19:10.634 --> 00:19:16.935
That's a whole other story for 11 years before transferring to the fire department.
00:19:16.935 --> 00:19:24.333
So she knew I had background in both and right Asked if I would work part time and help out.
00:19:24.333 --> 00:19:32.467
And I was like, sure, yeah, so I'll work something for you here and there what I can, so I'll work there.
00:19:32.467 --> 00:20:01.829
About a month after I retired, so I went back to work for the city part time And then in 2016, i'd been there for almost four years working for communications part time My doctor called me and said hey, matt, you know you've been doing great for the last, you know, three years.
00:20:05.345 --> 00:20:13.994
I think I could yeah, i know you're a taste, i know you're retired man, but if you want to go back to work, i think I would release you to go back to work.
00:20:13.994 --> 00:20:15.451
Were those words you wanted to hear.
00:20:15.451 --> 00:20:17.182
That is exactly what I wanted to hear.
00:20:17.182 --> 00:20:18.249
How happy were you?
00:20:18.249 --> 00:20:20.409
I was excited, i mean ecstatic.
00:20:20.409 --> 00:20:40.650
I was actually working in communications and I jumped up out of my chair right then and was my eye then right up to the deputy chief's office and said hey, my doctor just called me and said I can come back to work.
00:20:40.650 --> 00:20:42.094
What do I do?
00:20:44.568 --> 00:20:45.712
And he's like I don't know.
00:20:45.712 --> 00:20:48.173
Never had to do that.
00:20:48.325 --> 00:20:55.169
I've never had anybody retire and come back to work And I don't know.
00:20:55.169 --> 00:20:57.989
But let me figure out what we've got to do.
00:20:57.989 --> 00:21:00.329
Okay, i'm in.
00:21:00.329 --> 00:21:12.255
So I got my clearance letter from the doctor, i talked to the state because I figured this is going to be an ordeal to try to work it through the state.
00:21:12.255 --> 00:21:16.913
State's never easy, exactly, except for if you want to come back to work off a disability.
00:21:16.913 --> 00:21:17.868
I didn't know that.
00:21:17.868 --> 00:21:22.192
Then they are like oh yeah, you want to come back to work, no problem.
00:21:22.192 --> 00:21:33.294
So like when you're trying to get disability, you have to go through the board of doctors that they have and they have to agree that, yes, you can't work.
00:21:33.294 --> 00:21:43.256
Well, i had no problem getting through when I went on disability and I had no problem coming back to work either.
00:21:43.256 --> 00:21:50.296
So they were like sure, you know, your doctor says you're good, you're clear, all right, have at it.
00:21:50.296 --> 00:21:54.134
So I said talk to the deputy chief.
00:21:54.134 --> 00:21:59.830
They had to figure it out and it was awesome that I was still an employee of the city.
00:21:59.830 --> 00:22:13.673
So they just opened the position internally So I could apply internally for a position, and they were getting ready to start a new rookie school in January.
00:22:13.673 --> 00:22:25.550
So I had to kind of keep another wraps until December-ish, where I could announce that you know, hey, i'm coming back.
00:22:25.550 --> 00:22:32.280
So I came back to work January 1st of 2017.
00:22:32.404 --> 00:22:43.491
So I was retired for a total of four years, come back January 1st of 17 and had to go back through EMT class Oh, i'm sorry.
00:22:43.491 --> 00:22:46.768
Yeah, with the rookie class.
00:22:46.768 --> 00:22:56.214
So I came in Back as a firefighter, came in, worked out with him, did everything they did.
00:22:56.214 --> 00:22:57.515
Did you smoke the rookies?
00:22:57.515 --> 00:23:03.618
No, i'm old guy, man, so I'm over 40 years old now.
00:23:03.618 --> 00:23:22.836
So, or at that time, and saw what I did, i came in, worked out, did everything with him with him, went through four weeks of EMT, passed my EMT, and that was the only portion of the rookie school that I had to redo.
00:23:22.836 --> 00:23:26.519
It was only because I had to get that certification back.
00:23:27.309 --> 00:23:35.320
So, now that you're back at Concord, you're back, you're in, you're rocking, you're rolling Where you at now.
00:23:37.170 --> 00:23:40.780
Today I sit here as the captain of the Venus 7 on C-Shift.
00:23:41.049 --> 00:23:47.701
Wow, that's a long way from answering calls from the 911 center on a medical discharge.
00:23:47.701 --> 00:23:49.015
Yes sir, yes sir.
00:23:49.015 --> 00:23:59.419
But so you know, i've talked to Melanie Jordan, for who works with us, right, and she mentioned that you have your birthday.
00:23:59.419 --> 00:24:02.057
Then you have your new birthday.
00:24:02.230 --> 00:24:04.057
That's correct and I celebrate both of them.
00:24:04.057 --> 00:24:05.335
And what is your new birthday?
00:24:05.335 --> 00:24:06.093
Why don't you explain?
00:24:06.113 --> 00:24:06.434
what that?
00:24:06.494 --> 00:24:07.070
is Okay.
00:24:07.070 --> 00:24:23.344
So when you have a bone marrow transplant, they consider that your new birthday, because your whole immune system is shut down, and when they give you the transplant, that is the beginning of your new life.
00:24:23.344 --> 00:24:29.337
Rebooting your system, rebooting the system, so they give that to you as your new birthday.
00:24:29.679 --> 00:24:29.880
Right.
00:24:30.631 --> 00:24:32.657
And I mean this yeah, yeah, on paper.
00:24:32.657 --> 00:24:40.150
Yeah, on paper, but yes, And I do celebrate both birthdays and I expect presents on both birthdays.
00:24:40.210 --> 00:24:42.478
We know that we just go out all the time on that.
00:24:42.829 --> 00:24:48.882
Yeah, and so my new birthday is February the eighth.
00:24:48.882 --> 00:24:49.852
That was the date.
00:24:49.852 --> 00:24:58.104
February 8th of 2012, was my bone marrow day.
00:24:58.104 --> 00:25:16.260
And when I came back out of rookie school or EMT rookie school, whatever you wanna call it my first day back on shift was my five year anniversary of my bone marrow transplant, which was February the 12th of 2017.
00:25:16.260 --> 00:25:18.215
And there you go, full circle, that's right.
00:25:18.849 --> 00:25:24.798
So since then, what I know we'll talk about peer support in another episode.
00:25:24.798 --> 00:25:26.355
We'll definitely gonna have you back for that.
00:25:26.355 --> 00:25:42.896
But what have you been doing since then in relation to not just your health, but I know that in Concord in particular, we've had several cases of folks that have passed away from cancer, particularly after retirement and things like that.
00:25:42.896 --> 00:25:47.438
What have you been doing personally to kinda help out with that?
00:25:47.438 --> 00:25:56.617
And I know you've worked with Eric quite a bit on some projects and stuff like that but what have you been doing in particular to give back to the fire service and how they helped you?
00:25:58.413 --> 00:26:03.682
We've become a part of the cancer lines is one thing.
00:26:03.682 --> 00:26:34.681
Also, being on the board, being over peer support and teaching and trying to teach people how to clean your turnout gear, how to clean yourself, how to get your checkups, how to do make sure you get this stuff done, not being the old salty dog like we used to see those years ago, walking out with soot all over you.
00:26:34.681 --> 00:26:43.980
You're the bad man to come out The best ever was, but it's not wrong to be clean, Yep.
00:26:44.829 --> 00:26:54.656
So when you're doing all that, i know that you have been very instrumental in our peer support program, the first iteration of it, and now we have our new stuff that we're doing.
00:26:54.656 --> 00:26:57.751
But how many people would you say that you've talked to or helped?
00:26:57.751 --> 00:27:06.692
just kind of a thumbnail sketch How many people have you had a chance to share your story with, help them through their own journeys with this?
00:27:07.950 --> 00:27:10.578
There have gosh right off hand.
00:27:10.578 --> 00:27:28.549
I couldn't tell you like an exact number maybe, but in the last five years probably 15 or 20 individuals that I've talked to and helped to do things with her for.
00:27:28.549 --> 00:27:34.480
But now I've spread my story all over.
00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:55.440
Like I teach classes all over the state And the classes the cancer and the fire service class And I know it's kind of not the class that everybody wants to go to, but I mean it is a good class to sit in the list and learn some things.
00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:57.221
Yep, sure it is.
00:27:57.911 --> 00:28:24.226
About cancer prevention And I know that we're not going to prevent every type of cancer or every exposure But if we can help that one person out there that keeps their gear that much cleaner than they were before, we're helping prevent them from maybe being diagnosed at some point in their life.
00:28:24.710 --> 00:28:29.176
So do you share that story now with the incoming Rookie schools?
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