“Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”

This will be a short update because I know people are busy in the Christmas season. After Mike’s last scans we learned that his treatment of Carboplatin, Pemexetred and Keytruda is not working as well as they had hoped. The MRI results seem pretty stable, but there was small growth in some lung nodules and some lymph nodes that are enlarged in his upper airway. If the treatment was working, all the tumors would be shrinking.

The oncologist ordered a test called “Gardant360” which is a blood test that checks for circulating tumor cells and possible gene mutations. He also brought Mike’s case before the tumor board. They decided that a Broncoscopy would be the best next step, so he had that procedure done at Mayo on Wednesday, December 4th.

We were blessed to have our favorite nurse Ali as Mike’s recovery room nurse. Ali has become a sweet friend since Mike has now had her for three surgeries! They took quite a few pieces of the largest lung tumor, as well as from one of the enlarged lymph node in his upper lung/airway during the biopsy.

Unfortunately, the lymph node did show cancer cells in it which wasn’t really surprising to us, but it was another punch in the gut. Yesterday the results from the Gardant360 test came back showing the original RET gene but no other gene mutations….another punch in the gut!!!

We aren’t giving up hope and will continue to pray that the pieces of lung tumor they took and are culturing will show some kind of targetable gene mutation. There are no other treatments for the RET gene besides the two that Mike already took, but there are clinical trials which may be an option. We will wait and see what Mayo has to say when the results of the biopsy come back.

Thank you for all the prayers and kind words, we truly appreciate it! I have said before that this journey is getting harder the longer we’re on it and that is so true! We are still praying for a healing miracle, but when you are constantly getting bad news it’s hard! Stage 4 cancer is a hard reality… we are not okay a lot of the time! Cancer is terrible in so many ways, but it can be a blessing if you let it! We learn more about ourselves and each other every single day, and we hope it is helping us to live better,  more meaningful lives. Enjoy your family and friends this holiday season and remember, “Jesus IS the reason for the season!”

Be blessed,

Paula