Friends,

I have some shocking news, but I’m feeling very positive.

A few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer.

First, my prognosis is very good, and Kathy and I have a strong sense that it is not yet my time to go, so we are feeling very positive. God is in control. If He decides that I will survive, then I will survive.

Last June, I came home from a business trip to New Zealand, to visit a client, Pictor Limited, (now my employer!). When I returned, I had a mild pain in my back. Because of the very long flight, I attributed this to my uncomfortable airplane seat! After 6 months, the pain was the same. So I went to my doctor to ask him to prescribe physical therapy for me. I’ve had a lot of success with PT in the past. He didn’t find anything alarming, so he sent me off to PT.

Despite the best efforts of my very talented therapist, I didn’t get better, and in fact got worse. I started focusing on Chiropractic care in March to try and fix my worsening back, with no improvement.

A few weeks ago, my friend, chiropractor, and sister in Christ Liz Hoefer decided to take an X-ray, because I was complaining about my ribs so much. Her radiologist concluded that I had lung cancer! Liz encouraged me to get a CT scan that very night, which I did.

After a few more tests, these are the details. I have 2 tumors, one in my right lung, one on a rib. The tumor on the rib has become painful, keeping me from doing lots of things, including driving, and even riding in a car for more than 30 minutes or so.

Technically, because these tumors are not in the same body cavity, this can be categorized as stage 4 cancer. This sounds very scary, but a PET scan showed that I have only those 2 significant tumors, and maybe a few tiny tumor besides those. I will not get surgery, but will get radiation and chemo. I see this as good news, since I won’t be out of commission for weeks after surgery. I will meet with my treating doctors next week, and probably get radiation in next coming weeks. I am told this will begin helping with the pain, since this will mostly kill the tumor on my rib. Later, chemo will do the greatest share of eliminating the rest of the cancer, including any tiny cancers that the tests didn’t see.

As an aside, non-small cell lung cancer is the kind of lung cancer that non-smokers get. My poker buddies know that I smoked 1 cigar a year during my college years, but I have never smoked a cigarette.

A plug for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), the technology I was helping labs bring on line when the pandemic started, consulting for my colleague and friend Jamie Platt. NGS is a new technology that allows the sequencing of many many different pieces of DNA in a sample. Unlike previous kinds of DNA sequences, the DNA molecules are kept physically separated during sequencing, so that molecules can be sequenced individually. This amazing technology has allowed sequencing of the human genome in days, not decades, for about 1000 dollars, not 3 billion dollars.

NGS has also been used to great effect in cancer treatment. An oncologist can now take a tumor biopsy and have a lab perform NGS on it. The lab can determine exactly what mutations contributed to the conversion of normal to cancerous cells, and also determine what percentage of the tumor is cancerous. This can help guide treatment, allowing the best chemo agent to be used the first time, instead of trying several until one works. This has greatly enhanced the survivability of many cancers. NGS has become a standard of care in many cancer treatments. I’ll have my NGS results before I meet with my oncologists on Tuesday.

My wife Kathy is a prayer warrior, and prayed an amazing Spirit filled prayer over me before my biopsy. We are convinced that I will survive! I have a lot of people praying for me, and would love your prayers as well.

I am blessed to have a lot of great support! A lot of people are praying for me, and a group of buddies (the Caffeine NOMADs) came and did a bunch of yard work for me last weekend! So while I would love to have your prayers, my needs are covered, so if I don’t ask you for something in the next few weeks, you can be assured that I’ve got it covered. Please don’t worry about whether you can do something for me. If I need something, I will certainly let you know.

Psalm 23:4
Isaiah 43:1-2

Don’t fear, but be smart!
Erik