The week before quarantine became official in Los Angeles, I reached out to my oncologist about me working in a hospital with constant exposure to the COVID-19 virus. Even though, I don’t act like it or look like it, I am one of those high risk people. The people that would be severely endangered by infection. I wasn’t particularly immunocompromised, even though I was still undergoing chemo. The thing that made me … nervous (Concerned? Hesitant? I wasn’t scared, I just wanted to be responsible with my health) was that damned pneumonitis that I still had. You remember, the lung inflammation that was still showing up on my scans and holding me back during workouts. It had been there for a year as a result of radiation I had a year ago on my second lung nodule. Even though I was asymptomatic, not short of breath or coughing, I thought to myself, “if my lungs are already compromised, maybe getting a virus that targets the lungs wouldn’t be good for me.” I mean, the reason it kills people is it causes a pneumonia that doesn’t respond to treatment and basically causes organ failure because the lungs can’t provide enough oxygen. Disconcerting. So like I said, I called my oncologist to see how concerned I should be and if I should go on disability until after the virus runs it’s course in the hospital.

I was at a friends house at a beer club meeting (I’m the Chief Lager Officer, were very official) when she called me back. When I take phone calls, I’m a pacer. I walk circles on carpet patterns or go heel toe on a hardwood floor panel or stagger step across tiles. Naturally, I headed into my friend’s bedroom and began pacing as my oncologist casually reported on her family experience with the virus and her patient caseload. “Of course, Amy, I agree it’s a good thing for you to take time off work until this virus has run its course. But mostly because I have other news.” My stomach dropped. What news? I wasn’t expecting news. As it turns out, we had resubmitted blood for my Circulating DNA and she had gotten the results earlier in the week. Apparently, it wasn’t at zero anymore. There was a little spike, .08. I don’t really know what that means and it’s so small that in isolation it’s not of concern but my tumor markers (CEA) had also gone up slightly. With a pandemic gaining momentum, it’s no time to allow my cancer to also gain momentum. “I want to start you on irenotecan again. I know it makes you nauseous but I want to stay ahead of this and continue to be aggressive.” I swallowed hard as tears began leaking out of my eyes. “Well, yes, ok, I understand, of course.” I managed to sputter in the midst of a thought tornado.

I was crushed. I had just gotten a lifetime PR on my clean and jerk in the gym. Like you can read in my last post, I had been living a lot of life ignoring I even had cancer. My chemo was so gentle that I was feeling amazing for the first time since my diagnosis and had found my stride living in the unknown. I felt like I was being yanked back into the disease. Of course, I can’t just live in the unknowns of the corona virus and quarantine like everyone else, I also had to have unknowns of my cancer and go back to being immunocompromised. I let fear in, guys. I didn’t even think of what God was whispering to my heart. I felt real sorry for myself and got scared I was going to die of corona virus. That I had fought cancer so hard only to get the virus and fight like hell again, but probably lose. What a horrible state of mind!

Then I went and got my chemo hoping only two out of five drugs could have minor side effects and I’d still be ok and functional. Chemo nausea IS SO MISERABLE. There aren’t words. On a scale of one to ten, one being no nausea and ten being throwing up, I had day after day, at a nine. After a week it was down to a four. I wasn’t taking my Ativan or the pre-meds because I thought the lethargy would make me feel worse. I was gagging on my spit and didn’t want to swallow water. I wanted to throw up but knew it wouldn’t make me feel better. The thing about chemo nausea is it’s generated by your brain. The poison center of your brain goes off and tells you to get out whatever you’ve ingested and nausea and vomiting is the body’s gold standard for getting the job done (that’s why when you drink too much alcohol you throw up). Well, when the poison is in your blood, not your stomach and when the nausea is from your brain, not your gut, there is no relief. The antiemetic (anti nausea) drugs keep me from throwing up so I can keep down fluid and food and not get dehydrated. However, I have yet to feel like they help decrease my nausea. I was paralyzed by the nausea and it lasted longer than I remember it lasting during previous chemo rounds. I used to feel better after five days and go into the gym and coach or go to work at the hospital. Quarantine made things worse, I think, because I had nothing to divert me from feeling miserable. I was back to a week on the couch followed by a week playing catch up with my life. I hate that lifestyle. I feel so robbed by cancer when I’m living like that. Not working or seeing my friends was just exacerbating everything.

I had this resting anxiety coursing constantly in the background. I started having panic attacks like in college. I was being suffocated by the unknowns and I wasn’t handling it well. As I’ve said before, prayer is powerful. What sets me apart in this battle, is the army of people praying for me. In desperation I turned to my worn out duct taped bible hoping to find a verse I’d read before to comfort me. I stumbled upon Psalm 16 and found a verse that cut through my self pity and my perception of the steep cost I was paying in life. Verse 5, “Lord, you alone are my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; you maintain and secure my lot.” And like a light switch, I was ok. It was like my heart said “ohhhh yeah! That’s right, “ and rested confidently. I wasn’t going to die from COVID and nothing in my life was going to be taken from me that I was meant to have and live out. My life’s boundaries, my lot, what I am intended to posses is secure and maintained by the biggest and most powerful force that exists. Despite what a train wreck I felt like, I was shocked there weren’t tears or a major thought battle in reaching this conclusion. But at the same time, when there’s people behind the scenes praying for you everyday, you get to put energy into battles elsewhere, the spiritual leg work sometimes has already been done through other people’s prayers.

The battle ground for me turned back to the physical. The gnawing nausea and relentless malaise. After two rounds of irenotecan, for the first time, I asked my oncologist for a treatment break. My body had had it! I couldn’t stand the thought of my body getting wrecked again so soon. I told her about my nine out of ten nausea days, gagging on my spit and the nausea panic I was having for days after chemo. One thing we’ve discussed in the past is the tendency for patients nausea to become stronger because of psychological influences. For example, I’ll start feeling nauseous the days leading up to chemo, or driving the route to chemo, just because of the association and then it makes my day of chemo nausea even worse. My oncologist prescribed Zyprexa, to “help with my nausea” and keep it from becoming too psychological. When I looked it up I found out it’s a big hitter antipsychotic. I hate feeling super doped up but I am not mad about sleeping for two days until the worst of the nausea has past. Chemo has definitely looked different during quarantine than it has in the past.

Mid May, we had new three month interim CT scans and rechecked the circulating DNA. I wasn’t sure what the CT scans would show. I knew there was increased activity of my cancer from my elevated tumor markers but we had started cytotoxic chemo so maybe we stayed ahead of it as we planned. Were there new nodules in my lungs? Or even new tumors somewhere else? I was ok with any results I got, I just wanted something definitive! I needed a new direction for the battle to go! I was sick of wearing down my body with more chemo! I wanted to have my pneumonitis resolved and the nodules to declare themselves so I could do radiation or surgery! Stay aggressive and fight like hell. Chemo was feeling so defensive and fruitless. That was my prayer, let the scan say something definitive!

We sat down with my oncologist the next day to discuss the scans and next steps (she’s so good to never make me wait long to go over the results). My pneumonitis was gone! Most, if not all, the one to two millimeter nodules in my lungs weren’t visible buuuuut there were two nodules in my left lung that had grown one to two millimeters despite all the chemo. (Side note, my oncologist let it slip just how dire things had been when I had to go back on chemo last June. Apparently there were up to eight tiny nodules in my left lung lower lobe back then! I was under the impression that there had only been six in both lungs combined!! My oncologist is wonderful at shielding me from horrible shadows and keeping me focused on concrete realities and where I need to put my energy. I would have been so disheartened if I’d known it was that bad!!!) So it was good and bad news. Chemo wasn’t working as well as we wanted it to. It was no longer keeping my cancer stable. Growth of cancer is never good news to me. One thing we know, is that my cancer is extraordinarily aggressive and the literature says colon cancer metastasis in the lungs are extraordinarily resistant to treatment. But what was good news, was that there were only two nodules to look at and the scan was definitive! A reminder that God hears your prayers and acts on your behalf is never a bad thing!

We made plans to talk to radiation oncologists and see if we can’t get radiation on these two nodules! The possibility of no more chemo for the time being and changing directions to radiation is so relieving and exciting! I was recently told that up to this point treatment has been pretty by the book, chemo, surgeries, more chemo. But we were branching off now into undiscovered territory. My age and the random genetics of my cancer makes this very unique. We don’t know what chemo will work, how aggressive do we go now at cost of depleting future reserves. If it wasn’t an adventure before, it sure is now. You better believe there’s more to this story!