Yesterday WE got a victory in our battle against cancer!

I have gone through three rounds of chemo (six weeks) and it was time to measure tumors for disease progression. I was supposed to have these scans last week, but I unexpectedly spent four days at New Hanover with a viral infection that was causing me to have a fever over 103. I got out of the hospital last Friday, and was able to reschedule my scans for yesterday but the only thing they had available was at 7am.

My journey to learn about my disease started at 4:30AM; up I40 to UNC alone in the dark. A lot of time for deep thoughts on what I was getting ready to go through. I had to get three MRIs and two CT scans. They crammed all of the MRIs into one so I spent a total of two hours in the MRI tube. Thank goodness I was exhausted and slept through most of it because that is a long time to lay still. CTs are quick and easy; knocked those out at an outpatient facility then came the hardest part of my day, week, month, life….waiting for results.

I immediately left the outpatient facility to head to my ENT surgeon’s office to review the results. I got to the office, they put in me in a room and the doctor came in. What was he going to say? “The scans haven’t uploaded to the system yet, hang tight it will be a little while longer.” More waiting. Anxiety is through the roof. Remember, I have a genetically modified strain of cancer and I’m receiving a chemo cocktail designed for pancreas cancer. What could go wrong? A lot.

Finally the doctor comes back in the room. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but things look really good.” Excuse me? Can you say that again? “Your sinus tumor reacted beautifully to the chemo; the tumor has shrunk 90-95% to the point that it is barely there. Your lungs nodules are shrinking, but not at as fast of a rate, but they are shrinking.” At this point, I told him to pause for a second so I could do a little happy dance in my chair. A little shimmy, a little shake, and a big ass smile.

I’ve been scared shitless for weeks waiting on these test results; and yesterday was no easy journey. But my body reacted and shocked everyone. Not just me, but my whole medical team was floored on how well I reacted to the chemo.

So the big question is what does this mean? This means that WE are fighting like hell and we got a victory against cancer yesterday. The cancer is retreating and not actively growing!

Does this mean you are getting cured? Unfortunately this doesn’t count as getting cured, but it does mean we are taking giant steps in the right direction. We have almost totally eliminated the primary and largest tumor. At one point the tumor in my sinuses was 8cm x 4cm, for comparison that is about the size of a nice Georgia peach – inside my head.

What is next? I start round four of chemo next week to keep attacking the lung tumors. We need more shrinkage. Also, there is the possibility that I will have surgery to remove the remainder of the sinus tumor so my skull can be completely free of cancer. I will learn more about that tomorrow. My ENT surgeon is reviewing my case with the tumor board to weigh risk/reward; they don’t want to do surgery just to do it, but if they feel my quality of life and life expectancy will be positively affected then surgery will be an option.

Is there a possibility the chemo will not shrink the remaining tumors? Yes, there is always the possibility the cancer will create immunity against the chemo. We aren’t worrying about that right now because the chemo kicked the cancers ass the past six weeks; but we have a back up plan for if it stops working. Let’s not dwell on that yet, and focus on more shrinkage!

Today is a day to celebrate WE and Team Ben. Get outside and live life a little and think about what your prayers and positive energy have done for me, my family, my friends, and my doctors. Its not often cancer patients get news like this, so please celebrate for me, celebrate for WE.

I am going to be cautiously optimistic moving forward. I still have a huge fight ahead, and a long tiring battle that will require all of your support. I know I’ll get some more curve balls thrown my way, but with the help of all of you we will find a way to knock them out of the park. Lets enjoy this victory today and get back to fighting next week when chemo starts again!

With love,

Ben