Billy Goodwin Bill Goodwin

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
This August 2016,  Billy was diagnosed with extensive small cell lung cancer.   "Neuroendocrine carcinoma" tumors were found in the liver pointing to the primary source being the lung.  Subsequent PET scan showed aggressive spread of the disease to the bones and elsewhere (adrenal glands, lymph  nodes and could also be in blood).   It is present all up and down this spine and throughout the ribs,  limbs, major joints which explains much of the pain he has presented with over the past year.  An MRI of the brain was clear at this point.   Standard course of treatment is 6 cycles of chemotherapy to which 80% of patients respond positively.   Then there is remission and then commonly a resurgence - in other words, this is a treatable but not curable form of cancer and we are told that he may have less than one year.   He has chosen to start with the chemo ASAP and the first cycle began Wednesday September 7.  After 2-3 cycles  he will be re-tested to see if the chemo is shrinking/obliterating the tumors.

This past weekend we had  friends come out to help us with wood splitting/stacking and other winter prep house/property action items - thank you all so very much for rallying and tasking the way you did!  There is a fundraising event in the works for later this fall, thanks to the coordinating efforts of other comrades...and we are also receiving coaching from special people wise and close to us on discontinuation of his "John Wayne" mode---so we are trying to poise ourselves to ask for and receive help.  Thank you for reading this...