Well, I’m not on chemo yet.

Apparently I am patient #1 for the Crizotinib at Kaiser Interstate. They have some grunt work to finish up before I can be prescribed the good stuff. It will/should be ready for me to start ingesting on Monday 10/3. Exciting stuff!

The side effects, that should be called main effects, of this drug seem to be less than the other chemo drugs I’ve gotten to know. I’ll mostly need to watch for pneumonia, heart conditions, and the lovely digestion/nausea/vomiting stuff.

Along with getting regular blood work done I will get regular EKG’s. This is to make sure all continues to go well with my heart.

As for the biopsy results I’m still waiting for all of them.  So far I’m positive for having the ALK Rearrangement in my Adinocarcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Only 5% of all lung cancer patients have the ALK Rearrangement; lucky us because we now have Crizotinib that might be effective in holding this cancer back for some unknown period of time.

Added by KW to clarify-

I am happy to have the ALK Rearrangement!  Only this small group and one other small group, those with the EGFR mutation, in the lung cancer category have good “new skool” chemo drugs to control them after they have metastecised.  “New skool” chemo drugs target specific types of cancer cells in hopes to keep the cancer in a constant state of remission.  All goes well if… 1. Your body can keep up with the constant fighting of the cancer cells; and 2. The cancer does not mutate in a way that makes the drug ineffective.