Life on the Line

My name is Carlos Revis and this is my story.

I'm picking my son up from football practice and I get hit by someone that ran a red light.

Smashes my car.

Luckily all my kids were good.

So that kind of forced me to go see my primary doctor.

He's like, "Man, you're good."

And towards the end he casually asked me, "What else is going on with you, Carlos?

You have any questions for me?"

I said, "You know what?

My gum in my mouth has been irritating me."

And as he took his hands up to my chin, he felt a small lump.

From what they seen, they was just like, it's in the mouth, it's in that area.

But after the scans came, they seen the cancer in the jaw and under my chin and in the lymph nodes.

And I remember the drive home, I was like, "Dang, this is real.

It is going down.

It's cancer."

Had my moment of tears, moment of feeling hurt, moment of pain, and then let the wind blow and say, "You know what?

I'm going to boss up, and let's go fight this thing."

[dramatic and driving musical score] [faint voices] [helicopter whirring] [male voice on a radio] [wind rustling through brush] [distant sound of a train whistle] [music continues] [music fades] (Narrator) Approximately 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer every year.

While it more commonly affects older patients, there is a recent trend of cases in young people.

(Carlos) Thank you Lord, father God, for a great day, you have blessed us with.

Thank you Lord, for keeping us out of harm's way.

Thank you Lord for guidance protecting us in Jesus Christ's name, amen.

Short and sweet.

Amen.

(Carlos) Ella's prayer.

Ella's prayer.

Let's go, Ella.

Go, Ella.

(singing sweetly) (Carlos) Hooray!

Hooray!

All right!

So I have six great kids from ages 15, PJ, we call him.

My daughter Samara, she's 14 going on 17.

And Jeremiah he's 10 years old and baby Ella, she's four.

Michael Man, he's turning three in December and then my youngest, which is one and a half.

And then I married to my amazing wife, high school sweethearts.

I've known her since I was 15 years old.

She's definitely my what they call ride or die.

That's a lot going on in our household.

It's never a dull moment.

(coach) Football will make you or it'll break you.

The choice is yours.

(player) One, two, three, (all together) work!

(Carlos) It's in there.

It's stage four.

It's in the jaw.

So removing this out facing me, taking out the lymph nodes or taking,uh, this out.

No clap.

No clap.

(coach) One or four.

What would be the- (Carlos) Yeah, four.

Yeah, that's why they doing the surgery.

That's why they have to do the surgery.

(coach) Is it a rare cancer?

(Carlos) Yeah, it's in the bones.

Lost a tooth?

Tooth came out.

(coach) Tooth fairy came to see you.

(Carlos) I know.

I hope I get 500!

(coach) 500,000, right?

(Carlos) This has been hurting.

It's really painful.

Even if you just touch it.

Even if I just bend my head down, it bleeds really fast, puss it's coming out definitely feel just weak.

My mind is saying, "You good!"

My body's saying "Go sit down.

You out of breath."

The irony of it is that he's not a smoker, not a drinker.

He does not have any traditional risk factors.

We hope that a patient like him will do well because he has so much to live for.

(Carlos) Do those thoughts come to my mind?

Worst case scenario.

Yeah, I mean I'm human.

It comes in there, but it doesn't consume me too much.

Dr. Viet, she was saying that the cancer has grown more since our last visit, which was only about two weeks ago.

The cut that she was going to do only went like this far, and because it spread she's going to have to cut more of it.

(Dr. Viet) When you think about a patient with a jaw cancer, the standard of care is cut out that cancer or replace it, then they go through radiation, possibly chemotherapy, and finally we talk about getting teeth back into that jaw.

I had suggested jaw-in-a-day for Carlos because we are taking a process that takes up to two years and compressed it into one day.

[omnious music] [beeping of equipment] (Shy) da da da da dah What's after that?

(Carlos) Oh, you got to repeat it.

That's how it goes.

Oops there is goes another rubber tree.

(Shy) Oops, there it goes.

(Carlos) See?

See?

It sound good.

Just the chin be hurting.

(Shy) Yeah.

He's feeling a little anxious.

(doctor) Oh, of course, I would be too, I totally get you.

(Dr. Viet) I will update you in a couple of hours.

(Shy) Okay.

Okay.

(Dr. Viet) Probably by late afternoon.

And we'll go from there.

(Carlos) Sounds good.

(Dr. Viet) And you'll be asleep.

This would not otherwise be possible without virtual surgical planning and 3D printing.

If you notice, even if you have a grain of sand between your teeth, you're going to know.

So that's how accurate you have to be.

(Narrator) Only a few hospitals in the world perform the jaw-in-a-day surgery because it requires the overlapping expertise of multiple doctors.

Dr. Viet begins by removing the cancer and lymph nodes in the neck, saving sections for later analysis.

(Dr. Viet) We've gotten to a point with these technological advancements where we can perform very complex and sophisticated surgeries, but what we need to remember is that more than half of these patients don't even make it to five years.

We're dealing with one of the smartest cancers out there and that's where research comes in that helps us better understand the complexity of this cancer, in addition to doing surgery.

(Narrator) Meanwhile, her colleague prepares a bone transplant from the leg.

(Paul) The cancer has already destroyed part of your jaw and when that gets taken out, there's no more bone there and you can't just put a piece of metal in there.

It has to be something living that your body will tolerate.

But you can't just take the bone on its own.

It has to come with its own blood supply.

(Narrator) Using an exact 3D replica of Carlos's Jaw.

Dental implants and teeth are anchored to the bone while it's still in the leg.

The demanding surgery lasts all day.

[solemn piano] (Paul) Once we take it out and do the transplant, all the cuts are done and we can screw it into place and it holds into your jaw.

The implants are in there ready to go, and we just have to hook the blood vessels up to bring it back to life.

And the arteries and the veins are very small.

They're just a few millimeters in size, and we do underneath a microscope with sutures that are thinner than a human hair.

(Dr. Viet) Because we're adding on so many layers of complexity, it makes for a much more difficult surgery with many more complications.

(Paul) There's not a good sense of relief until maybe at the very end and even then you're a little bit nervous that things might not go right.

(Shy) I won't forget, but I wish I could forget how he looked and how he was trying to communicate with us and he couldn't talk and just how swollen he was.

You want to write something?

You want to write?

Love you too, baby.

He wrote to me, "I love you."

It's all like chicken scratch, but his handwriting is not that good, either way.

Babe, we got to go, okay?

I love you, baby, get some rest.

[touching piano melody] He said when he does a suction through his mouth, it feels like he's choking so his eyes get watery.

He's been moving around a lot and having me readjust his leg all through the night, we've got through it.

I'd rather do that than something else.

Yeah, he's been giving me high-fives too.

(Carlos) I remember the first time I seen my face I had to cover up because it was this so heartbreaking.

I was like, "I can't believe I look like this."

And I was just so scared and I started realizing the trach was in there and the feeding tube was in my nose.

And then I looked at my leg and I was just like, "Oh my gosh, this is a lot."

(Dr. Viet) Say good morning?

Okay.

In a couple days.

(Carlos) And the first word that I said was "Shy" and it might not have sounded like how it sounds now, but it was an attempt and she still uplifts me and tells me I look good and gives me a kiss.

Even though I can't put my lips together properly.

It is like she keeps it going.

She ain't stopping.

I don't know how she do it, and I never knew how she did it.

(Shy) Carlos and I, we met in high school.

(Carlos) Gardena-Compton, LA area.

I already seen her around the school and was always so attracted to her.

As a 15-year-old kid, you just looking at her beauty and her booty.

We had a conversation when I called old school we had to use an actual landline phone and she understood me from the jump.

When I met her I was without my parents.

Both my mom and my dad were both incarcerated.

We're living with our grandmother, and then we're living with our aunts.

We only had probably one pair of shoes.

I could remember washing my T-shirt in the sink and putting it on a house fan.

(Shy) Since I've known him, he's been a hustler, a go-getter.

He would go to the taco truck early in the morning, place an order before and pick up 20 burritos, and would sell them for more to get a profit at school, and he would have mine separate in a separate bag with my extra hot sauce.

(Carlos) I was rough around the edges, involved in gang activity and Shy caught me at a moment in life where I knew I didn't want to be in them activities.

(Shy) It was just little things like that, bringing him food, inviting him over.

He would just fit right in, and my mom would be like, "Oh yeah, that's my son-in-Law.

That's my son-in-law," at 15.

And he would perform for us.

He would be a dancer, [laughing] or telling jokes.

He was always an entertainer.

21 years, six kids later.

Here we are.

(Dr. Viet) I'd like you to get up and walk more if possible.

(relative)You ready?

For the fight?

The fight.

(Narrator) For over a week.

Carlos recovers in the hospital.

He takes his first steps since bone was taken from his leg, he prepares to go home and awaits pathology results of cancer taken out during surgery.

(therapist) Awesome.

Very good.

(relative) We're getting discharged.

We're going home.

(Dr. Viet) Carlos is a highly intelligent person.

He understands the nature of his situation, and it does get to him, but he has this immeasurable strength.

Perhaps he gets it from his faith.

Perhaps he gets it from his family, his children, his whole entire extended family who are all rooting for him.

He truly is able to enjoy the present moment, without having to worry about what comes next.

And I think that is so powerful.

(Dr. Viet) You do have some very concerning features in the pathology.

The first is that you do have cancer in your neck.

Three of the lymph nodes have cancer.

(Carlos) Okay.

(Dr. Viet) The second, this cancer is an aggressive form where it likes to invade into the nerves and it likes to go into the lymph channels.

(Carlos) Okay.

(Dr. Viet) So the cancer is not spread to the lungs as far as we know.

And like I said, when we first met, if it's contained up here, in the jaw and the neck, it's a curable cancer.

Once it spreads to the lungs, it's no longer a curable cancer.

It's a treatable cancer.

We have several different types of therapies available.

I do think that you still need radiation.

I think that you will probably also need chemotherapy.

(Carlos) Okay.

(Dr. Viet) That in itself is not a walk in the park.

(Carlos) I know.

(Carlos) Push it.

Push it.

(Shy) I was anticipating I wanted surgery to come and go, but I knew after that it was still going to be a journey.

(Carlos) It's a lot.

(Shy) Yeah.

(Carlos) It's a lot.

[hip hop rhythm and beats] (Shy) Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What?

What?

Huh?

Huh?

[laughing] (Carlos) No cancer is going to stop me!

(Shy) Unh uh.

(Shy) Good job, Ella Bella!

Connect 4 baby!

(Carlos) I'm doing good with the soft food.

So the wife has been blending chicken, and Thanksgiving was great.

She blended the ham and the Turkey.

I'm happy I'm walking!

I threw that walker away.

(Shy) I'm so amazed.

I am so amazed.

He was moving his jaw and talking and walking.

(Carlos) You know... My lips.

(Paul) How are you guys?

Hi Mr. Revis, how are you?

(Carlos) Good to see you again.

(Paul) Good to see you.

I saw the notes from medical oncology and radiation.

Looks like you're getting set to get you started with that.

Off with the gloves on, nice to see you.

(Shy) Thank you very much.

(Carlos) But I can move it fine.

(Paul) Let me have you just rest your leg down a bit.

(Paul) Okay, good.

Did anyone talk to you about your scan that you had done yesterday?

For the planning for the radiation scan?

(Carlos) No.

(Paul) Okay, so everything looks good up here.

So, there's the bone and all the transplant and reconstruction and everything, looks like it's healing up just fine.

They did see some new nodules in your lung on the CT scan.

(Shy) What are lung nodules?

(Paul) So they're growths of something in the lung and they weren't there before.

So anytime someone's had cancer, it always makes us suspicious that that could be cancer.

(Shy) I'm just concerned because you're the first person to tell us about the lung nodules and no one else.

(Paul) Just seen yesterday.

(Shy) Just seen yesterday?

(Paul) But I understand your concerned about these new lung nodules.

What are we going to do?

How do we... (Shy) Right, because we were told that they were not going... We didn't want them to get into his lungs.

(Paul) Right and there was nothing in there in the November scan that you had.

I'll send this message to your team about what we talked about with everybody else.

(Carlos) Sounds good.

I appreciate it.

(Shy) Thank you.

I know he probably, okay, this thing is metastasized, it's growing constantly, and we don't have months and months to wait... (Carlos) I can't go.

If I'm not healed, I can't do chemotherapy and radiation if I'm not healed enough, I'm not going to be strong enough.

They got to make sure I'm healed, that I'm strong enough to survive radiation and chemo.

Imagine if I did radiation, chemo two, three weeks ago.

I ain't going to survive.

I got to just be patient.

There's no guy working it out.

I felt the same way when they said, "Oh, the cancer spread, got to push the surgery back."

I thought they would put the surgery up, but they got, it's too much behind the scenes they got to do that I don't know.

I don't know.

I only go to school for 12 years.

We're going to do what we do.

We going to do what we got to do.

(Carlos) Well another doctor's meeting.

(Shy) Another doctor's meeting.

(Carlos) Some more news, unexpectedly.

But we're going to keep fighting it.

It don't change the plan.

It don't change the plan.

So it don't change my attitude.

Don't change how I'm going to attack it, and that's it.

So... Watch your step.

(Shy) He said he tried to eat like beans and rice, but it just... Everything came up.

Everything came up.

So right now that he told Samara like, "Oh, I want waffles and ice cream."

I'm like, "Give it to him.

Whatever he wants.

I want him to eat."

Let Ella help.

(Carlos) I don't want to say I understand death, but I understand that it is a time we're going to have to go.

So it wouldn't be like I'm scared to die.

I would just be scared if I die and my family is not right.

I don't want them to suffer or struggle.

(preacher)Sometimes we don't know to do and we don't have the right answers, but we have this treasure.

(Carlos) And then I get sentimental, just about my babies.

You miss it out like a high school graduation, a football game.

Little milestones.

One part of me is like, "Damn, be on this for nine months!"

It's like I can't taste nothing.

I'm throwing up stuff.

It's painful.

It hurts.

There's not a day it don't hurt.

(Shy) About a week ago we found this lesion and it's the size of a softball.

He tells me that he doesn't want to be a burden, but he'll never be a burden, a burden to me.

(Carlos) Once I get so angry.

I just don't understand.

I'm just trying to understand.

The other side is like, "All right, God.

Well if this what it take, then I'm up for it."

I really can't fall into that dark hole and be depressed because I still got air in my lungs.

I still got a roof over my head.

Statistically, growing up where I grew up.

Yeah, I'm not able to even be here.

So I'm still here.

I'm still fighting.

(Dr. Viet) Carlos has a widely metastatic disease.

What that means is his cancer has spread to multiple areas in his body and it's highly devastating.

I share bad news with my patients weekly.

After having done this for many years, it doesn't get any easier.

(Carlos) I met with Dr. Viet, Thursday, and we sat down, she screwed up close to me and she said, "Carlos, I hate to be the one to tell you, but you won't survive this cancer."

And then she told me to make sure I connect with hospice.

So I made a decision to tell my kids.

And the first one I had is with my oldest son, PJ.

And it's tough to see him cry.

I never see him cry, because he's tough.

He's a football player, he's a wrestler.

He doesn't cry.

And he covered his face when he cried, and he gave me a hug, and he grabbed my hand and he said, "Keep fighting."

And then same thing with my daughter.

When she hugged me and I kissed her, I told her I love her, and she kissed me and I told my youngest son, and he just sat there, and just looked at me and he didn't react.

I said, "You have any questions?"

He said "no."

He just said he loved me.

But I'll keep my faith in God.

And I understand he has a purpose, that he has a plan.

We keep fighting.

And we keep going and we enjoy today.

Going to laugh and joke.

Focus on right now, what you can do right now.

To my wife, my baby, my everything.

Every moment with you is just special.

We have fun doing anything through our ups, through our downs, through our trials and tribulations.

You stuck your ground.

You stand tall.

I can't thank God enough.

How blessed I am to have you.

I love you.

PJ, Sammy-girl, Jay-smooth!

Ella-Grace, Michael Man!

Sean-Sean!

Daddy just love you so much.

And when you were born, it ignited something in me.

I have enjoyed so much with you.

You bring the laughter to the table.

You are the heart and the love.

I want you to really understand that you built and made for greatness.

Keep it pushing.

Don't let nothing stop you.

Yeah, my condition?

Don't let it slow you down.

You go.

You got a life to live.

Go get it!

(Narrator) Next time on Life on the Line.

It's not normal to go to jail every three months.

It's not normal for your mom to come in and stab your dad, but this is what's going on in our communities.

(newscaster) Breaking news in San Bernardino where there's been a deadly shooting.

Other people come like, "Oh, you live in the ghetto?"

And I'm like, "Yep.

Gunshots at night."

To me, this is normal.

The kid's down the street and a mom comes to me and says, I don't know what he's on, but he's not acting normal.

I'm scared.

Okay, don't trip.

I got some Narcan.

Let's go.

(newscaster) The city of San Bernardino is ranked as the third most dangerous city in America, I had a fiance and a husband that died on me, and then my first boyfriend got killed in gang violence.

(newscaster) Police say the gangs are responsible for more than 50 murders this year alone.

Violence intervention.

That's who I am.

That's what I live.

My name is Tasha Nicole, and this is my story.

This program was made possible by the Ralph and Carolyn Thompson Charitable Foundation and Ed and Ann Zincke.