I hope you are all safe and well during this really difficult time! Covid-19 has turned the cancer community upside down just like it has everything else. I’m grateful and thankful for all the healthcare professionals, workers and volunteers helping me and millions of other cancer patients stay on track.
- We got more good results on my cancer tests and scans completed last week.
- The bad stuff in my liver and lungs is reacting as we hoped to my current ‘maintenance chemo’ treatments.
- We are now spacing out my infusion treatments to 1x every 3 weeks (instead of 2 weeks).
- My next checkpoint (round of tests and scans) will be in mid-June.
- We’ll adjust course as needed then.
- AND, worth a mention, we continue to have lots and lots of treatment options.
- All this continues to reinforce my standing as the most fortunate, lucky, and grateful, cancer wrestler you know.
Bigger picture, across the cancer community in the United States, cancer patients are facing all sorts of challenges around scheduling surgeries and navigating treatment options and locations. Anecdotally, I’ve heard from my own nurses, doctors, and friends, in the cancer camp, the following:
- most all non-urgent cancer surgeries are being postponed
- wherever possible, cancer treatments are being adjusted to minimize patient visits to hospitals and cancer centers
- nearly all clinical trial activity is on hold due to Covid-19
- hospital cancer staff is on-call for Covid-19 duty if needed
So, this is a really difficult time for everyone in and around the cancer community. It is both scary and stressful* for the cancer patients around you. Please do whatever you can to help them cope.
While I was down at UCSF last week for chemo treatment #34, I filmed this short video about my own experience:
As someone who’s been kept alive now for 2.5+ years by science-based solutions and breakthrough cancer technologies, I can speak to you at length about the value of and need for adequate testing, scanning and progress measurement. Without it — whether you are talking about cancer, Covid-19, or any other life-threatening illness — you are simply flying blind. Science and sound research drive cures, not magic bullets, snake oils, dangerous protests, or irrational behaviors. This is a time for truth, transparency, discipline, and patience in finding the Covid-19 cure. Let our healthcare experts and scientists do the work they need to do to protect us all.
Thanks for all the love, hope, faith and support!
Be smart. Be safe. Be well.
Keep rollin’,
Crafty
*Cancer.net offers this great guidance for managing stress (which is proven to have a negative impact on cancer recovery).
Managing Stress – Approved by the Cancer.net Editorial Board 07/2019
https://www.cancer.net/blog/podcasts/managing-stress
*Please support Conquer Cancer
I was just thinking of you Pal!!!!!
You doing ok through all this?