84 | www. Char l es tonPhys i c i ans . com | www.Hea l thL i nksChar l es ton . com Perry Davis Jr. was on the 18th hole on a gorgeous day early this summer. He failed to par the hole, but he was upbeat nonetheless. A Fort Mill resident with fond memories of Charleston, he tends to be in a good mood all the time, in part because of his nature but mostly because he knows that against the odds, he blasted his way out of a tough lie in an impossible bunker – he had only a 10% chance to live. In fall 2021, when a dentist pulled one of Davis’ teeth, it came out in five pieces, which didn’t sit well with the dentist or the patient. A few weeks later, Davis’ face started swelling at a rapid pace. His dentist confirmed that the swelling was not a result of the tooth extraction and encouraged him to see his primary care doctor – soon. That doctor visit swiftly moved to a trip to, as Davis described, a “brainiac oncologist, Dr. Ryan Jacobs,” who told Davis and the love of his life for 16 years, Martha Foster, that he had a rare form of cancer and only a 1 in 10 chance to survive. “I can’t do anything; this is a rare and swift cancer,” Davis, 64, remembered Dr. Jacobs saying. And then Davis fainted. “When I woke up, Martha was upset and telling the doctor, ‘he doesn’t faint,’” Davis recalled. “And I assured Dr. Jacobs that I still had a lot of stuff to do – I actually used a different “s” word – so I was going to make that 10% survival rate go up.” Davis’ official diagnosis was large B cell lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Richter’s syndrome, he explained. “Richter’s syndrome is an aggressive histologic transformation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia,” according to verywell health. “Outcomes are generally poor, with complete remission rates of only about 20% and less than 20% longterm survival with chemoimmunotherapy.” At first, treatments were traditional – a barrage of chemo, hair loss, back and forth trips to the Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Chemo screws up your body, and it wasn’t working,” Davis explained. “It just made me weak. I lost 30 pounds because I had zero appetite.” To keep his weight up, Davis drank protein shakes for six months straight. A Unique Case: BLASTING OUT OF AN IMPOSSIBLE BUNKER: A 10% CHANCE TO LIVE THE PERRY DAVIS STORY By Lisa Moody Breslin
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjcyNTM1