10/18/2021

I haven't done any updates on here for a wicked long time, so I wanted to fill y'all in on where I am in my DKC journey right now (at least for anyone that is willing to read my long-ass run on stories LOL).

There is some Great news, and some 'It is what it is news' (day to day reality of what I'm left with)...

For the most part, I've been doing pretty well! I mean.... Right now there's NO active cancer in my body!! So yeah... I've been doing really well!! We definitely Donkey Kicked that Cancer!

I did have LOTS of help! 🙏🏽

God pulled off a crazy amazing miracle in me. ♥️ He has healed me and I couldn't be more thankful and grateful to Him, to all of you who kept me in your prayers and kept me encouraged, to all the doctors and scientists that God has used to discover and create these life saving medicines, and to all the patients that went before me in the immunotherapy clinical trials... I know I had a few guardian angels up there helping me too...

Prayer works. Prayer is powerful! I am living proof! ... I've seen it many times in my life, but never more dramatic than this time. So, from Crystal and Me - THANK YOU ♥️ from the bottom of our hearts. We felt your prayers and we knew just how much our family and community had our backs through all of this! We love you and we are indebted to you all for all of your prayers, calls, texts, offers to help, meals, rides, donations, the company at my infusions, your time, your ear, and your Love...!

Right now I am still considered stage 4 lung cancer - now with N.E.D. (No Evidence of Disease). Once cancer metastasizes and spreads to another area of the body - that's when you get diagnosed at stage 4 like I was/am. Once that happens, they don't ever go backwards in the stages regardless of how healthy you get. So the oncologists will always consider me stage 4 ... whether there's any active Cancer in my body or not. So I am not in remission and my fight may or may not be completely over... My oncologist says that I'm in this weird place that they don't really see often... Stg 4 w/Ned...? Hey, I'll take it!

Typically they don't go any less frequently than 3 months between scans for stg 4 cancer patients.

I have been having scans every 3 months. I've had a recent PET scan also... That, and all of my CT scans for the past 2 years now have come back with Awesome news! That the tumors I still have inside me are stable. No spread, No growth and they are not active Cancer. They are most likely necrotic material (dead tissue) at this point. Because of this, I am actually going to be able to space out my scans to 6 months! I can't even tell you how awesome that feels 💪🏽 And now because of that - I have decided to get my port taken out!! I am soo excited to get that Fuc*ing thing out of me. It has been an uncomfortable, sometimes painful lump sticking out of my chest since Nov. 2018... It sucks and I hate it.

Well, it comes out TOMORROW 10/19/21!! From stg4 met. with 6 tumors to getting my port taken OUT. I'll take that 😎🙏🏽Thank You God!

If you've been following me from the beginning, you know that this all started in my adrenal glands with both of them hemorrhaging and no known reason why. Well the fact that they got so big, and that 1 of them has been embolized - they have both been badly damaged. They may or may not ever start working again...There's no way to know that answer for sure.

So because of the masses I still have and the damage to the adrenal glands... I'm left with Primary Adrenal Insufficiency. The result is that my adrenal glands don't produce the essential hormones needed to live and carry on day-to-day life. I have to take hormone replacement steroids every morning, and will most likely have to do so every single day for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately Adrenal Insufficiency is something very few doctors know a lot about, and even less have ever treated it. There are endocrinologists who will go their entire career without having a patient with AI. Some of them only know what they were taught in medical school, but no real world experience. That makes it extremely hard to find a qualified and experienced endocrinologist that you can have faith in and fully trust the advice of...

I really do want to share some information with y'all about Adrenal Insufficiency if you're willing to read it-

Adrenal insufficiency happens when the body can't make cortisol, a hormone necessary for life (similar to a diabetic, a person with AI has to have cortisol in the same way a diabetic must have insulin). AI is a lifelong condition that I have to carefully manage.

Cortisol affects my blood pressure, heart rate, reaction to stress and energy levels... When a healthy person does anything requiring extra energy - like physical exercise, an intense argument with friend/spouse, or has an acute illness or infection, their body naturally produces more cortisol. I have to take cortisol through medication. One of the things that makes it harder to manage is that I have no meter to tell me when I need more cortisol. Because of that, I have to be able to recognize early symptoms. Sometimes my cortisol gets low unexpectedly. When that happens I have to rest and take more medication. Rest for me means no stress and quiet time until I recover. If I push myself too far, or don't seek treatment for a medical issue, it can lead to an adrenal crisis and a trip to the ER. I have to learn to manage this illness so I can enjoy life.

Because of the nature of cortisol, emotional stress can lead to illness for me. If we have a disagreement that becomes emotional, I might need to step back from it until we can discuss it calmly. Please understand this is a very real response to stress by my body. I cannot control it.

When people only see me at my best, they might think that I'm either completely healthy now, or I'm faking it (Yes, I've seen the latter on people's faces more times than I care to count...) AI patients are often dismissed as exaggerating by those who misunderstand this condition.

Adrenal insufficiency and adrenal fatigue are often confused. AI is a serious medical condition that requires management by specialized professionals. It is diagnosed through lab testing. Adrenal fatigue is a term used by alternative medical providers to define a group of symptoms. Because it has not been researched and no lab testing parameters have been set, it's not recognized by the conventional medical community.

If you see me out and about it's because everything is going well and I am feeling good. I typically won't leave the house if I'm sick, or there's any issue or complication... partly because I don't want to be seen in that condition, and partly because it's hard to function like a normal person under those conditions.

Anyway, I know there's not a lot of information out there about this, so I wanted to put this out there...

That's basically what I have to deal with everyday. Imagine every single day waking up like you've got a horrible hangover... Not so much with a headache, but a lot of other symptoms of a hangover... (fatigue, soreness, sluggishness, foggy brain, weakness and confusion). And you don't feel "normal" until you take 5 pills and wait about 1/2 - 1 hr.

For years & years I was the guy that woke up everyday at 3:00am to go to work, and had half a day's work done before some people woke up. I loved that. Then when I was driving for ESI I would go in @ 12:00am or 1:00am sometimes. I loved that too. I took a lot of pride in my work ethic and abilities that God had given me. This has taken/is taking a lot of getting used to. It's hard to accept, and it's frustrating when you used to be such a morning person and now you can't even function early am... I have to accept that I'll never be able to go back to my 'normal' way of life again. I have to let go of any expectations I have... Not easy.

I don't put all of this out there for any sympathy or for anyone to treat me any differently. I only put it out there because there are very few people that really know what my struggles are day to day. I do prefer it that way, but this is the truth. It's hard to explain to someone comes up and asks you how you've been feeling?...So I don't 😂 Everyone pretty much gets the same answer "doing good!" 👍🏽 LOL Don't get me wrong... My cancer is GONE! That is freaking amazing! I'm so grateful for all my blessings. I'm so grateful that I'm blessed enough to still spend many more years with my family. I'm so blessed that I was not taken from them earlier than I wanted. I would so much rather be in the position I am right now, than in the position the Dr.'s told me I was going to be in!

I praise God that I'm still alive.

There are struggles that I have to go through... (everybody's got their problems they don't speak about, right?) ... but overall I'm Wicked Blessed, and I have a Kick-Ass immune system to Donkey Kick Cancer!

So, if you've read this allll the way to the end... You cray cray... 😂

Thanks & God bless you🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽