Adenocarcinoma of unknown primary

[SKORPI0]

I feel your pain. Moved 3 1/2 years ago from a house that I rented for almost 20 years (Sept '95-Dec 2014), landlord wanted to sell it not wanting to deal with maintenance, etc..
Parents stayed with me during that time but they died (June 2005; Jan 2014)
It was a pain in the butt to move just 2 blocks away to another rental house since I had a lot of stuff accumulated. A 20x20 garage I'm renting next door is full. Took me almost a month to move.
Had to throw a lot of furniture that I couldn't move/give way to a thrift store, that was painful. To this day that house still hasn't sold despite being in a nice location.

Hope you find a nice suitable place soon, take care.

 

[Brainonska511]

What a lovely coincidence; I was just remarking to my wife about you this morning. She and I were watching a little bit of TV and a pembrolizumab commercial came on; she commented about the great impact immunotherapy has made on cancer management and I brought your story up as an example. Glad to have an update with how you're doing!

I was just at the ASCO annual meeting this year, saw pembro ads plastered all over O'Hare. Immunotherapy has been great for treating some cancers, but there is still a large unmet need. Immunotherapy can have some nasty, and sometimes permanent side effects (e.g., development of type I diabetes). Don't get me wrong, I think we've made great strides in preventing cancer deaths (down 25% per capita since the early 90s), but there is so much room for improved treatments in advanced or aggressive cancers.

Anyway, happy to hear the OP is still doing well.

 

[TheVrolok]

I was just at the ASCO annual meeting this year, saw pembro ads plastered all over O'Hare. Immunotherapy has been great for treating some cancers, but there is still a large unmet need. Immunotherapy can have some nasty, and sometimes permanent side effects (e.g., development of type I diabetes). Don't get me wrong, I think we've made great strides in preventing cancer deaths (down 25% per capita since the early 90s), but there is so much room for improved treatments in advanced or aggressive cancers.

Anyway, happy to hear the OP is still doing well.

Without a doubt.

 

[Geekbabe]

Yeah, the side effects I have had, seem trivial but collectively they are mounting & I cannot honestly say I feel terrific. What I will say is that having 75% of my old life beats having no life at all.

My thyroid is long gone, now my eyes, plus the joint pain..the unrelenting fatigue, well they add up but still I am grateful

 

[Perknose]

Yeah, the side effects I have had, seem trivial but collectively they are mounting & I cannot honestly say I feel terrific. What I will say is that having 75% of my old life beats having no life at all.

My thyroid is long gone, now my eyes, plus the joint pain..the unrelenting fatigue, well they add up but still I am grateful

For every single one of us, albeit in widely varying degrees, simply continuing to exist in the face of entropy and mortality is an act of middle-finger-salute defiance.

I know you HATE to be propped up as a poster child for the strength of the human spirit, as an avatar of courage and grace in the face of the void for the rest of us huddled up here amongst all the discarded peanut shells in the cheap seats of ATOT, but the truth is, Jean, that we need to hear from you more than you need us.

From William Faulkner's 1950 acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize for Literature, from the particular to the universal:

I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking.

I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

 

[Geekbabe]

For every single one of us, albeit in widely varying degrees, simply continuing to exist in the face of entropy and mortality is an act of middle-finger-salute defiance.

I know you HATE to be propped up as a poster child for the strength of the human spirit, as an avatar of courage and grace in the face of the void for the rest of us huddled up here amongst all the discarded peanut shells in the cheap seats of ATOT, but the truth is, Jean, that we need to hear from you more than you need us.

From William Faulkner's 1950 acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize for Literature, from the particular to the universal:

Ah Dave, for some strange reason I like you people

What amazes me is when they make appointments 6 months away for things like cardiac echos, I kind of laugh internally & think, yeah if I’m still here & wow, here I am needing to schedule that echo soon. I try to find joy wherever I can & always try to remember gratitude. I am privileged to receive care at a center of excellence & to get a drug that has been denied to many, something I think about on my low days.

Being able to participate in research is also an honor, the researchers have told me how many people refuse or drop out early, even for simple studies requiring only routine labs. Hell, if my back is to the wall sign me up for a phase 1 first in humans trial. Every bit of knowledge they gain from me will help a cancer patient who comes after me...well worth it imho! Another way to express gratitude and if they develop my cancer cell line, a piece of me will still exist & be helping long after I am gone, a comforting feeling!

 

[esquared]

Thanks for your updates.
I know you don't have to do so, but there are many of us
that do think about you, and how you are doing.

Keep on keeping on.

 

[Geekbabe]

Thanks for your updates.
I know you don't have to do so, but there are many of us
that do think about you, and how you are doing.

Keep on keeping on.

I will try to update more frequently, work kicks my rump a lot of days & falling asleep after dinner happens a bit too often but I can try to get in here more. Besides, some threads make me laugh and nobody can get enough laughter

 

[BoomerD]

Keep on keeping on, dear lady...and don't forget...kick Red in the junk regularly for good luck!

Sorry to hear about the housing situation...on top of everything else you have to deal with...that sucks.

 

[Exterous]

Sorry to hear about the bad news mixed in with the good (The CT scan). I hope you're able to find some place quickly!

 

[Kaido]

rents here are skyrocketing due to the casino going up

I swear, if I see one more billboard for that place...

 

[Geekbabe]

I swear, if I see one more billboard for that place...

If you read the Everett papers, controversy swirls around that dump. Accusations fly about our mayor too, wouldn’t it be funny if they ended up not opening?

 

[Geekbabe]

I had a surveillance Brain MRI & CT scans this week.

My brain (yes I do have one) no evidence of Brain metastasis, no new tumors anywhere else. Existing tumor has stayed the same size.

So call me stable, 41 months on Opdivo, I won’t scan again for 4 to 5 months.

This drug causes me grief but it’s kept me alive. Oncologist says they didn’t have PD-1 tests when I was DX but she’s betting I had a 90% expression rate. We navigate uncharted waters together!

Let’s party now please

 

[Blackjack200]

I had a surveillance Brain MRI & CT scans this week.

My brain (yes I do have one) no evidence of Brain metastasis, no new tumors anywhere else. Existing tumor has stayed the same size.

So call me stable, 41 months on Opdivo, I won’t scan again for 4 to 5 months.

This drug causes me grieve but it’s kept me alive. Oncologist says they didn’t have PD-1 tests when I was DX but she’s betting I had a 90% expression rate. We navigate uncharted waters together!

Let’s party now please

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a notification for this thread, opened it with anxiety, and felt tremendous relief upon reading the update. I doubt I'm the only one. It's amazing that you've shared, and continue to share, such a personal journey. It means a lot to me.

Party indeed!

 

[esquared]

Thanks for the update Geekbabe.
Glad to hear that everything appears to be steady/stable, for you.

 

[Perknose]

Let’s party now please

Disco inferno, Jean!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Hooray!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Happy Friday!

 

[Thebobo]

I had a surveillance Brain MRI & CT scans this week.

My brain (yes I do have one) no evidence of Brain metastasis, no new tumors anywhere else. Existing tumor has stayed the same size.

So call me stable, 41 months on Opdivo, I won’t scan again for 4 to 5 months.

This drug causes me grief but it’s kept me alive. Oncologist says they didn’t have PD-1 tests when I was DX but she’s betting I had a 90% expression rate. We navigate uncharted waters together!

Let’s party now please

Howdy Stable!

 

[BoomerD]

Fabulous news! See? I TOLD you...kicking Red in the junk would bring good luck!

 

[preCRT]

Wonderful news!

Hope there will be more partying coming in the next weeks, month, and year.

 

[TheVrolok]

I had a surveillance Brain MRI & CT scans this week.

My brain (yes I do have one) no evidence of Brain metastasis, no new tumors anywhere else. Existing tumor has stayed the same size.

So call me stable, 41 months on Opdivo, I won’t scan again for 4 to 5 months.

This drug causes me grief but it’s kept me alive. Oncologist says they didn’t have PD-1 tests when I was DX but she’s betting I had a 90% expression rate. We navigate uncharted waters together!

Let’s party now please

Fantastic news! So glad for the update.

 

[AMD64Blondie]

Glad to hear you're doing better,Jean.

 

[Geekbabe]

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a notification for this thread, opened it with anxiety, and felt tremendous relief upon reading the update. I doubt I'm the only one. It's amazing that you've shared, and continue to share, such a personal journey. It means a lot to me.

Party indeed!

Don’t ever feel anxious! The number one rule of cancer is that cancer does whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Just know my care team has my back, when the day comes that you open this thread to see that I have passed,be comforted that I will have terminal sedation & pass quietly. Also know that my family won’t torture me with heroic treatment measures if my cancer is not well controlled. Keep in mind too, that unlike many stage IV patients I have been given the gift of a lot of extra time.

In the end, time is the most scarce & precious resource any of us have, use your days wisely as you go forth to do your work in this world.

hugs to you

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Don’t ever feel anxious! The number one rule of cancer is that cancer does whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Just know my care team has my back, when the day comes that you open this thread to see that I have passed,be comforted that I will have terminal sedation & pass quietly. Also know that my family won’t torture me with heroic treatment measures if my cancer is not well controlled. Keep in mind too, that unlike many stage IV patients I have been given the gift of a lot of extra time.

In the end, time is the most scarce & precious resource any of us have, use your days wisely as you go forth to do your work in this world.

hugs to you

Amen.