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Brave Not Strong
So much of the narrative around cancer is about the battle. We are encouraged to fight the cancer, starve the cancer, battle the disease. People generally refer to the cancer like some outside invader, an enemy to be thwarted and victory thereafter declared. But it is not some foreign invader, it arose out of my…
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A Brief Rollercoaster Ride
I have been on a reduced chemo regimen for the last several months, with the oxaliplatin dropped from my regular infusions. I had begun to experience some nerve issues that were starting to interfere with my life. My blood work has remained mostly normal with some liver enzymes elevated, but dropping the oxaliplatin has brought…
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Hope
Teddy Ryder was born in 1916, when type 1 diabetes was 100% fatal. I often think about him when I think about having stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which has only slightly better odds today. When Teddy was diagnosed with diabetes, patients were treated with a starvation diet which did not cure them, but which sometimes…
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8 Month Update
I got some scans in September to see how I am doing after 6 months of chemotherapy. All in all the results were very good, and while I’m still going to be on chemotherapy for the foreseeable future, I’m cautiously optimistic. My scan in June, at 3 months, had shown considerable shrinkage in the tumors…
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Trying again
We went back on Wednesday to the infusion center after pretreatment with antihistamines and steroids, hoping to try again. I was scared that I would have another reaction but mostly scared that such a reaction would stop me from being able to receive treatment. As difficult as it was, I had to set aside the…
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Starting Chemo
Before I could start chemo there were a lot of logistics to take care of. The regimen I would be on was called NALIRIFOX. It is a newly approved regimen similar to FOLFIRINOX, consisting of three chemotherapeutic drugs and a synthetic B vitamin. Before getting chemo I had to have a port installed under the…
