Young South Dakota Medic Blogs His Cancer Battle

Jan. 26--Matt Cler has been battling cancer for nearly four years, but it wasn't until recently that he started blogging about it.

"It was more so just to show people who were diagnosed in the future that it's not automatically a death sentence," Cler said. "It's something that's very manageable, and you can actually spin it and make it a good thing."

Before his diagnosis, Cler was experiencing abdominal pain for about three years. Liver cancer wasn't an immediate thought, because it usually affects older people with cirrhosis or hepatitis, not healthy 25-year-olds. Cler was eventually diagnosed with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma.

"It's a type of liver cancer that happens to people in their teens and 20s only," Cler said. "They just found out in February that it's a genetic thing, so I guess from conception it was in the cards that I was gonna get this."

There are about 200 cases of fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide each year, he said.

Cler was diagnosed on June 10, 2011, and had surgery to remove a perfectly round softball-sized tumor from his liver at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

"It's very, very, very rare," Cler said. "There's very limited chemotherapy options."

When he first told his mother, she was in disbelief, Cler said.

"That was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," he said.

Cler graduated from Roncalli High School in 2004, but it took a few years to find a career he loved. He tried going to Northern State University, but that didn't work out. A few years later, he enrolled at Presentation College and began working as an emergency medical technician.

He joined Aberdeen Fire and Rescue in 2012 as a firefighter/paramedic.

"It's something new every single day," Cler said. "You meet new people, new issues every single day. I've lived here my whole life so it's nice to finally be able to return the favor to Aberdeen. I didn't want to work anywhere else. I wanted to be a firefighter in Aberdeen."

As a kid, Cler said he wanted to be a firefighter, but didn't think he was big and burly enough as an adult.

"You realize it's the guys that are cardiovascularly fit that were the ones that do well at it," Cler said. "You work more as a paramedic than anything, but you're still a firefighter and you still fight fires."

The tools to fight cancer have provided some unique challenges to his job, Cler said.

"Once chemo started, that's when it got really tough," he said. "Especially having the port put in. We have to -- the air packs, the strap was right on top of the port, so we had to get creative with some different pillows and things like that to protect the port."

His coworkers at Aberdeen Fire and Rescue have been more than just coworkers, they've been like a second family, Cler said. They've supported him by trading shifts and selling bracelets.

"The brothers and sister there really take you under their wing," Cler said. "Even on day one, you're a new person, but you're family. They make sure you're very well taken care of."

His biological family includes his parents, his brother and sister-in-law and a brand-new baby niece.

Cler is doctoring in Aberdeen at Avera St. Luke's Hospital and at the Mayo Clinic.

"You would see people from Iran, from Japan, people from all over the world coming to this one doctor or to this one hospital in general, and it was something that was six hours away from me, I could do it in one afternoon," Cler said of being treated at the Mayo Clinic.

Cler said he was deemed cancer-free for more than a year, until the end of 2013, when it was detected again in his abdomen and lymph nodes.

"Since then, it's been three surgeries since December (2013), chemo and kind of an aneurysm thing I had in my liver that got me flown out -- it almost was the end there..." Cler said.

His chemo was continuous for two weeks, requiring Cler to wear a fanny pack containing his meds.

"It was a huge fashion statement I was starting, it was a huge fashion trend," Cler said, joking.

Early last year, doctors found a baseball-sized tumor in his lung, Cler said. He had surgery to remove that, then another to take care of the growth in his abdomen and lymph nodes.

"I've been free of surgery since July, which has been nice, but that aneurysm in August was a huge setback," Cler said.

Because his cancer is so rare, Cler said, he has used the Internet and Facebook to connect with others who have the same affliction.

"It's people from all over the world, and we talk about what's working for them, what doctors they use, where they have stuff done at, what supplements they do on top of the chemo or the surgeries," Cler said.

Because his type of cancer only affects young people, it's created a type of online fellowship that is much different than a cross-generational support group would be in Aberdeen, Cler said.

"A cancer battle for a 29-year-old is going to be very different than it is for somebody who is 70," Cler said. "It doesn't make you stronger by any means, but it makes it a different battle all together."

In his blog, 5of9livesused, Cler takes a straight-forward approach to tackling issues dealing with his illness and treatment.

"I tried to document my experiences and not sugarcoat it," Cler said. "At the same time, I'm trying to be sarcastic about everything and just trying to keep a sense of humor about it."

Aside from school projects, Cler said he had never written much before.

"This blog has been a way for me to kind of let people know how I feel," Cler said. "But at the same time, unfortunately for the next person to come along who does get it, maybe it's a resource they can use to see that this isn't a death sentence and there's parts of it that stink, but it's not something that's going to break you. You get through it. It's not the most fun thing in the world, but you do get through it."

In some strange ways, it can enhance a life, Cler said.

"As weird as it sounds, it's the best thing that's ever happened to me," Cler said of his cancer. "It made me a much better person. It made me start appreciating things in life, not more, but differently. You really see the beauty in life when you're not sure if you're going to be around in a year."

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Copyright 2015 - American News, Aberdeen, S.D.