Great news. Lets hope n pray for continued good news and reports from the doc.

Glad to hear this lbj. Like Kevin said your attitude is clearly making a difference along with the love & support from your wife & daughters. Continuing to pray for you just like I started back in January. The good news will continue.

Very happy to hear this, lbj! We'll continue to keep you in our prayers.

Excellent news, sir! Glad to hear it.

Very, very glad,to see the latest update.

I watched my brother over the last 6 months before he passed, and I am also hesitant to see updates from time to time, but this one lifts my spirits.

I believe that God can and does work miriacles in our lives each and every day. I am certain that He uses doctors to to answer our prayers. Although all prayers are not answered the way we want each time, it sure is great to see this report.

It can't hurt that there are a whole bunch of God fearing men and women on this board that lift you and your family up every day.

You be sure to continue to do what you are supposed to do, and we will do what we are supposed to do.

quote:

Originally posted by Cliff:
Glad to hear this lbj. Like Kevin said your attitude is clearly making a difference along with the love & support from your wife & daughters. Continuing to pray for you just like I started back in January. The good news will continue.

He also has 80,000 invisible friends praying for him. Probably got someone's attention upstairs.

Excellent news on the scans lbj!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Skins2881,

Thanks everyone for all the posts.

Since my diagnosis last January, yesterday's CT scan seems to have been the first positive news about my health problems.
It is unknown regarding what lies ahead in terms of living longer than before, and if so, for just how long.
Other unknowns include how long the Opdivo will work in the future. It could stop working at any time or work well for some time to come.

As with cancer patients, you just have those unknowns and live with them. We don't have any other choice.
As I say though, the first positive news in a long eight months feels really good.

quote:

Originally posted by PeterGV:
LBJ: I'm another one who's read every single one of your posts, but haven't responded until now. I bet there are a lot of us here.

I just want you to know that I really appreciate your posts. They're moving, insightful, sad, funny, strange, deep, cheesy, inspiring. They're real. They're very human. They're instructive. I'm very grateful to you for being willing to share your experiences, your thoughts, and your feelings with us.

Thank you so very much for what you're teaching us, as you narrate your path.

G-d bless you and your family.

I know you're acutely aware that your time is limited. But time is limited for us all. The doctors don't really know. They thought your first medicine would work; it didn't. Now, surprise, the optivo seems to be doing a great job! Yay!! I hope there are many more positive surprises in store for you in the weeks, months, and years to come.

I'll go back to quietly following your posts now. Know we're all listening. We're all praying. We all care. And we appreciate you taking us along on your journey.

Wow, your post is such a compliment, thank you.
Many of the things you said are why I do this in the hope it will hit home with some people.
I know what I post is not for everyone but it just feels good to hear that some really enjoy this in the many ways it is intended for.

I don't pretend that I have literary skills or anything, but I do try.
I speak from my heart and that seems to be the best thing to do because not being genuine and sincere is easy to spot.

Thanks again for reading and the compliment.

Man, it's nice to hear some good news for a change. Seems like these things never turn out like that. Makes you want to take a big chug of Opdivo.

Live your life two-fisted, dude. We'll be here to cheer you on.

I think your literary skills are OK, better than mine St least. I loved reading about the summer of '75. Have any other interesting or random stories to tell us?

Great news LBJ. Keep on fighting and thank you for sharing incredibly personal details of your life with the SF family.

I will continue to keep you and your family in my prayers.

And that's the thing.
Having a terminal illness makes one live their life a bit more of an in the moment kind of thing.

Aside from getting my affairs in order as a contingency, after that, long term plans for my life are simply not being considered.
I don't think this particularly surprising, I just thought to put it in print.

When I was healthy, I didn't think about mortality much, and now, it crosses my mind so many times in every day I live.
It is so different that the way things used to be for me. I am the same old me in most other ways though.

quote:

Originally posted by oldboys50:
That's outstanding news.

I do not know if you saw this or not, but I brought your old thread up a couple of weeks back.
There were a lot of us that posted at that time wondering if you had an update or anything.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/6220030504/p/3

Like a lot of others on this forum, I've learned a lot from reading your story and thoughts---about myself, about my faith and the courage it must take for you to not only go through this journey, but share it with others.

God provides us all with life lessons. A few are delivered directly; others come in the most unlikely way.

Thank God for this recent good news.

quote:

Originally posted by PeterGV:
Know we're all listening. We're all praying. We all care. And we appreciate you taking us along on your journey.

Exactly! Thank you, Peter, for putting it into words.

You really do have a lot of people here who care about you, lbj. That is some powerful medicine!

You are right, I really do and it's stunning.
Thank you.

Like KevinCW, I'm apprehensive every time I open this thread, and have only posted once or twice.

I'm praying that this is the beginning of good news for you, even if it's not a true cure. Through my various international jobs years ago I knew several people who died of AIDS during the early stages of the epidemic, and now nearly everybody survives. Maybe this breakthrough will lead to another.

Thats fantastic news!!!

And that is the deal with both me and the medical community, to find something that works for a while until something comes along.

Kind of like:
Get another year, wait, do something new, get a year, and so on.

There are so many new things in development after the apparent success of some of the immuno therapy drugs recently, who knows what be coming down the line.

Some of the new lines of thinking in the medical community are that some cancers may be able to held in check where the patient lives with the disease as a chronic condition that can be managed rather than attempt to kill it and fail.

quote:

Originally posted by lbj:
First off, let me thank everyone for their prayers for me and affirm once again my Christian faith and belief and acceptance that Christ died for my sins.

I saw the doctor this morning at 7AM.
She said the results of the CT scan exceeded expectations.

As we know, there will be no cure and no remission.
That said though, the lung tumors cannot be seen on the CT scan currently.
Half of the tumors in the lymph system also cannot be seen on the scan.
The other half of the tumors in the lymph system that can be seen have all shrunk by more than 50%.

This is stellar news and to be frank about things, unexpected by me.

Basically with that said, today... we're dancing!

Outstanding sir!!

I too applaud you for posting your insights on this journey. It has made us all think differently about everyday life I believe and that is certainly a good thing.

Thanks.
What a strange day yesterday was.

I get the good news, then my infusion.
I am happy and decide to go to the range just because.

On the way to the range I was thinking that after getting good news, what a shame it would be if I had a car accident and was killed.
I refer to myself as Claire Voyant for a reason.

On the way home, I am on a two lane highway on cruise control at the posted speed limit of 65MPH.
There isn't much traffic and I am coming up on a car in front of me.
It is quite some distance out and I am unsure if I see a turn signal given the glint of the sun off that car. Yes, I should have slowed down, I know that.

There is semi truck coming in the opposite lane and I am thinking the car in front of me has plenty of time to make his left turn before the approaching truck anyway even if he is turning off the highway.

Apparently, the driver in front of me thought differently than I did and makes a complete stop waiting for the oncoming semi to go by.

There was plenty of time for him to go ahead and make the turn IMO. However, I must account for what he did and didn't do.

Next thing I know, while I was anticipating his left turn he did not make, suddenly I find myself running up on him too quickly to brake, so I swerved right, barely went around him and thanked God for the near miss.
It was all my fault if I had hit the person.
It'd be awful if I had hit them at 65MPH, they may have been killed.

The above made my top 10 list of lifetime near misses we all suffer from time to time, some our fault, some the fault of others. They don't happen often, but over 43 years of driving, well you know.

So, I thought of dying in a car wreck after receiving good news and it almost came to pass.

Then around 11PM last night, we let the animals out for last call. I went to let them in and the front gate was open, they were gone.
Our guess is that someone had entered the property to knock on the door when we were not home and left the gate ajar.

I was in a bit of a panic of course, my little Lhasa had a bath recently and I had failed to put his ID tag back on him. The larger dog was close by and came when called.
I got my Lhasa back a few minutes later, but he was far far away from home.

Another crisis averted. It was a heck of a day.