At the risk of narcissism, I’m going to continue to give detailed updates on my cancer fight.  My struggle will not be nearly as dramatic and harrowing as many of yours have been, and I have no right to be a “cancer celebrity” that others don’t have.  However, I have lots of friends who want detailed updates, and I sense that many of you are finding my open approach valuable.

I am writing these updates for those who are interested, and definitely not for those who aren’t.  Lots of people find it very valuable to have a chance to discuss these issues with someone openly.  For others, painful memories or feelings of missed opportunities make it difficult to think about or discuss cancer.  So you have total freedom to ask questions, and also to not read or interact with these posts at all. No one knows what to say, and you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.

So here’s the update.  We met with my 2 treating oncologists this morning.  For some reason, my pain was more intense today, and I didn’t sleep much last night. So it was difficult being driven around town today.  We met with the chemo doctor first.  A somewhat unique feature of my tumors is that while one of them is “metastatic”, arising from dislodged cells from the primary tumor, there is only one of these secondary tumors.  Usually, there are many more.  This makes me a good candidate for chemo and radiation.  Both tumors can be treated with radiation, and then the chemo will do the rest, and mop up any microtumors that might be hiding in my body.

I’ll get 4 infusions, every 3 weeks, probably starting next week.  I will have a compromised immune system during this time, so may be limited in my outings.  I don’t have details on this yet, so I might be OK to socialize during parts of the process.  My tumors don’t have any terribly unique genetic markers, so I’ll just get the standard agents for this type of cancer.  After the traditional chemo, I’ll get a new therapy called Immunotherapy, which encourages your immune system to attack the cancer.  I haven’t discussed in detail how this might interact with my autoimmune disease (celiac disease) so we may need to modify this approach a bit.  If everything goes smoothly, I should be all done with this process in early November.

This will be a moderately aggressive treatment, and I should tolerate it OK.  Nausea should be relatively mild, and I may not even lose my hair!  This is a little disappointing, since I was kind of hoping that after all this is over, I might get my majestic brown curls back!

Then we met with the radiation doctor.  Radiation will start as early as this week.  I have a targeting appointment tomorrow, and the tumors will be precisely mapped out, and I’ll get little tattoos so they can orient my body in the machine.  So for all of you who have wanted me to cave to the trend and get a tattoo, this is your chance!  They’ll start with the tumor on my rib first, as this is where most of my pain is coming from.  So after next week, I should be able to improve rapidly in that regard. I may also get some radiation for my primary tumor in my lung later on.

So my treatments should all be done by Thanksgiving, and I’ll be feeling much better after next week!

Thanks for your continued prayers!  We are feeling surrounded by God during this time, and very blessed by all the support we’re getting.  So thank you!

Don’t fear, but be smart,
Erik

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