Journal entry by David Preddy —
I saw my oncologist last week and so an update is due to family and friends. I don’t know why news always has to come in a two-pack of good news and bad news. It’s like it’s required by law, a law which I think should be repealed. But today I’m submitting a three-pack of good, bad, and ‘meh’ news.
The good news is that the CT scan can no longer detect the cancer spots on my liver and pancreas. They’ve shrunk too much or gone away. That makes me happy.
The ‘meh’ news is that the tumor on my lung, the mothership so to speak of this cancer, does not show any additional shrinkage. I was warned not to expect another 60% reduction like last time, but I’d be happy with even a token retreat. My friend and Pfizer cancer scientist, Dr Ben Burke, had warned me of this a couple months ago. The tumor may have shrunk, but scar tissue and other bodily gooey healing stuff would still appear on the scan. So it was a bit disappointing, but not a big disappointment. Meh.
The bad news is the spot on my kidney has grown a couple millimeters since October. Could be nothing, could be a different type of cancer. We don’t know what it is and so a biopsy is on order and will determine the course of action.
Overall, I’m doing well and getting better. I very rarely take a pain pill anymore and only wear my body brace for riding in the car, but not always even then. I’d wear it for heavy lifting, but that’s still just a bad idea to do at all. The hardware in my back feels weird at best and aches at worst, but overall is quite tolerable. I’ve lost a lot of body mass and so am frequently cold and lack strength and endurance. But the good news there is that I can eat fattening foods guilt-free.
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