Hope

Hope

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Changes

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."- Socrates

A lot of changes have taken place in the last month.  Roy left us suddenly and unexpectedly.  Karley started middle school today.  I can't believe my child is no longer so little.  She also left karate to focus more on volleyball, which she loves.  I'm sure these things are going to be adjustments, but she's strong and adapts so well to change.

I, on the other hand, am having trouble adapting to these changes.  So many changes.  I am learning to build on the new.  I know I've been doing less advocating lately.  I just haven't had the drive or motivation.  I am here by myself a lot during the day, which is not always fun.  So, tomorrow we're getting a puppy!  I'm so excited.  I love my cats but they are not cuddly creatures.

I lost a lot of my drive and motivation July 14th.  I'm working hard on getting it back.  I'm working on letting go of the past.  Always a place in my heart, but I can't continue to focus on it every day.  I need to work on building the new for now.

Thank you for all of your continuous prayers for my friends and family and for me.  I know things could always be worse.  I continue to be thankful for what God has given me.  I know this sadness is not permanent, and for that I'm thankful.

God bless you all.




7 comments:

  1. Hi Samantha..I was just listening to your podcast and it was really inspirational..

    My mother (47) has been diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma with lungs with metastatis in spine some 45 days back . She has been a never smoker and had no medical history but was complaining of leg pain for almost an year.
    We have started treatment from New Delhi, India. They have chosen targeted therapy as the line of treatment along with 4-5 sessions of radiation. Her EGFR was positive on exon 19. She underwent a nerve decompression surgery for the spine on 4th August, 2016
    She is having Afatinib (40mg) and her radiation will start in the first week of September.
    According to the doctors, if the body responds to the drug then they said that we can look at 2-3 years of survival.

    1. Are we on the right track?
    2. Any particular Nutrition/Diet?
    3. Can this be cured? Are you aware of any cases where Stage 4 cancer was cured?
    4. Are you aware of any clinical trials that are under way which will take the treatment to the next level?
    5. Can we look at immunotheraphy or surgery? We do not want Chemo for our mom.
    6. Anything else that we should keep in mind?
    7. Should we send the tissue to foundation one, US for genomic profiling. We have already done ALK, ROS and EGFR testing. Are there approved targeted medicines for other markers?


    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    More power to you!!!!!!!

    Regards
    Raghav

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not a doctor of course but they only gave me 12-18 months. It sounds like you guys are on the right track. Having more mutations tested I would hold off on until the afatabin isn't working anymore or close to it. There will be more drugs out then.


      As far as my diet I eat a lot of greens, no sugar (sweets), no soda, and drink essentia water that has a 9.5 pH, I order it off amazon. It's alkaline based water.


      Stage 4 lc cannot be cured. However it can be treated for a while.

      There isn't really anything you can do but wait to see if the meds are working. If they aren't, let me know and I'll see what I can find out from the Bonnie J Addario foundation. I've been on tarceva for almost 4 years now. Believe the diagnosis, not the prognosis. Everyone responds differently.

      My onc didn't recommend surgery because even though I don't have active cancer, I have two tumors in my right lung. If we remove that lung and the mutation starts up again, I'll only have one lung and that's not good.

      I'm not sure about other approved targeted medicines for other markets. I know there is targrisso if tarceva quits working but usually only works when you develop a t-790 mutation.


      Just be patient and see what happens. It sucks waiting. But it sounds like you're doing everything possible

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  2. I am Doris,from what I can read. It has been sad news and scam to everyone about Voodoo casters or so. But to me they are so real cause one worked for me not quite two weeks.i met this man on a blog his name is Dr Abalaka is a very powerful man.I traveled down to where his shrine his and we both did the ritual and sacrifice.he had no website site, and now me and my ex are living very ok now.I don't know about you but Voodoo is real;love marriage,finance, job promotion ,lottery Voodoo,poker voodoo,golf Voodoo,Law & Court case Spells,money voodoo,weigh loss voodoo,diabetic voodoo,hypertensive voodoo,high cholesterol voodoo,Trouble in marriage,Barrenness(need a child),Luck, Money Spells,it's all he does. I used my money to purchase everything he used he never collected a dime from. He told me I can repay him anytime with anything from my heart. Now I don't know how to do that. If you can help or you need his help write him on (dr.abalaka@outlook.com) Thank you.


    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Samantha for your valuable inputs. I read your reply for my mother and she felt quite reassured.
    I am sure science will advance and we will be out of this.
    My mom also wanted to know if it is right to put on weight?


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I put on about 20 lbs when I started treatment so I think it's fine. Probably a good sign.

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  4. Our oncologist has postponed the radiation for a month since pain is less. He wants to repeat an MRI and then decide if radiation is actually required.
    Does radisson helps in suppressing Tumor growth or is it just for pain relief?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does both a lot of times but sometimes only provides pain relief, but is very bad for you. I had lung radiation 3 years ago that is just now scarring over. The less they have to do the better. The fact that the pain is less would leave me to believe the tumor hasn't grown or could have regressed. I think he's making the right call. It seems like treating the cancer can kill you faster than the actual cancer. The MRI will tell him if he needs to proceed. Hope the MRI goes well. Brain radiation is no fun at all.

      Delete