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A friend of mine and Mainevents finally lost his battle with cancer last night. He was truly a really great guy and he and his wife were excellent representatives of the sport of bodybuilding and fitness.
Here is an article from musclestage about his fight with his illness. Please send out your thoughts and prayers for Lori and the Staats family. So sad so many have been lost recently.
Rest in peace Adam.
NPC Bodybuilder Adam Staats Diagnosed with Liver Cancer
Alot of people know Adam and Lori Staats from West Virginia. Adam competes in Bodybuilding and Lori competes in Figure. They are 2 super people. Recently Adam was diagnosed with Liver Cancer. I got a chance to talk to him and see how he and Lori are doing.
Muscle Stage: Adam, please share with us what has been going in your life?
Adam:On Dec. 11th around 10pm I went to the local ER because of severe pains in my right lower ribcage area.? I had a bad headache and a stiff neck at work that day and I just guessed it was a pinched nerve.
After running some tests the ER doctor tells me my right lung is partically colapsed and there is a dark area on my liver. The ER doctor then calls for transport to a larger hospital which he feels can diagnose me better. The lung just turns out to be "mashed in" from the swelling of my liver.? So that just leaves the liver. They tell me at this point it is very unlikely cancer because a tumor or growth this size (80% of my liver is tumor) would have spread throughout my body and nothing has spread.
Well after a week in the second hospital (and an ungodly ammount of tests) they send me home and tell me that the biopsy slides from my liver are at the mayo clinic and results would be in soon. Two days later I was sitting at home with a couple friends and I got the call, it was cancer
Muscle Stage: So you went to the Cleveland Clininc and they basically told you "No we can't help you"?
Adam:I was refered to the Cleveland Clinic by my regular doctor. She had called and spoke with them and we were under the idea that they wanted to begin treatment as soon as possible (my files were sent there ahead of time, so I just guessed they had looked them over)
When we got there the doctor spoke to us. He basically was trying to tell us how severe my case was. He finally came out and said that any treatment would just prolong the inevitable and that there was no cure and no chance of getting on the transplant list because of the size of the tumors. Pretty much one big wasted trip.
Muscle Stage: How have the treaments been going and what is involved with them?
Adam:My current treatments with the University of Pittsburgh (I cannot say enough good stuff about them) are similar to a heart catheter. They go in at my groin and up into my liver where they place radioactive material. This involves a 2 day stay while they monitor everything.
Muscle Stage: Do you have medical insurance and how much of your bills are they covering?
Adam:I have really good medical coverage and so far I have not had to pay much out of pocket. Not only my medical treatments but at one point they had to fly me back to Pittsburgh in a helicopter (not fun at all)
Muscle Stage: Are you on Disability and unable to work?
Adam: I am on disability and will pretty much stay on it. They would not let me back even if I wanted to return just because of the ammount of pain-killers im currently on.
Muscle Stage: How have you and Lori been dealing with all of this?
Adam:It really changes things.? You look at every day as something special.? She has been great at helping me keep track of everything and tries to make sure I eat enough.
Muscle Stage: I believe you are a strong , motivated person and will make it through all of this. Have you seen the movie "The Bucket List" and are there things you are making plans to do?
Adam:Not really, my parents have pushed for me to go and do things I have never done or see things I have never seen. I would like to make it to the Olympia this year. But other than that nothing special.
Muscle Stage: Have the doctors offered any reason why this happened and do you believe a Bodybuilding lifestyle did anything to contribute to having Cancer?
Adam:The tumors in my liver have been building up over years. Hemocromotosis (sp) is a condition I was born with and it interferes with the way your body processes iron. I was adopted so it was nothing that they ever knew to test for. As for bodybuilding I think it would be like pouring gas of a fire. I would still have tumors and maybe the cancer but they would not be nearly as advanced as they are.
The first few doctors I saw before It was confirmed as cancer pretty much saw a 260lb bodybuilder with a screwed up liver and basically just blamed it on steroids.
Muscle Stage: What are your best memories while competing?
Adam:Meeting new people who compete and staying in touch with them. No one competes where we live. One of the funniest memories was my first show. The prejudging had us pose to 60 seconds of house music. A lot of shows have done away with this due to the show length when they added figure. The guy in front of me got soundguarden, not bad. For me, my first time on stage.....Mariah Carey....I swear to god. To continue after that just shows how much I enjoy bodybuilding
Muscle Stage: When you return to full health will you get back to training and would you like to compete again?
Adam:Honestly there is not much of a chance of recovery (Cleveland gave me 6 months) I would love to compete (I'm actually back in the gym now, just not as intense as before) I would like to get into judging shows, that would be something I would enjoy.
Muscle Stage: Describe what a typical day is for you now.
Adam: Wake up and take a bunch of pills, then it really depends on how I feel. Some days the chemo has me beat down to the point where I can barely make it around the house. If I feel ok I'll try to get my meals ready and try to do something to help Lori out (laundry, dishes,etc) I try to get everything done by 4pm so I can get a 2 hour nap so I'll have the energy to meet Lori at the gym at 7pm.
Here is an article from musclestage about his fight with his illness. Please send out your thoughts and prayers for Lori and the Staats family. So sad so many have been lost recently.
Rest in peace Adam.
NPC Bodybuilder Adam Staats Diagnosed with Liver Cancer
Alot of people know Adam and Lori Staats from West Virginia. Adam competes in Bodybuilding and Lori competes in Figure. They are 2 super people. Recently Adam was diagnosed with Liver Cancer. I got a chance to talk to him and see how he and Lori are doing.
Muscle Stage: Adam, please share with us what has been going in your life?
Adam:On Dec. 11th around 10pm I went to the local ER because of severe pains in my right lower ribcage area.? I had a bad headache and a stiff neck at work that day and I just guessed it was a pinched nerve.
After running some tests the ER doctor tells me my right lung is partically colapsed and there is a dark area on my liver. The ER doctor then calls for transport to a larger hospital which he feels can diagnose me better. The lung just turns out to be "mashed in" from the swelling of my liver.? So that just leaves the liver. They tell me at this point it is very unlikely cancer because a tumor or growth this size (80% of my liver is tumor) would have spread throughout my body and nothing has spread.
Well after a week in the second hospital (and an ungodly ammount of tests) they send me home and tell me that the biopsy slides from my liver are at the mayo clinic and results would be in soon. Two days later I was sitting at home with a couple friends and I got the call, it was cancer
Muscle Stage: So you went to the Cleveland Clininc and they basically told you "No we can't help you"?
Adam:I was refered to the Cleveland Clinic by my regular doctor. She had called and spoke with them and we were under the idea that they wanted to begin treatment as soon as possible (my files were sent there ahead of time, so I just guessed they had looked them over)
When we got there the doctor spoke to us. He basically was trying to tell us how severe my case was. He finally came out and said that any treatment would just prolong the inevitable and that there was no cure and no chance of getting on the transplant list because of the size of the tumors. Pretty much one big wasted trip.
Muscle Stage: How have the treaments been going and what is involved with them?
Adam:My current treatments with the University of Pittsburgh (I cannot say enough good stuff about them) are similar to a heart catheter. They go in at my groin and up into my liver where they place radioactive material. This involves a 2 day stay while they monitor everything.
Muscle Stage: Do you have medical insurance and how much of your bills are they covering?
Adam:I have really good medical coverage and so far I have not had to pay much out of pocket. Not only my medical treatments but at one point they had to fly me back to Pittsburgh in a helicopter (not fun at all)
Muscle Stage: Are you on Disability and unable to work?
Adam: I am on disability and will pretty much stay on it. They would not let me back even if I wanted to return just because of the ammount of pain-killers im currently on.
Muscle Stage: How have you and Lori been dealing with all of this?
Adam:It really changes things.? You look at every day as something special.? She has been great at helping me keep track of everything and tries to make sure I eat enough.
Muscle Stage: I believe you are a strong , motivated person and will make it through all of this. Have you seen the movie "The Bucket List" and are there things you are making plans to do?
Adam:Not really, my parents have pushed for me to go and do things I have never done or see things I have never seen. I would like to make it to the Olympia this year. But other than that nothing special.
Muscle Stage: Have the doctors offered any reason why this happened and do you believe a Bodybuilding lifestyle did anything to contribute to having Cancer?
Adam:The tumors in my liver have been building up over years. Hemocromotosis (sp) is a condition I was born with and it interferes with the way your body processes iron. I was adopted so it was nothing that they ever knew to test for. As for bodybuilding I think it would be like pouring gas of a fire. I would still have tumors and maybe the cancer but they would not be nearly as advanced as they are.
The first few doctors I saw before It was confirmed as cancer pretty much saw a 260lb bodybuilder with a screwed up liver and basically just blamed it on steroids.
Muscle Stage: What are your best memories while competing?
Adam:Meeting new people who compete and staying in touch with them. No one competes where we live. One of the funniest memories was my first show. The prejudging had us pose to 60 seconds of house music. A lot of shows have done away with this due to the show length when they added figure. The guy in front of me got soundguarden, not bad. For me, my first time on stage.....Mariah Carey....I swear to god. To continue after that just shows how much I enjoy bodybuilding
Muscle Stage: When you return to full health will you get back to training and would you like to compete again?
Adam:Honestly there is not much of a chance of recovery (Cleveland gave me 6 months) I would love to compete (I'm actually back in the gym now, just not as intense as before) I would like to get into judging shows, that would be something I would enjoy.
Muscle Stage: Describe what a typical day is for you now.
Adam: Wake up and take a bunch of pills, then it really depends on how I feel. Some days the chemo has me beat down to the point where I can barely make it around the house. If I feel ok I'll try to get my meals ready and try to do something to help Lori out (laundry, dishes,etc) I try to get everything done by 4pm so I can get a 2 hour nap so I'll have the energy to meet Lori at the gym at 7pm.
May your mutual friend rest in peace, Steve and Chris.
