A Message Of Love For Bill & Denise
Bill's Newsletters To Family & Friends
21th Newsletter -
Hello All,
It’s been about a year, now, since my last status update, and my health has been reasonably well during most of that time, until recently! Once, again, I am sick on paper (i.e. my cancer is growing, again, with no symptoms), BUT… I am fortunate that I am receiving a potentially miraculous new treatment! Story coming a bit later!
Since my last status update, I was fortunate to continue to be in remission, at least partially, being that I had a handful of reoccurrences of cancer during that time that were not unexpected by my medical team at MD Anderson in Houston AND could be addressed using “standard of care” treatment options. My doctors, during this time, referred to these reoccurrences (and treatment) as “cherry-picking”, where the treatment was not as damaging to the body as my earlier, life-saving, conventional and high-dose chemotherapy. I had: 1) surgery to remove my gall bladder in June 2016, 2) pinpoint radiation (i.e. also known as gamma knife), also in June 2016, to eliminate a small tumor in my brain, and 3) surgery to remove a small tumor in my right lung, as recent as January of 2017. How do you like those “cherries”?
However, even though these few treatments over that last ten months were considered successful, the imagery taken for my latest checkup, back on Monday, March 13th, showed numerous small tumors growing in my lungs. Too many tumors for surgery to be a feasible option. This came as a complete surprise, then and now, as I can not feel their existence in my body. Capping the bad news received that day was that no other “standard of care” treatment is currently available to treat my condition for a “cure”, but only chemotherapy could be used to slow the growth of the tumors, indefinitely! Needless to say, Denise and I were devastated, especially after our going into this checkup expecting more good news as we had received over the past two years!
Now, being able to turn a negative into a positive and being that Denise and I are blessed with the best families on this good earth, my God-send of a sister, Betty, and her husband, Kevin, have been working, behind the scenes, over the past two years, researching advanced clinical trial treatment options, just in case my cancer grew back sufficiently that all standard of care treatment options for a cure would no longer be feasible, which brings us to today! Currently, as of Wednesday, March 22nd, I received my first dosage of the drug, Pembrolizumab (MK-3475), which everyone just affectionately just calls “Pembro”, as part of a Phase II clinical trial being conducted by Merck at MD Anderson in Houston, TX. I know what you all must thinking… that with a long name like that, that it has to be good. We hope so, too!!! This medication has already been approved by the FDA for use against a number of other types of cancer, including eliminating the brain tumor in Jimmy Carter, in his 90s, not so long, ago. In addition, this medication has proven, in numerous cases, not to be as evasive as chemotherapy in that it builds up a person’s immune system (i.e. immunotherapy), which, generally, only targets the bad cancer cells and ALL the cells in the body, including the good. After two weeks, I still don’t have any symptoms from using this new drug and/or from the cancer. The trick here is not only hoping that the drug cures my cancer, but that it works fast enough to slow, or stop, the growth of the cancer in my lungs before my no longer being able to delay getting chemotherapy, which will exclude my participating in this clinical trial (and more than likely any clinical trial)! Talk about walking on pins and needles! For those of you not familiar with clinical trials, which I was not, you, actually, have to “interview” to be considered to join one, after submitting extensive medical history and tests, and if you do not meet their stringent parameters, you are eliminated from consideration and participation. For example, my interview lasted five hours, with our waiting for doctors and clinical trial coordinators to come meet with Denise and I in the examination room, with my being excluded from three other clinical trials, before, finally, being approved for the one I am on. Again, I have stated this before, “this is the education that no one wants”.
So, with all said and done, I hope that everything is well and healthy for you all! It’s been so long, since Denise and I have seen so many of you! Denise and I are currently residing back East, again, at the address provided, below, which has helped enormously with both Denise and my well-being! To no one’s surprise, I am sure, Denise remains the most loving, strong, supportive and caring person in my life throughout all of our ordeals!!! We are enjoying spending time with our families, and friends, who are all nearby, who have helped us in so many ways, as all of you have! How can someone be so fortunate and unfortunate at the same time! Be well all and I will put out another update in the next few weeks (or months), depending upon how well I respond to treatment, which, theoretically, should take 1 – 2 months or sooner, if treatment does not go as well as hoped!
Thank you, all, for all of your love, support, and donations!!! You ALL have lessened the impact of this disease in our lives in so many different ways!!!
With lots of love and appreciation,
Bill and Denise