Looking back on the time before his diagnosis, Josh says, “I was running a business, raising two young kids, eating hamburgers and spicy fries, not sleeping well, and really out of shape. I’d pretty much given up on my health.”

In July of 2016, Josh was out on a Saturday night and got an intense pain in his stomach. He went home and called his sister, a pediatrician, who said it could be gallstones. “She said if I could get through the night, I was okay; if not, I should go to the emergency room.” Josh got through the night but went to the emergency room the next day. They sent him home. At his wife’s urging he followed up with his doctor to get an ultrasound just to be sure it was really nothing to worry about.

His doctor called him after the ultrasound and told him there were some big spots on his liver. Josh’s reaction: “I’m only 40 years old so there’s no way it’s cancer.” Blood tests revealed potential cancer indicators. Now Josh was scared. A follow up colonoscopy revealed “more polyps than could be counted.” The gastroenterologist told him to go to an oncologist immediately.

Based on his level of disease, doctors told Josh he had a 2% chance of survival. “That was all I could think about. I had to focus on that 2% chance.” One of Josh’s goals was to see his kids through important milestones such as his daughter’s bat mitzvah. He started systemic chemotherapy and within three months his tumors shrank by 50%. In January of 2017, he had simultaneous liver and colon resection. When the tumors in his liver returned in May of 2017, his doctor recommended Hepatic Artery Infusion (HAI) therapy with an implanted pump to deliver chemotherapy directly to the tumors in his liver and potentially help with recurrence.

Josh had the pump implanted in May 2017 and was cancer free in six months. But six months after that, the cancer returned. Josh’s pump was still implanted, so his doctor started another round of targeted chemotherapy. Once the tumors shrank, Josh was able to have a second liver resection, after which the doctor increased the dose in the HAI pump. This time the cancer did not come back.

Josh has been able to celebrate many of his children’s milestones since receiving treatment, including his daughter’s bat mitzvah.