The Canary In The Coal Mine
After two weeks of being on immunotherapy, the only thing that was making me feel less than perfect was that annoying tumor in my clavicle, so last night I had it radiated.
I'd been told by my radiologist that it was an easy one to zap, but I was keeping it around as my "canary in the coal mine" (early indicator of failure). However, I don't think that it's as much of an indicator as I'd thought. Mainly because last time I was on chemo the pain went away completely but when we scanned, the tumor hadn't changed in size much at all. Meaning that the pain probably went away due to a steroid that was in my chemo cocktail.
Bottomline is that aside from the shoulder pain, the immunotherapy (whether its working or not) is giving me a window where I'm feeling really good! I don't want to spend the rest of my summer babying a shoulder when I could be surfing and climbing mountains. So, I shot the canary.
This put me back in the Radiology wing where the picture of The Grand is. It's been two years since diagnosis and its still inspiring to walk towards it.
I'd been told by my radiologist that it was an easy one to zap, but I was keeping it around as my "canary in the coal mine" (early indicator of failure). However, I don't think that it's as much of an indicator as I'd thought. Mainly because last time I was on chemo the pain went away completely but when we scanned, the tumor hadn't changed in size much at all. Meaning that the pain probably went away due to a steroid that was in my chemo cocktail.
Bottomline is that aside from the shoulder pain, the immunotherapy (whether its working or not) is giving me a window where I'm feeling really good! I don't want to spend the rest of my summer babying a shoulder when I could be surfing and climbing mountains. So, I shot the canary.
This put me back in the Radiology wing where the picture of The Grand is. It's been two years since diagnosis and its still inspiring to walk towards it.
It all began in the summer of 2016... |
Coincidently, seeing The Grand today happened to be on the same day that Teton Gravity Research released the trailer for a film I've been working on! Although TGR is releasing the film in August, I'm personallyworking on a better ending ;)
Amazing! I just watched your story. Immunotherapy can be a game-changer (it was for me). I wish you the best of luck.
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