My name is Mike I am a 57-year male from Akron Ohio with NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) Stage III (downgraded from IV) with lymph node mets, it is the Kras G12C mutation. At the time of writing this post I was diagnosed around 9 months ago, and I have been through chemo (6 rounds) and 30 days of radiation treatments. I have also had surgery to remove another unrelated GIST cancerous tumor on my stomach found at the same time as my lung cancer. This week I have begun my targeted therapy regiment using Lumakras, a very expensive drug that they are confident will make me cancer free. Fingers crossed!
A year prior to my cancer diagnosis I had a heart related incident that resulted in a stent being put in. There were other issues as well, so I reexamined my lifestyle and changed almost everything. With the help of a change of diet and exercise I have lost 60 pounds to date; I now wear the same size pants as I did as a teenager.
Prior to all of this I was indestructible. Rarely got sick and if I got hurt, I recovered quickly. Unbeknownst to me I was known as the terminator at a former workplace. A large part of this is due to my stubbornness.
I am married to the love of my life for 28 years now, the father of two grown men one of who is handicapped the other is still trying to find his path. I have a sister who I am growing closer to by the day due to recent events. The people closest to me know what’s going on but I haven’t posted anything on social media about this yet.
I am a Co-Team lead of big box retailer and am very good at my job and am a work-acholic. I worked through my entire treatment; it wasn’t pretty at times but for my mental health it was the best thing for me.
At the moment I am mentally wrestling with why I am lucky enough to maybe get past this while “better humans” didn’t or won’t have this chance. This blog is my therapy.
Normally I am a very private person, all of the support I have received from people I don’t even know has led me to believe that I should change that so here we go.
Please note I hope that this blog will help me, and my mental state and I can only hope it may help someone else. I am no cancer expert just someone who is living with this thing and doing it my way. I will try like hell to not give my opinions because they will not help you. If I can point you in the direction of help, I would love to do that for you.