Successful surgery!

This is Rachel (older sis) posting with Sams permission.

The surgery was a success! Sam is currently recovering under his own power. He was put onto an assisted living device that helped him breath for a night to make sure his lung would return to normal function without any complications. He is already in great spirits but is still a bit out of it. But knowing my brother, some of his first questions when coming around were about the NHL playoffs :)

From now until mid-June Sam will be on an extensive amount of chemotherapy. Radiation therapy has been ruled out, luckily, after the lab here found that his tumor was mostly benign (turns out the medicine that didn't look like it was doing much good, was after all).

We are all very thankful that he is doing well. Sam still has a long way to go and will need all the support he can get from friends and family. 

Myself, or Sam, will have an update for you again soon.

Thank you all again,

R & C, G & L, M

Saturday, May 10th

I will be having surgery to remove my tumor this Saturday, May 10th. Updates will be sent out via text by one of my family (most likely my dad or older sister) from my phone.

Thank you all for all of the support this far. It means a lot to me that there are even just a few people who care.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Song of the Month

Delta Rae - Bottom of the River

Surgeries

My first surgery will be to repair some damage that the growing tumor did to some blood vessels. I had been coughing up quite a bit of blood and the doctor wants to an immediate stop to that.

My second surgery will be in May. That surgery will involve removing the tumor all together. 

Some of you might be wondering why they wouldn't just remove the tumor on the first surgery. Reason for that is a specialist and a special laser is needed to remove the tumor.

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Got to take a tick off the bucket list when my lil sis got tickets to the first game between the Ducks and Stars. It was my first Stanley Cup Playoff game and I had a blast. Hopefully it won't be my last.

Got to have some more great beer recently. This one was so very tasty. Good enough to make a true beer float out of.

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A big happy 30th Birthday my friend Brandon. Had a good time at his birthday BBQ. It was great getting to catch up with him and Shannon and see some old faces. Yes, that is cake on their faces. And he made sure to get everyone else too.

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Sorry for the long time in between posts. It had been a very rough couple of weeks aside from the two great nights out. 

I hope you're all still having a wonderful year. Talk to some of you soon and hopefully be seeing some of you soon.

Song for the month: All My Days by Alexi Murdoch

UPDATE

My surgery has been postponed until May. 

Surgery

Spent a good few days in Arroyo Grande with Amanda earlier this week. It was nice to see her smiling face before I have surgery next week.

Surgery has been scheduled for next Wednesday (4/9) @ UCLA Medical Center. I'll be a having one long surgical process spread over 2 days. Immediately after the surgery I'll be starting localized radiation treatment in order to kill off any remaining cancer cells not taken with the tumor. My hospital stay will be around 2 months long.

For updates on my condition and the surgery itself, my older sister will be updating the blog as much as she can.  

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The following are a few pictures from my trip which started with Nikki's (left) birthday

The Getty Museum & Observatory. 

Cool train bridge in Santa Barbara.

Any of you non-Californians know how to say 'Ojai'?

What a panorama shot looks like while driving.

Pismo Beach pier and view towards Shell and Avila Beach

Only picture I could get of Amanda (she's good at avoiding them). It was VERY windy in Pismo.

Avila Beach Pier

A California sea otter hanging out near the pier.

Tom and one of his many ladies.

The drive home was wonderful, except for being sick during it.

Apparently Buellton is home to the inventor of split pea soup (and Figueroa Mountain Brewing).

Found a real Mini just outside of Malibu.

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See you all on the other side

So far so good

It's been a very busy past couple of weeks so this will be a short post. 

Both scans I've had so far have been clear of any tumor growth. I'll still be doing a clinical trial staring at the end of the month. I'm hoping that this new drug can help.

I've started a new holistic and vitamin treatment for the time being. I'll be concentrating on keeping myself happy and relaxed while eating the right way and replenishing my body with (massive sized) vitamins.

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I had a few friends come to town over the past few weeks as well. Was very happy to see April; we went to high school together.

I was very excited to find that Amanda had some time off from her job up in the Central Coast area to come and "surprise" me. Spent an amazing whole day with her catching up, adventuring around town, and meeting her new niece Jenna (who looks exactly like her older sisters with those big blue eyes). I'm so happy to have her in my life still; especially as a close friend. 

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I went out and bought myself a gift last week after receiving a raise at work. It will definitely be a great addition to my slowly growing collection. 

It was a blast to build (1300+ pieces) and am definitely looking forward to adding to my collection very soon.

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Hope you all have a great rest of the week

Ending treatment… By choice

The bad news…

My tumor isn't slowing down in growth. It's slowly growing and no treatment at this point is working. So after a very lengthy discussion with doctors and a few days to think about it, I've decided to stop treatment. I'll still be taking a few medications to help with the pain, but that's it, for now.

I was doing a straight chemotherapy that did not involve radiation treatment because of the stage of my tumor (In fact, radiation treatment will not be an option for me; I'd be lucky at this point if it ever becomes an option). The chemo was supposed to drastically reduce the size of the tumor so that surgical removal of the tumor would have a better chance of happening.

And now due to all this I'm hanging in between Stage 1b and Stage 2a. At this point my cancer can be explained by the TNM system (http://lungcancer.about.com/od/lungcancerstages/a/Lung-Cancer-TNM-Staging.htm). I'm at T1bN0M0. But contrary to what the website says I'm not taking any treatment. 

So now it's a waiting game, that includes a chest scan every week.

I know I said I would be contacting you all individually but it is just easier telling you all through this blog. It's been a hard 2 weeks trying to convince my family that this is the right thing for me to do. If anyone needs some further explanation (or needs to yell at me because they think I'm risking too much) don't hesitate to call or text. I'll definitely get back to you ASAP. 

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And now for some pictures from the past couple weeks.

For some reason this red tailed hawk has actually been hunting on the ground in the old houses backyard.

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Got this awesome care package from Joey H. a few days ago. Beer not included but it is definitely my new go to glass when it comes to drinking great beer.

My aunt/god mother was in town for a few days so we hit the beach. It's hard to not love living in SoCal. 78°F in February.

One of the best posters I've seen in awhile.

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Inspired by David, here's my song of the day: The Letting Go - Mount Moriah

Hope you all have a great weekend.