Cancer just plain sucks.

In July of 2023 I was feeling really under the weather and had my wife take me to the hospital. I was thinking I was over doing it as I was in the field drilling as well as my normal office stuff making for some long days. As well it was hot, and I wasn’t drinking enough water while working in the field and figured I had some dehydration. Anyhow got to the hospital and the triage nurse ran some tests and seen that my kidneys and bladder etc. were fine. She decided to send me for an x-ray.

Long story short, it had showed up with some lesions and I was admitted to the hospital.

After a CT scan I was told I would be referred to the cancer society and had to be discharged for them to accept the referral. So, I was still in pain and was given pain medication to help the journey begin. After several more tests (MRI, PET, CT) and a few biopsies we got the news that we didn’t want.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Radiation was a no go due to the lung cancer spreading into my Lymph Nodes and through a good part of my body. Also, after biopsy of one of the lesions on my hip was done a rather large tumor showed just above my hip. It was painful and tender to touch.

My treatment plan laid out by my medical oncologist was to have immunotherapy as well as chemo. Four treatments to start to try to get the spread of the cancer to stop. The PET scan showed that it was spreading to the adrenal glands, around my femur and a bit in my kidneys and liver. The kidneys and liver could have been just filtering out the isotope they give you for a PET scan.

My first treatment didn’t feel great, but I was dealing with other stomach issues going into it. About 6 days later, however, I was starting to feel much better and the tumor that was on my side had all but disappeared before I went in for second treatment. My medical oncologist that I had seen the day before decided to book a CT scan to see what was going on. Either the treatment was working well, or the cancer could have decided to spread somewhere else. With the second treatment I felt great. A bit tired a few days after but no nausea or anything. Went to work in the shop for a few days and my weight was holding fine.

Finally, we got the results from the CT scan to see what was going on. And it was good news. Most of the lesions had at least a 40% reduction in size. Lymph Nodes were the same and shrinking. The lesion that was left from the biopsy on my hip that measured 15cm x 6cm was completely gone. With the lesion that they biopsy on my hip being the only one that hadn’t shrunk by the 40%. The only other concern was the cancer on my adrenal glands had grown but doctors think that they also shrunk as the CT that showed the cancer there was from quite a while before treatment started.

With my follow up the day before my fourth treatment my medical oncologist seems to be very pleased with the progress of treatments. She is doing away with the Chemo going forward and I will stay on immunotherapy every 6 weeks. I have a CT scan booked at the beginning of February and we are hoping to show some more good results.

I have some great doctors at the Cancer Clinic and the Winchester hospital handled everything way above and beyond. My family has stood and are fighting right along side of me and are supporting me very well. My goal is to kick this cancer out even though the odds are stacked against me. We thought that we had captured this in time when it first started but unfortunately once it had hit the lymph node system that is going to make things difficult.

I would not be the first however to overcome stage 4 lung cancer and would love to be in that group. Again, unfortunately my first prognosis has not changed, which was statistically speaking was 3-18 months. We are past the 3 months now and doing well so hopefully the treatment has continued to work. We are hoping after the next CT scan to get an updated prognosis.