Bulldozer00's Blog

Here’s where I’ve been:

• Taxol + Carboplatin + Avastin (standard first line of defense)
• Avastin only (maintenance)
• Gilotrif (targeted chemo, second line of defense)

Here’s where I am now:

• Opdivo/Nivolumab (immunotherapy, third line of defense)

If you’re curious as to what the MSRP for each Opdivo infusion is:

And, since congress is owned by the drug company lobby, don’t expect the price to go down anytime soon.

The weapons of war on the top shelf are currently in use against the emperor’s army. Those on the bottom shelf are either no longer effective, or poised for reuse.

But alas, I remember the good ole days when both shelves were virtually empty.

The most effective, most expensive, weapon currently in use is under heavy guard at a fortified, off-site, biological weapons depot. It is deployed on the battlefield like clockwork every two weeks…

It looks like the Emperor Of All Maladies (EOAM) has changed tactics. Instead of full frontal assaults, which have been successfully repelled to date by the bi-weekly Opdivo infusions, the clever bastid has tasked his forces with executing several small, simultaneous, surgical strikes. In the short span of approximately one month, here’s what has happened:

• A skyrocketing TSH level in my blood indicates a dying thyroid ==> Time for some Synthroid!
• A blood CK level 10x higher than the recommended max indicates some form of muscle damage==> Time to stop taking pravastatin and start taking some prednisone!
• Some swelling has been detected in my brain in the same location on 2 consecutive MRI scans ==> Time to start taking some decadron!

Whoo hoo, bring on those ‘roids and all the wonderful side effects that come along for “free”!

It is said that a cancer diagnosis changes your life. Well, no shit 🙂

Ok, so, who am I, and what should I do next? Out of curiosity, did you you ever ask those questions to yourself, especially the zen-like, first question? (The comments section is open, if you’d like to share 🙂

My last substantive blog post was on 11/17/17. In that delightful and uplifting post, I announced to the world that I was diagnosed with Stage 3B, Non-Small Cell, Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Phew, that’s a mouthful, but that’s the way it is in the world of cancer-speak.

Shortly after my world-shaking announcement, my oncologist declared that I had “advanced” to stage 4 – which meant that the cancer had migrated from its original source, my right lung, to elsewhere in the body. That “elsewhere“, ended up being my brain. After complaining about a painless, but noticeable, limp in my right leg due to an unexplained numbness, a full body MRI showed that 4 new tumors had popped up in my brain. Delightful!

After having each one of those little brain-shits blasted with radiation from Cyberknife technology, and having the four original tumors in my right lung assaulted with Opdivo immunotherapy infusions, I’m doing pretty damn good. And this is 2 years after the fact! How are you doing today? 🙂

So, as of today, 4/18/18, I’m doing fairly well, both physically and mentally, for a stage four cancer patient. At this stage of the game, the mental battle is extracting a greater toll from me than the physical battle.

I don’t know what, or when, or how often, I’ll be blogging about some topic in the future, but I’ll bet it will be about my experiences battling with the emperor of all maladies, the king of all diseases…. Cancer.