We will take this WIN.

It's been two months since Mike started his targeted drugs.  Eight pills a day and I haven’t heard him complain once…however he did double dose himself one morning.  The good news- it didn’t make him feel icky. But of course, my witty response was something like “See how easy it would be to mess up birth control.” 

We flew down to Houston on Sunday, December 10th, and got back last night (13th).  His first appointment was at 5:30 am for a PET.  Then we met with Dr. Lin who is a Radiation Oncologist.  He had so much excitement and was very easy to talk to.  He was very eager to talk about mutations – past, current, and future treatments of these mutations.  He gave us the PET results – THE DRUGS ARE WORKING.  I can’t explain the feeling.  This was the first scan that Mike has had where we received good news.  Dr. Lin is my new favorite Doc at the hospital.  I won't bore you with the details of our conversation.  In a nutshell, Mike will not get any more radiation.  Dr. Lin thought the VA did a great job hitting all areas of concern.  Dr. Lin did say he would have done a different kind of radiation (we didn’t even know that was a thing) but he said that all depends on Dr preference.    Not really a right or wrong way.  Dr. Lin told Mike to advocate for surgery and said, “If you were my brother, I would tell you to have surgery.”  I am so happy we met with Dr. Lin first – he had some pep in his step and so did his NP.  She was bouncing off the walls with excitement and encouragement.  She was on a different level, and it was exactly what we needed. Our nerves for the day went away!  

Next, we made our way down to a PFT and blood labs. 

We met with Dr. Raj who is the lung surgeon.  He was nice, but not as enthusiastic or straightforward as Dr. Lin.  He had a lot of “if this, then this…”  Long story short, he wanted to review everything with Dr. Vokes before he gave a definitive answer.  He said removing the lymph nodes is a YES because we confirmed cancer is still in the lymph nodes post-radiation and chemo.   He also said he doesn’t want to remove the lower lob if there is no cancer.  The only way to know this is to biopsy the lung.  Dr. Raj was very honest about surgery post-radiation.  Takes longer to heal, but also radiation will create a “scab” like layer around the lung.  They use staples on the lung after surgery.  He told us to imagine stapling a scrapped knee.  The staple might not even go through or hold once in.  He suggested that we wait for the next PET to see if the lung has cleared of disease. (To be clear, when I say cleared of disease, really what that means is the disease is sleeping or in hibernation).  These pills do not kill or cure the cancer just put the cells in pause mode.  Why not just biopsy the lung?  Ideally, they want the area in the lung to be as calm and show as little disease/inflammation as possible.   That way when they do a biopsy, they can be more precise on the right area to biopsy. 

Lastly, we met with Dr Vokes.  She was very happy with the PET.  She plans to schedule another PET scan and revisit with Dr Raj on the timeline and biopsy discussion on February 12th.  Mike has been very vocal about being as aggressive as possible.  The question of surgery is not up for debate, but how much to take and the right time post-radiation are the questions.  What I took away from Dr. Raj is the longer we can wait the easier the surgery. 

Mike has changed lots of things in his life in the last few months.  Started working out again, juicing lots of celery and carrots and eating the right foods for his immune system.   I always ask Drs what we should do at home to get the best results.  Dr. Lin said, “Your immune system is the best way to fight cancer, so eat right, and be as physically healthy as possible.”  I was happy to hear him say that.  I am not a crunchy health nut but a good combination of medical and holistic treatments and spiritual work has been working for us. 

We will take this win and know many more are on the horizon.   This trip has given Mike a respite to relax.  We can keep doing what we are doing and know it is working. This has been the first time since his diagnosis that it has been confirmed we are going in the right direction. Mike said to me yesterday on the way to the airport – “2024 is going to be a great year, I can feel it!”

We are looking forward to the holidays and spending time with our families.  We are so fortunate and thankful to have so many people in our corner.  We feel the love and encouragement from so many.   I have been working on thank you cards from the past few months and none of them have made it to the mail.  One thing at a time, but you might just find your “thank you” in our holiday card. 

Blessings -

Kelli