The Diagnosis

Today I went with David and my parents to meet with the Oncologist. The diagnosis was worse than we had been expecting. I have “Small Cell Cancer” - SCLC. Most of the time Small Cell Cancer originates in the lung and therefore is a type of lung cancer that mostly occurs in smokers. They are not sure of the origination of my cancer, but I have never been a smoker. My cancer is not categorized by using numbers to differentiate the stages. Instead it is classified as either limited stage or extensive stage. Limited stage means that is has not progressed or spread beyond the initial site and extensive means that it has spread. I have the extensive stage.

The prognosis is poor. According to the documents that the doctor gave us to read, from the time of diagnosis: the median range of survival is 8 to 13 months, less than 5% of patients survive 2 years and 1 - 2% of patients survive 5 years. The doctor wants me to start Chemotherapy immediately (probably next week - I am waiting to hear when my appointment will be). Also according to the documents, SCLC is highly responsive to chemotherapy but it commonly relapses within months. What I have read says that I will undergo 4 - 6 chemo treatments and that should put me into remission. Following that I should have 6 - 8 months cancer free and then they will be expecting it to return. Once it returns SCLC doesn’t respond well to chemo and at that time the patient usually only lives 4 months more. Pretty grim statistics.

Now for the good news. I am NOT a statistic. I refuse to be a statistic. I fully intend to blow those statistics out of the water and surprise everyone. David and I and our families believe in a higher power that can do anything. We have faith that our Father in Heaven will take care of us however He feels is the best. Please keep praying for us. I know that it helps and we can use all the help we can get.

If we could ask one more thing: our kids know that I have cancer and they know that I will be undergoing chemotherapy, but we are not telling them the kind that I have or the prognosis. Please don't tell them. We want to protect them as much as we can. We will tell them what they need to know when we deem it necessary. Thanks for understanding.