Welcome back to the next Thriving
Not Just Surviving blog post. I am pleased to report that we had another
great CT scan on Thursday, October 5.
As we were all hoping, the remaining cancer in my body did
not spread or grow since stopping treatment last month. In fact, the only
remaining tumor continued to shrink. The degree of shrinkage was very minor,
but this is the first piece of evidence that shows my immune system has been
trained to keep the cancer in check. My oncologist continues to have confidence
in my outlook. He currently has patients with stage 4 lung cancer that continue
to have their immune systems keep the cancer in check over 5 years after
discontinuing immune therapy treatment.
The plan over the next few months is to be off treatment and
monitor the remaining cancer. My oncologist wants to wait a full three months before
the next CT scan. Three months seems like an eternity and a lot can happen in
three months, but that is the current protocol for patients on immune therapy.
The good news is that life should return to normal as much
as possible for the next three months. I am completely off steroids now and the
steroid’s side effects should gradually diminish over time. I will continue to
live a healthy lifestyle and continue with my regimen of holistic remedies
including: vitamins, probiotics, essential oils, and cancer fighting foods.
I am thankful and happy with the amazing progress over the
last several months. My cancer journey has been very different from most other
lung cancer patients. My doctor was able to achieve amazing results without
having to expose me to radiation or chemotherapy. I haven’t had to suffer
through the normal chemotherapy side effects. I don’t even have a port.
All that being said, the journey is far from over. Most
likely the cancer will come back at some point. My specific lung cancer,
adenocarcinoma, varies in severity significantly across patients. My oncologist
did confirm that I do have a very aggressive and fast moving form of
adenocarcinoma. Typically, the worst forms cause the rapid build up of fluid in
the heart and lungs, which is exactly what happed to me in February. However,
it was encouraging to hear from my oncologist that there are clinical trials
underway specifically for patients that had a powerful response to immune therapy,
but had to be discontinued because of an autoimmune response. If the cancer
comes back, this will most likely be our treatment plan. In 2017 there is no
cure for stage 4 lung cancer, but there are plenty of options to keep it in
check for an extended period of time. The advances that have been made over the
last 5 years are moving in the direction of making lung cancer a chronic
illness instead of a terminal illness.
Now that things are quieting down, I am planning to take
lung cancer awareness and the story of my journey to the next level. Currently,
this blog is the only channel I use to create awareness. I am planning to
reactivate my Facebook profile and create a page dedicated to my story as well
as to increase awareness for lung cancer in young nonsmoking patients. I am
still in the planning phase, but I plan to have more narratives, photos, and
videos to help illustrate my journey as well as use it to track advancements in
lung cancer treatment. I will be sure to post a blog update when everything
launches later this fall.
In the meantime, I have added an option on the right hand
side of the blog page that allows readers to sign up for email updates. This
feature will send subscribers an email every time there is a new blog post. I
highly recommend subscribing to this feature so that you don’t have to keep
visiting the blog to check if it’s been updated. On the right side of the page
type your email in the field below “Follow By email”, click “submit”, and
follow the instructions in the pop up box. This should make it more convenient
to follow the blog.
I expect to take a few weeks off from blogging while I begin
preparations for the Facebook page. Unless something unexpected happens, I
expect the next blog post to occur when the Facebook page goes life within the
next month.
