Cancer spread to Lungs, Tumors Growing, Medical Update on Cancer

Starting on medicines and immunotherapy again to stop or slow down the cancer. Will be on medicines indefinitely.

Latest Oncology Report

Yesterday afternoon, we had a meeting with the oncologist. Last week, they did blood work, CT scans, and MRIs with and without contrast to see how the cancer was progressing.

We get the results from everything in my online charts before seeing the doctor, which is usually more alarming to us than when we finally get word from the doctor. The scans show that a nodule in my lung has grown from 6 mm to 11 mm since the previous scan. I also have multiple new nodules in various parts of my lungs.

So, kidney cancer has spread through the groin and abdomen and now to the lungs.

I will begin seeing the doctor on a monthly visit as they start the new therapy. He thinks he can treat me without the previous adverse side effects, but he will monitor me in person for several months to ensure I tolerate the cancer treatments well.

I return in six weeks after insurance approves my treatments and monitoring. I will be on this medicine indefinitely.

I asked what the prognosis was, and when I would die. The oncologist said he disliked talking about that with any patient. He said that by all reports, I should already be dead. Some kidney cancer is like a wildfire, and others like mine are more manageable.

Betty and I left the meeting somewhat relieved. We know that God who is in me is greater than cancer, and we will look to Him, honor Him, glorify Him, and thank Him in everything and for everything.

Sanctuary of Life at Whitestone

Thanks to the kindness of a friend, I am also being treated with some alternative methods that have greatly encouraged us. Those treatments start this month as well. They have been very successful with stage 4 cancer of all types, including kidney cancer. I will check everything with them as I go.

We ask you to pray that God will guide us in everything and every step of the way, and we know He will. Please pray for the ministries God allows me to have and the writing I do each day. Thank you for all you do.

Cancer Story

Doctors diagnosed me with kidney cancer in May 2012. Surgeons removed my right kidney on June 7, 2012. Cancer-free until June 30, 2021.

COVID put me on a ventilator for 21 days and in the hospital for 30 days. That year, 2020, they didn’t scan me because of Covid. Then, in 2021, they found five masses or tumors. I was on immunotherapy for 9 months before finding a surgeon at Emory who would take out the cancer surgically.

He removed all the cancer they could see, my adrenal glands and right testicle, on September 27, 2022. I was free from cancer again for 21 months, and then the cancer was back again.

Carnivore Diet

I have been on the Carnivore Diet and sticking to it for nearly 16 months. It has significantly helped. Not eating sugar, starches, and processed foods is better for me and has probably been used by God to help my body fight the cancer. Plus, I lost quite a bit of weight.

Thanksgiving

We live in a perpetual state of thanksgiving. God is greater than everything else. He has a way through it all. I am not foolish enough to deny the facts, the reality, but we will not focus on the cancer or let it become our identity. We will honor and serve God with and through it all.

Thank you for all your prayers, gifts, and offerings and for the rich love you have shown us.

God bless each of you in all you do.

Gratefully

Austin and Betty