I’m back, bitches!

I have a (rather long) blog post started about my trip to the ‘midsouth’ (VA and NC…it’s not the deep south, and ‘mideast’ is already taken, so…), but I wanted to send out a quick update.

We met with the oncologist, Dr. Chitambar, at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee this past Thursday and it went well.  He seems very focused on treating the whole patient, as opposed to just the cancer, which is a breath of fresh air.   There are still some insurance coverage details to work out with GHC, but it’s looking positive.   Tissue from my tumor will be genotyped to find out if there’s a match to one of the drugs on the study, and we should find out in the coming weeks.   For anyone wanting more specifics about the study, you can find them here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02101385?term=NCT02101385&rank=1

Even better news, though, is the lifting of my spirits.  Just as I can pinpoint the day the depression and anxiety took hold of me, the release was just as pronounced.  I was sitting at my desk at work this past Tuesday afternoon when I realized that I had not had anxious thoughts or feelings of depression for some time, a couple hours at least.  I felt…normal.  For the first time in months, it was as though a demon had been exorcised and I was me again.  I cried in that moment, and have several times since, out of pure joy.  Even the election results did not drag me back down into the pit of despair…and if I can remain happy and optimistic through that, well, I CAN DO ANYTHING!

OK, that’s it for now, more later.

-JEB