Update on Butch
Hello everyone,
We are enjoying a brief hiatus at home right now. Butch is resting and gathering his strength for the battle yet to come. I am doing laundry, taking care of paperwork, prescriptions, banking, laundry, etc. Life does go on.
Most of you follow us on FB, but I wanted to give you a more thorough update on the latest developments. This damn cancer grows more complicated by the week and it's hard to keep up with what all has happened and is going on right now. I will try to write it out clearly and succinctly for you.
Butch has a lesion that is growing in his lungs and the doctors did a biopsy of it last week. It is now official that he does have lung cancer. I know that this sounds like terrible news, but in a way, it is good news too. Let me explain.
Butch was diagnosed with both bladder cancer and prostate cancer several years ago. He had treatment for the bladder cancer and it has never recurred. He had his prostate removed, but that cancer was still present in his body. He had radiation treatments, and the prostate cancer was still there. He had hormone therapy and the cancer was still there. We came to accept that he would have the prostate cancer for the rest of his life, but it was being managed and kept in remission by the hormone therapy. Life went on.
So when he developed these bone metastasis in his spine last summer, it was a natural assumption that the prostate cancer had once again spread. His PSA levels were low, but there was cancer in his bones. The bone biopsy done at MDA last August was a bit inconclusive, but there was still no reason not to think it wasn't the prostate cancer. The initial full body scan showed the bone metastasis (bone mets) in six places, and there were also some small nodules in his lungs. But the nodules were very small and since it is not uncommon for prostate cancer to spread to the bones and the lungs, again it was the natural assumption to conclude that Butch had this rare form of anaplastic prostate cancer.
Fast forward a few months and several chemo treatments later, and one of the nodules in his lungs has grown into a mass. The bone mets are destroying the bone and he has suffered a fracture in his rib and his collar bone. Dr. Tu, the prostate doctor, has said all along that prostate cancer does not typically "eat" bone. Now with the mass in his lungs, it is suspected that maybe he has lung cancer as well. They did the biopsy and sure enough: lung cancer.
Now prostate, breast and lung cancer are all in the same "family" of cancers. Lung cancer also spreads to the bone and the brain, and typically the bone mets from lung cancer DO eat and destroy bone. (I know this because my Daddy had lung cancer and they first found it when he broke his arm.) The lung doctor, Dr. Khuri, immediately ordered an MRI of the brain, but it came back negative for any brain tumors. Thank you, God. Butch will be having a PET scan on Wednesday which will show the metabolic activity in the spots on his lungs. Some spots may be nothing more than scar tissue and scar tissue will not have any metabolic activity. Dr. Khuri needs to know more information before he can formulate a treatment plan for the lung cancer.
Now for the "good" news. The good news is that lung cancer has had so much publicity and so many millions of research dollars poured into it that there is a veritable arsenal of drugs available to treat it. Dr. Tu says that prostate cancer only has a small handful of drugs, and they've already tried most of them on Butch. But there are many treatment options available for lung cancer.
Well, it stands to reason that the the chemo that Butch has been receiving up until now hasn't been very effective against the lung cancer (although Dr. Tu DID pick one chemo drug that is known to fight lung cancer as well as prostate cancer because of the nodules in Butch's lungs). We do know it has done some good because the blood work shows that the markers for cancer have been decreasing since August. But NOW, with the correct diagnosis, we are hopeful that the new treatments will have a major effect on the lung cancer and will knock it back into remission.
Butch is a very tough fella. He's down, but not out! If mental attitude counts for anything (and we believe it DOES), he will come back from this diagnosis of lung cancer, just as he did from the diagnosis of prostate cancer and the diagnosis of bladder cancer, too. We need lots of prayer and positive thinking, as well as the drugs, to conquer this disease, but MDA is full of people who have faced similar odds and are still here to tell their tales.
Now, I want to say something to you all, and I don't mean to sound preachy, but this **** monster called cancer has taken too many people that I love. If you smoke, you are just biding your time until the monster comes calling for YOU. My grandfather smoked and he died of lung cancer. My dad smoked and he died of lung cancer. My husband smoked and he got a trifecta of cancers--bladder, prostate, and lung--and two of them are directly connected to smoking. Yes, smoking CAUSES bladder cancer! We were lucky enough to catch the bladder cancer in Stage I and he did not have to have his bladder removed, but many people do lose their bladders and you can only imagine what all that must entail. In other words, if you value your health or the health of your loved ones STOP SMOKING NOW. Believe me, the pain and expense of stopping smoking is NOTHING compared to the pain and expense of trying to stay alive.
I do not mean to imply any recriminations or lay blame for what may have caused our current cir****tances. Done is done. It cannot be undone. I only mean to caution those who do smoke and hopefully prevent future disasters from occurring. There is nothing on earth--no momentary pleasure, no soothing of nerves, no fleeting satisfaction--worth enduring what we are going through right now. Vices are called vices for a reason. If you smoke, PLEASE STOP.
We are very grateful for each and every one of you. So many of you have placed Butch on the prayer lists at your churches. We know there is an army of believers praying for us and we believe God hears your prayers. No matter what the doctors say, they can only offer their best guess as to what will happen. God is in control and His will is sovereign. We bow our heads and give ourselves up into His care. His will be done.
Love you all!
Vickie
Vic,
In all the bad news that you have received, hearing that this cancer isn't a metastasis from his bladder or prostate cancer is good news. Lung cancer treatment, like you said, has options. Knowing what cancer to fight makes all the difference and having both a fighting spirit as Butch does and a fighting family as you all are will help him through this treatment and remission that we know will come. I was telling my husband about the news of your Butch and we were talking about my brother and then my husband reminded me of his cousin. Ken's cousin had lung cancer and was diagnosed twenty years ago. The doctors gave him a year and they started his treatment. They did determine it was necessary to remove a lobe of his lung to remove the huge mass, and they followed with chemo and radiation and like I said, that was twenty years ago. He goes back every year for tests and maybe once in the last twenty years he had to go through another round of chemo. They don't say he beat cancer but they do say he is cancer free at this time. Like Butch, my husband smoked for years and we worry that he will end up with lung cancer. I'm with you when it comes to weighing the benefits of smoking to the consequences of smoking and I hope that if any of our sisters on here smoke, they quit. Life is too short. Vic, take care of yourself and get rested because the battle to beat this disease has only begun and while you are strong, you still need to give yourself some alone time and rest.
Vickie,
You're right about smoking. My dad died from colon cancer and kidney disease -- both the result of smoking. The kidney disease was caused by high blood pressure, which I'm sure was caused by his smoking (although my brother refuses to admit this). My grandfather, my dad's dad, also smoked, and he died of bladder cancer. I have never smoked, but worry about the secondhand smoke I endured for years from my dad, my college roommates (Roxane, the nurse, and my other roomie Debbie smoked for years, and Rox smoked while we lived together after college). Plus, I worked in newsrooms where smoking was allowed for 10 years. Journalists were notorious smokers back then. One of my former coworkers broke a leg a while back ... was in a cast for five months because he smoked and his bones weren't getting enough blood flow because of his habit. Smoking can do so much harm to so much of your body.
Anyway, I'm glad Butch was finally correctly diagnosed. I'll be swinging chickens for him and for you. Please find a way to relax. You need to be strong.
I read your post yesterday about the one doctor who told him to go home and get his affairs in order ... that was what one MDA doctor told my friend Gloria several years ago. She fought on, found drug tests and lasted another two years so she could see her son graduate from grade school.
My brother's friend Bruce tried a lot of homopathic treatments while he was fighting Hodgkins ... he was at Stage 4 and nothing really worked, not even stem cells. He stayed alive two years longer than Mayo said using some of these treatments ... Vitamin C infusions, etc.
Vickie, we all love you here. Stay strong. 
