Bulldozer00's Blog

I finally got the tattoo I really wanted. I’ve been walking around saying “I’m sooo (fucking) lucky” for years now, especially when I see someone I know get sick and die AFTER my macabre cancer diagnosis. There have been many of them: a dear nephew, a cousin, his wife, my dad, and my aunt. The number of famous people who got sick and died after my diagnosis are in the dozens.

On February 16, 2016, I was told by a Thoracic Surgeon I had stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer. He walked me through a series of chilling CT scan slices showing 4 tumors in my right lung. One big honker that looked like a wasp’s nest weighing in at 5.3 cm. staring and laughing at me from the scrolling display. The Emperor Of All Maladies (EOAM) unmasked himself to me. The horned fuck-face himself.

After:

1 a series of 6 hardcore “mustard gas” chemo treatments,

2 a series of 30 radiation treatments,

3 a targeted pill (Gilotrif) that didn’t work,

4 metastasis of 4 new tumors in my warped noggin’ (which were radiated back into hell),

I tried the new immunotherapy drug from Bridtol-Meyers Squibb called Opdivo (Nivolimab). I’ve been pretty much cruising since then. Oh, except for brain surgery last May to excise 2 non-tumor radiation growths in my brain where 2 tumors were entrenched.

I had to stop the Opdivo in July because it jacked my immune system so high I started attacking myself 😂. It’s a well known side effect. Immunotherapy drugs can attack any part of the body at any time during or after treatment. I attacked my lungs via inflammation that made breathing so difficult I had to go to the ER. After being put on oxygen and steroids, I recovered. Then it came back and it felt like I was suffocating myself again. And again I’m on roids. I’m tapering off again and we’ll see what’s next.

I’m grateful to Opdivo for helping me become fucking lucky, soooo lucky.