Joyce Joyce

  On Monday, January 27, Joyce will return to the Mayo Clinic for follow-up imaging and an appointment with her oncologist to discuss the findings. Our hope is that she will continue tolerating the Selpercatinib even at the higher dosing and even after tapering corticosteroids. The goal is to see “response to treatment.” Best case scenario would be No Evidence of Disease (NED). Worst case scenario would be rapidly growing tumors in new locations. Not to be too morbid and melodramatic about it, but this is basically real-life “Squid Game.” Response to treatment in the current quarter means we get to keep playing another round. The more of those successful quarters we can string together in a row, the better chance that reinforcements will arrive in the form of new and better therapies. Progression doesn’t exactly result in “sudden death,” but it means that the clock is running down faster and the options available are likely to be more invasive and less effective. As the husband of ...

In November 2024, we met with every possible resource available to give us guidance through the darkest moments of a new cancer diagnosis and therapeutic uncertainty. One extremely useful appointment was with an occupational therapist (OT). I know OTs through their work with patients in the hospital and rehabilitation facilities. I’ve seen them develop and jerry-rig strategies for patients to become more independent with their activities of daily living (getting up from bed to stand, showering, cooking), while still living with a physical disability. But this wasn’t the focus of our appointment. Instead, this OT highlighted 5 things that impact overall health, particularly for me as a person living with cancer. I wanted to use this platform to highlight, remember, and integrate them into my routine life and faith. Maybe you’ll find one or more of these useful: 1. Sleep “6-8 hours of quality sleep. Naps are OK. Take it when you need it. No more than 1 hour. Limit screen time.” An order ...

  Friends, thank you for your continued prayers for our family. Thank you for personally asking how things have been going in the absence of updates. The past 2 weeks allowed for time and connection with my visiting family which is so special over Christmas. Thank you to Mom, Dale, Joellie, Jose, Shirley, Isa and Rafa for braving the Idaho and Yellowstone area snow! Thank you to David for facilitating some of those adventures and to Lyle and Lucia for being such spirited older cousins to the younger ones. We did come upon some physical challenges. On the morning of Christmas Eve, I had to pause my “Super Cat Nip” cancer drug due to a hypersensitivity rash. While the reaction was not severe, the timing of this happening over the holidays was hard for me to process emotionally. We had just started this amazing, targeted drug less than 2 weeks prior and now we must stop it?! I was placed on steroids to attenuate the reaction, and it resolved within a few days without incident. I am gr...