I'll keep this short. Unfortunately, on August 3rd, I was taken off the phase 1 clinical trial at MD Anderson since the disease continued to progress. Waiting 2 months to assess the efficiency and coming up short handed means that I lost a lot of ground to cancer and I did.
I am back at Mayo with chemo therapy treatment that kicked off 2 weeks ago.
It's difficult to post these updates. I am struggling and haven't been able to live a normal, suffering free days since early June.
I am not physically the man I was just 3 months back, lost tons of muscle weight, it's the thing cancer comes after but I am still trying to stay standing and fight.
Update: I made the Phase I clincal trial.
The last stretch tested me in ways this fight hasn't yet. Cancer threw everything it had to derail this trial β it even came for my ability to eat. Days of barely keeping anything down, gut locked up from cancer spread, weight falling off me, the constant fear in the back of my mind that I'd waste away before I ever reached the infusion chair.
There were days I broke down in tears, in pain, unable to eat. And every one of those days, my family was there. My mother holding me and praying over me. My brother opening his home and refusing to let me do this alone. Friends checking in. That's what carried me β not just grit, but love.
I cleared every gate. Labs. EKG. A clean echo (this marathon heart is still strong πͺ). And on Tuesday, June 23rd, I took my first infusion at MD Anderson β at the exact dose I prayed for.
I am still in Houston, still fighting the gut, still clawing my weight back, still tired down to my bones. But the drug is IN. It's hunting these cancer cells right now because I BELIEVE. And for the first time in weeks, I've got a fighter in the ring on my side.
Cancer came for my foundations. It did not move me off this date. Praying for strength and trusting in God is what never stops. God is good. God is great.
We do not give up. π