My friend David Pataconi passed away from stage four cancer on March 16, 2026. A couple months prior to his untimely death, I told him I was writing a book about surviving life’s heaviest of trials, and at the time was thinking of including testimonies in the book. I changed my mind about the formatting of the book, but still had an abbreviated summary of David’s story, in his own words, which I wasn’t sure what to do with. Once he graduated to his heavenly home, I decided to publish his words as a two part blog. Below is part two. Rest easy in the arms of Jesus, brother, and we’ll see ya soon…
And, so after they fully sewed me up, we started chemo and all that stuff, and I did about three months of that and then we did a CT scan and an MRI, and they determined that I was now stage four because there was a bunch of tumors spreading to my peritoneum, a lining in between your organs and your stomach muscles. In the peritoneum, there are not a lot of blood vessels and stuff, and we were hoping it would have a hard time growing. Afterward, we started on a new regimen because of being stage four, and we bounced around different chemo and a few clinical trials.
In April of 2025, nothing was shrinking the tumors, and they were doubling in size every eight weeks. My oncologist said if he could give me one more chemo that wasn’t well-tolerated, it might give me a few more months to live, and if it didn’t help, I needed to look into hospice. My wife and I prayed together, and we both felt naturopathic oncology and more natural ways of fighting cancer was the right direction from the Lord. I started by changing my diet: eliminating sugar, (most) carbs, and dairy. While it was hard at first to find things I could eat, we eventually found quite a bit of healthy food I can eat. I also had been taking a lot of supplements like quercitin, soursop, turkey tail, ivermectin, fenbendazole, and many others.
My wife found a naturopathic oncologist here in town, and by the time we talked with him the first time, he basically changed or added three things and said to keep on doing everything we are already doing. I have continued receiving treatment from him since April 2025, and God has used all of this to keep the tumors stabilized. They stopped growing altogether, but they haven’t started shrinking yet, as of December 2025.
I also started a clinical trial back in July 2025 until December 2025. It consisted of a stage one immunotherapy. By design, it was supposed to attach my immune system to the cancer and attack it directly. I was told the most common side effects were nausea and vomiting, things I was already used to. Unfortunately, and fortunately, the side effects I got were rheumatoid arthritis in all of my joints throughout my body. It was extremely painful and crippling. There were times I lost my ability to drive, and other days where I couldn’t even pick up my phone with my hands.
One cool thing that came out of it is I was able to step into other people’s pain. Not being able to walk for instance; I was able to relate with some friends of mine that are older and have to have knee replacements. Being that I couldn’t pick up my phone, it reminded me of my mother-in-law, who, two years earlier, had a stroke, and while she is mostly healed (Praise God!), she doesn’t have the ability to grip anything with her left hand…yet.
The pain also brought other blessings, in the form of people. I’ve been in connect with a handful of people who I am really close to, including the author of this blog, Rob Weddle. While I had different pain than other people, the commonality of us trusting the Lord while in the middle of some of the most painful times of our lives was really a beautiful thing that God did to connect us. It wasn’t about the pain necessarily, it was about our trust in the Lord, despite the pain. We continue to pray for each other, and encourage one another and connect through all the suffering we are experiencing.
I’m so grateful for everyone praying for my family and me, and for helping us out. After I got out of the hospital, I was encouraged to open a GoFundMe, and, a lot of people have donated, and continue to. I’m so grateful for that and for them. God has been really good, and in the process of this, He’s continually given me joy, peace, strength, and hope. The joy actually came from thanking God for the cancer. I felt God prompting me to do so early on, and I thought, “That’s a really weird thing to thank anybody for.” So I pondered it for awhile, and realized that God is doing a a bunch of really wonderful things through this, and He’s helping a lot of people. Through this we’ve also been able to meet other people who are going through similar things. Looking at it this way, it’s been wonderful. Therefore, I ended up thanking God for the cancer, because I’m not going to lie to God, and He gave me joy. The next day, I thanked Him for my weakness, because that’s the side effect I’ve had that’s common with chemo, extreme fatigue.
I personally hate feeling weak. I hate being weak. I hate being a burden on people. That’s just my own personality, but I thanked God for the weakness the next day, and I got even more joy. And I’ve had that joy ever since. And Scripture says, “The joy of the Lord is our strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). And honestly, He’s continued to give me His peace from the very beginning.
I’ve never complained. I’ve never asked God “Why?” I know He didn’t cause the cancer. Because he doesn’t come to steal, kill, and destroy, as Scripture says the devil does (John 10:10). But, He did choose this path for me to walk, and the beauty is, I’m not walking alone. I’m so grateful for everyone praying, everyone coming alongside my family, and God’s with us. It’s been amazing going through this, for the most part. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I trust God.
In September of 2024, God had spoken through a friend of mine and told me I need to let go of the burden. I didn’t know what burden it was, so I prayed about it, and it was really the burden of thinking of the other side. If things go the way I don’t want it to go, and passing away and all that stuff. So I wrestled with that for a day. It was very emotional, very painful to face my own mortality. But I did, and I was able to completely give that to God. So I have no worries. I don’t have stress, and I have no fear, since fear is not from the Lord. He doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
One of the other beautiful things is I’ve gotten a lot closer to God through this. I’ve gotten more into the Bible, and His Word is so good! There are so many promises and good things, wonderful things in there that are all true and applicable! Spending time with God first thing in the morning, and the gift that I get to be able to do this, as every day is a bonus day for me, is simply a miracle and a blessing! I can definitely feel a tangible difference in my day if I delay or skip this time with God. This has grown my faith and trust in the Lord, and I have faith and confidence in Him that He is going to heal me in this lifetime like only He can. I will always share my story and point people to the wonderful Hope that I have: in Christ Jesus!
(This is the end of David’s written testimony)
NOTE FROM EDITOR: David and I were texting back and forth on Christmas Day, 2025, and he made the following statement:
“I’m looking forward to a world that is not tainted by sin, and instead is permeated with the presence, peace, and love of God, for all eternity! That we get to spend time with the Lord face-to-face! There are no words that could properly capture that.”
Broken People 