Patient Voices: Juan Duarte
For This Former Combat Medic, Cancer Became His Toughest Battle Yet
- Juan Duarte
A former soldier for the U.S. Army, Juan Duarte is no stranger to doing hard things. He’s worked in some of the toughest prisons as a corrections officer, spent eight years as a medic in a combat support hospital, and even had a short stint as a firefighter. But none of those jobs prepared him for what was next.
Due to the fast-paced nature of the military, Juan was accustomed to eating quickly. One day, some food had gotten stuck in his throat. “My wife was joking with me, and she was like ‘Maybe you should try eating a little slower,’” Juan shared. “We kind of laughed it off.”
But that concern grew when Juan struggled to take his medication. “I had taken an allergy pill, and those pills are super tiny. I noticed that it got stuck, and it just kind of felt weird,” said Juan. “I kept trying to wash it down, and it would not budge.”
Juan visited his primary care physician, who referred him to a gastroenterologist. He was scheduled for an endoscopy and colonoscopy — both are minimally invasive, camera-guided procedures that look for polyps or cancer but target different areas. An endoscopy examines the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine via the mouth, whereas a colonoscopy examines the rectum and large intestine via the rectum.
“Right before my procedure, they’re about to administer the anesthesia to put me under, and I’m like, ‘I got one request,’” said Juan. “’Whatever you do, can you please do my mouth first?’” The nurses burst out laughing. For Juan, this humor helped build a relationship with his care team as he navigated the procedure.
Although Juan’s colonoscopy came back clear, his gastroenterologist found a golf ball-size mass at the base of his esophagus, where the esophagus and stomach meet.
Juan returned for a biopsy, which confirmed stage T2N0 stage IIA esophageal cancer, a disease affecting the long tube that runs from the throat to the stomach. Esophageal cancer affects people differently, but common signs include loss of appetite, trouble swallowing that worsens over time, frequent choking on food, and chronic cough.
“Me and my wife were devastated. We cried the entire weekend. We thought my life was over,” said Juan.
But that sense of hopelessness slowly began to fade as Juan started treatment at Texas Oncology.
Juan didn’t have to travel far to begin treatment at Texas Oncology-South Austin. “Whenever you find out you have cancer, everybody says you got to go here, you got to go there, and all of these clinics are out of town or out of state,” Juan explained. “When they recommended Texas Oncology, I loved it because it was so close to home.”
He describes his care experience as nothing short of amazing. “They make you feel like you’re family, like you’ve known them forever. They do whatever it takes to bring your comfort level to the point where it’s controllable,” he added.
Mathew Meeneghan, M.D., recommended six rounds of chemotherapy followed by six weeks of radiation. Juan had concerns about radiation and expressed them to Ryan Tierney, M.D., a board-certified radiation oncologist. “He was very compassionate, knowledgeable, and answered all of my questions,” shared Juan. “He gave me his personal cell phone number. He’s like, ‘If you have any questions, if you have any fears or anything, you just call me.’ And he completely changed my mind about radiation.”
As treatment progressed, so did the side effects. Juan reached a point where he could no longer eat or drink and required a J tube, which helped him receive adequate nutrition and hydration during the remainder of his treatment. After chemo and radiation, he underwent surgery performed by Shaun McKenzie, M.D., to remove a portion of his esophagus and two-thirds of his stomach.
The toughest adjustment was eating. “Coming out of post-operation, I could barely eat anything. I was probably eating as much as an infant,” said Juan. He also couldn’t eat or drink at the same time, needing to separate meals and fluids by 30 minutes.
“I lost 100 pounds in four months,” Juan admitted. “It was super hard for me to even gain weight.” In addition to losing weight, Juan lost muscle mass and prioritized protein to get back to how he felt before treatment.
“In the beginning, you feel like you hate this. I hated the new me,” Juan shared. “But it gets better overtime.”
Juan thought that informing others about his cancer would burden others, so he hid it from his family and coworkers. “Because of Hispanic culture, you don’t express emotions or vulnerability,” he explained. “I was really stubborn in that sense. I didn’t want to bother anybody, so I didn’t want to ask for help.”
It eventually got to the point where Juan used up all his paid time off (PTO). Hesitant but out of options, he worked with his company’s human resources to issue a companywide statement, resulting in emergency leave donations that exceeded the 520-hour limit.
He also found comfort in conversations with other Texas Oncology patients. “A lot of the patients I ran into were older patients, but their wisdom showed. Even though some of them were going through a worse diagnosis or cancer treatments than I was, they were still positive, optimistic, and helpful,” he shared.
During Juan’s follow-up appointment in February 2025, Juan’s numbers had returned to normal. “I’m doing very good in recovery, and I remember everybody was super happy,” Juan explained. “Like this success in treatment wasn’t just a win for you. It was a win for all of us. It was a win for esophageal cancer.”
Juan’s eating habits have significantly improved over the past year. “I can almost eat like a normal person now,” he said.
Compared to Juan’s previous jobs, “cancer is the hardest thing I’ve ever been through,” he shared. “I want to help as many people as I can. I hope that I can help somebody through their journey the way I got through mine.”
He added, “I love Texas Oncology not because they saved me, but because everybody there is amazing. I feel like God blessed everybody that works there, from clerical admins at the front desk to the janitors and nurses. They talk to you and treat you like family. You feel it in your heart that they’re doing their best to get you back to your family and your life.”
The information included in this testimonial is based on one patient’s unique experience and is not intended to represent all patient outcomes or expectations.
