Surprising Results

I had another scan and oncology appointment earlier in September. I hadn't been to see the oncologist since late May. At that appointment, he recommended I start a course of immunotherapy. My cancer is rare so there are not many treatment options, and no immunotherapy treatments that are specific to it. But he had seen some cases where this particular course of immunotherapy seemed to be therapeutically beneficial, and so he was recommending that I try it. I had mixed feelings about it. While the side effects are not nearly as nasty as they are with chemotherapy, there are side effects including some that are potentially quite serious. I decided to postpone the treatments until the fall so I could have the first "normal" summer since 2019. It was the right decision. I had a fantastic summer free of cancer treatment.

In September, I was stunned that my scan results showed the numerous small nodules in my lungs, almost certainly metastases of the cancer, had not grown at all since May. In fact, several of the largest nodules were smaller. This is not at all what I had expected. It was very surprising both to me and to my oncologist because I had done nothing since May to treat the cancer.

Because of this, the immunotherapy treatments that I was scheduled to begin this fall were canceled. I go back in mid-January for more scans. If the nodules continue to get smaller, then we just keep an eye on them every 3-4 months, and no treatment is needed. If they have grown and are larger, I may then begin the postponed immunotherapy.

I am cautiously optimistic that this is the beginning of a very, very good trend. I'm not cancer free, but things are going in a positive and hopeful direction right now.

I feel great. I'm running and active. I have no symptoms. And I turned 52 years old today! Maybe I'll be around longer than expected after all.