Our Story

[curriea]

Hello everyone!

My name is Amanda Currie Robinson. I am a newlywed at 52, having been married on 26 June 2004. Less than a month later, my new husband, Craig, was diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV with mets to the right adrenal gland. No sign of mets in the lymph system or the brain. The tumor is too large and too wrapped around the windpipe and right bronchial tube for surgery. And the radiological oncologist ruled out radiation treatments at this time.

He began chemotherapy with carboplatin and taxol on 16 August 2004. So far he is doing well, with minimal side effects (tired, feels cold, and tingly/numb feet). Sunday his hair began to fall out, but he never had much hair anyway.

We went to a nutritionist in Washington, DC, who believes that an important part of battling cancer is to starve the cancer, while boosting the patient's immune system to 1) fight the cancer and 2) minimize the effects of treatment.

Prior to the cancer diagnosis, he had been diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which was making his life miserable already. He was so tired, and climbing the stairs in our three-level townhouse nearly did him in. He had daily coughing attacks -- in the early morning and around bedtime. It was awful.

Then the cough CHANGED in nature, and he had blood in his sputum. So we went back to the pulmonologist, and she is the one who found the cancer when she did a brochoscopy.

We think the diet is really, really helping! Even BEFORE chemo began, the new diet reduced his coughing and mucus production, and he was less frequently short-of-breath (SOB) associated with COPD. No more violent morning and night coughing attacks! He says he has more energy now than three months ago and he feels better, even though he now knows he has cancer.

I have read that 40% of cancer patients die of malnutrition -- not their cancer -- because they loose their appetite and don't eat well, just at the time when their bodies MOST need good food to help them fight the cancer. It's a Catch-22.

Thank you to all the folks who have already been clueing me in to what to expect from chemotherapy. Dave G's accounting of the intense exhaustion and all the other effects occurred exactly as he said it would. And that helped me a lot, knowing what to expect.

Chemo #2 is the day after Labor Day. We are praying for all of you, so hang in there!

God Bless You All!

Amanda