Not today, reaper! I’m still alive. Kidney cancer can kiss my grits.

Well, it’s that day again. Two years ago today, I was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. I was very sick. very, and it only spiraled downward for the first 7 months. I will spare you the gory details, but if you want them, revisit last year’s post.

Today, we have even more to celebrate.

 

A. I’m still alive, by some miracle. Although, many of my friends in my stage 4 support group did not make it. Many of them young, like me.

B. Not only am I alive, I am living a NORMAL life. (Hey. How do you think I was able to release three books this year?) Those first six months weren’t living, they were enduring., and the specter of one day feeling like that hangs over me every day. 

C. At the beginning, my doc said “success in kidney cancer is the tumor staying the SAME SIZE.” Mine have defied the odds and have shrunk.

 

And they have shrunk a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I have included a visual above to show you how much. On the left are all of the tumors I had Dec. 2017. Yes, It IS accurate size wise! I had what is called a “heavy tumor burden.”

 

On the right is what I have left, after 18 months on Opdivo. Yes. That’s right. I went from one giant egg, five peas and four grapes to one and a half peas!

 

High five!

 

They are still deadly peas, and yes, kidney cancer will still likely kill me, but NOT TODAY! I have been given more time. And a chance to become No Evidence of Disease, which is the closest there is to a cure.

 

How about we all vow to make 2020 the year we DESTROY THE PEAS!!!

 

I’ll be donating to the Kidney Cancer Research Alliance, and hope you will, too. They’re funding new and potentially life saving research.