3 Years

Well, I just had my cancer-versary on December 26, 2021. The year 2022 will be my fourth year of chemotherapy. I’m very thankful that God in His mercy has allowed me to outlive my doctors’ expectations.

We continue to be amazed and grateful that my treatments are still working. The reduced, more tolerable dosage seems to be having less of an effect on my CEA levels but it is still moving in the right direction (down). I had a CT scan a few weeks ago which confirms this.

I finally received the results of my definitely-not-free genetic test. It took so long because my blood samples got stuck in US customs and were no longer usable. The chances of the test providing any useful information was slim (think needle-in-a-haystack) but data is always a good thing. The test did indicate my cancer has a gene that will open the door to more treatments in the future. I won’t pretend I understand much about it but it sounds like the test was not a complete waste of money.

Since my current (first) treatment regimen is still working we won’t be taking any action on alternative treatments right now but it is VERY nice to have options.

Speaking of my current treatment, it has been quite bearable. I have even been looking forward (a bit) to my chemo weekends when I get to eat hotdogs! (When you’re on chemo you eat whatever you can keep down. Right now hotdogs work for me.) My bowels are mostly under control, and my nausea hasn’t been an issue for a long time now. My rash is bugging me a bit, especially on my face, but I have a new powerful steroid ointment to try.

I have done 10 treatments since September and will have 8 more before another break. I’ll probably take the summer off.

Living with cancer is not fun but it is living. 

The Clark's Christmas 2021

Poppy will be walking any day now. She is a fast crawler and has siblings who enjoy carrying her around the house too. She turns 1 on February 26.

The kids are doing a homeschool unit on Australia and Oceania, which has involved trying many interesting recipes. For my part, I am currently reading the Narnia series to Harry and Daisy in chronological order. We are on the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Harry has been obsessively listening to Adventures in Odyssey, doing about an album a day. He and Daisy even built the town of Odyssey and a few of the characters out of Lego. As a huge AIO fan myself, I couldn’t be happier to see them enjoying my beloved series so much.

Magnolia has been creating many works of art and writing many books (pieces of paper which she asks Leanne to “stample” together). Daisy, when she is not entertaining us with her nativity puppet show starring Mickey Mouse, is asking delightfully literal questions. Probably one of my favourite jobs as a parent is answering their questions.

Please continue to pray that God will heal me, if it’s His will. I hope and pray that He will continue working through my doctors to keep me alive.

The last time the nurse came to our house to unhook my chemo bottle, she looked at our kids and said, “You guys are so lucky!” Maybe that’s a strange thing to say to a cancer patient, but when I look back on the past three years I have to say, God really has been good to us.

Spring Update

We’ve been a little busy these past few months adjusting to life with little Poppy. Harry, Daisy, and Magnolia have been a great help, always eager to lend a hand. I haven’t been as helpful as I would have liked to be due to chemotherapy and the symptoms caused by the treatments.

I have survived nine chemotherapy treatments so far this year and they still seem to be working. Since my diagnosis, I think I have had over thirty treatments. 

I had another CT scan back on March 30 which confirmed that the latest rounds of chemotherapy are working. The lesions in my lungs and liver have decreased in size again.

A few weeks ago I had my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. My oncologist provided me with a nice little letter to prove that I am one of those High Risk folk. I am glad I was able to be vaccinated already, not only for my own sake, but also because I believe it is my biblical and civic duty to do so. I will be receiving my second dose early in June. 

My diarrhea is more under control now with the new medication and activated charcoal I am taking. I had come to the point where I only had about two normal days between treatments, which was not a great “quality of life.” Even eating was becoming difficult. My oncologist was kind enough to let me skip a treatment just to give my body a bit of a break and time to gain some more weight.

That brings me to last week’s excitement. Remember my ostomy incision that wouldn’t heal? Well, the wound finally closed up a few weeks ago but in the last week it decided to fill up with fluid. Last Friday, instead of having my regular chemotherapy treatment I had an ultrasound so the doctors could have a good look at my new abscess. It was only on the surface so it was in no real danger of bursting inside me and causing more problems. I was scheduled to see my surgeon a few days later to drain the abscess but it popped open on its own the next day. This was great as the pain went away as soon as the wound opened up again. I still met with the surgeon and he confirmed it’s probably caused by my fistula that is having trouble healing due to my chemotherapy drugs. It still might eventually heal on its own. To fix the fistula the surgeon would have to do a “main line incision.” The risk of that kind of surgery is not really worth the minor inconvenience of bandaging my open wound everyday. Essentially this means that my wound is not going to go away any time soon, and if it does heal over it’s likely I will get another abscess. (I think I’ll try popping it myself next time.) Anyway, I am just going to carry on with my wound as is and pray that the fistula fixes itself.

On the plus side, I got another break from chemo. On the downside, I got another break from chemo.

I have no hair anymore. Well, that’s not entirely accurate as there is a little bit left on my arms and a sprinkling left on my legs and chest. When I started treatment again back in January I shaved half my chest to make accessing my port (and the subsequent taping me up) less painful. The other side (the unshaved part) of my chest now matches perfectly. I had to shave my head again as the patchiness was starting to look ridiculous.

I’m still hoping to have another break from chemo at the end of June. Hopefully these unexpected breaks won’t change that schedule.

Please continue to pray for us.

  1. Thank God that the chemotherapy is still working and pray that it continues to do so. 
  2. Pray that my fistula heals.
  3. Pray for Leanne as she looks after everyone.