A hard turn.

So, most of you know it's been a rough couple of days.  I had a scan on Thursday to follow-up with the treatment from last august, and see what else might be going on.  I got the results the same day from my doc. The good news is that the five spots that were treated are gone, leaving only cloudy looking spots on the CT.

The bad news  - two new spots on my lungs. They are small, but I had really hoped that this scan would be clear.   Since my type cancer is usually slow growing, and will sometimes just stop growing for no apparent reason my docs think the best approach for now is to wait 3 months and see what happens.  Honestly, I'm not sure what will happen if the next scans show more spots. There has been talk of doing more of the radiosurgery or trying some chemo.

One of the hard things about my type of cancer is that chemo doesn't work to keep it from coming back, which is why I haven't had any. Some people have had success with it keeping tumors from growing, but it is chemo and would likely have ugly side effects. 

So, I (and you, my friends & family) have to make the hard turn from thinking of this cancer as something that I will defeat to something that I will live with.   Victory will not be becoming cancer-free, but will instead be living my life as full as I can despite health issues. Lest you think you are getting rid of me that easily, people live many, many years with this type of cancer. And I plan to be one of them.

The best hope for a cure lies in new research, and since it is rare, large nonspecific charities like the american cancer society don't give much, if any, money toward this research.  If you would like to donate toward research that might help me, or others like me in the future, please consider accrf.org. 100% of donations will go directly to fund ACC research programs.