347 days, 26 weeks of chemo and a 20 pound daughter that can be lifted by her father again.
After being diagnosed with stage three esophageal cancer on Dec. 18, 2012, Eric Bascelli finally received the news that he is cancer free on Nov. 29, 2013.
April 1, 2013, Bascelli went under the knife having an Ivor Lewis Esophagectomey. The surgery took out half of his stomach and esophagus. It took about two months for Bascelli to be able to do anything.
“The first month after surgery, I could get up and walk around, but I couldn’t lift my daughter who is 20 pounds,” Bascelli said.
The second month Bascelli was finally able to pick up his daughter, because he had recovered enough that he was in rehab, but was still going through chemo treatments.
“I had 29 years of eating how I want to eat, and they take half of my stomach out and expect me to eat a certain way, and my body still wants to eat like it used to,” Bascelli said.
After hitting an all-time low weight of 155 pounds, Eric has almost gained 30 pounds back and is now back to his normal weight.
“People ask me how I look so good after 26 weeks of chemo,” Bascelli said. “The best way I can describe it is a lot of people train for football season, a marathon or a test, something that they are training for they have to practice at it.”
Eric would bring his IV and chemo treatments with him to the gym and exercise as much as he could, when he could.
“So I could do what I needed to do to be myself a little bit I guess,” Bascelli said. “I was really training to be normal again. Three times a week to the gym, and I would feel good when I left, I felt like I beat cancer that day.”
Prior to the surgery, Eric and his family won a trip to Disney courtesy of The For Pete’s Sake Foundation.
“The trip was great!” Bascelli said. “We were in Disney for a week! It was just what we needed at the time.”
The Bascelli family was given a house with four bedrooms, a pool, and everything was already set up when they got there, all they needed to get was food.
Bascelli and his family were also given tickets to every amusement park and one day they even got a chance to see the Phillies take on the Braves in spring training.
“I was out of work for a year, so I wasn’t making a ton of money,” Bascelli said. “Jen [Bascelli’s fiancé] is going to school to be a nurse so she’s not working just yet.”
Eric accumulated over one million dollars in hospital bills over his time of being sick. Cabrini College kept Bascelli employed so that he could keep his health benefits.
“I would really like to thank my department for the support,” Bascelli said. “Even through the layoffs and everything they let me keep my job which was so important because if I lost it, that would have wrecked me.”
This helped the Bascelli family resume life without skipping a beat. Bascelli’s insurance covered most of the hospital bills and home mortgage.
“We live comfortably still and I attribute getting better to that,” Bascelli said. “If I had to worry about losing the house, how to pay the bills and how to put food on the table it would have been a big load of stress, and it was a huge key to me getting better.”
Jay Unger, Mike Cerceo, Larry Stauffer, Dawn Barnett and Howard Holden supported Eric through his time out while he was going though treatment.
“Things may have been a little different,” Bascelli said. “The guys that I work with everyday contributed a lot of money and time and their efforts and I’m extremely grateful for what they have done to help me get back on my feet.”
Bascelli, 29 years old came back to work at Cabrini on Sept. 30 which was just 14 days after his last day of chemo treatments.
“It was a little weird the first few days back, it was a lot of talking and curiosity and all eyes on me, I couldn’t get any work done,” Bascelli said. “After the first couple of days, things started feeling normal again, and I got my hands dirty, and it feels good to get your hands dirty when you haven’t for nine months.”
On March 17 Bascelli got his chemo port and he continues to give back in any way that he can to the people that helped him through his time of being sick.
“People are often still sick and there are a lot of obstacles that they have to face,” Bascelli said. “I still have obstacles, but nothing that inhibits me that much. They want me to talk I guess to give my secret to success.”
Bascelli continues to help other people who are going through the same thing he did by working with the For Pete’s Sake Foundation. Bascelli guest speaks at the University of Pennsylvania and functions for cancer survivors on behalf of the foundation.
