There is a code in cancer communities, and it takes a little time to crack. After posting a question or a suggestion, the author usually signs their name, with a list below that looks something like this:
Dx2012, stage 4 grade 3
Full neph/11 cm tumor with necrosis
Sutent
Anti-pd1 trial
Vats wedge resection
Now on ipi/nivo combo off label
In the beginning, I found these lists daunting. I didn’t have to understand what they were to know what they meant. In this life of a cancer patient, marked by surgeries, treatments and trials, I wondered what our list would look like, how long it would become, what it would look like at the end.
Mike Venable’s latest writing in Columbus and the Valley magazine is that list in long-hand. A cancer biography. It’s worth reading. This is what Mike has gone through to spend another day with the love of his life. KCCure is for Mike, and our efforts are all toward one goal: we want to make sure that Mike’s cancer list ends with “cured.”
My Situation – by Mike Venable
I am fully invested in the energy of the people who are launching this initiative to find a cure for renal cell carcinoma. There is an army of us who are suffering from this diagnosis. I’m one of the lucky ones. Seven years of life on a stage IV renal cell carcinoma diagnosis is rare, I know that. Saying it like that seems almost too simple. I’m a seven year survivor, at a great, great price. More money than we could comfortably muster during the Great Recession. Only guts and a love as big as the universe for a great woman can explain why we made it to today.
If you’d like to take a few moments and get a real look into what cancer looks like, I’ll appending my cancer biography onto the end of this short post. If you just can’t help yourself and you give it a read, I hope you’ll come out the other end knowing what I already know: We are a blessed family. I am a blessed man. Much of the good sense we managed to exhibit during the past 7 years has come from the wisdom imparted by some of the people who are launching the KCCure campaign.
Read the full article.
