Round 3 Part 7

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” I have been a fan of Yogi Berra since I was 10 years old. His influence on me drove me to be a catcher. I loved that position because the catcher controls the whole team.  He is the only player on a baseball team who can see every player on his team without moving his head.

During the past couple of weeks, we have been facing a lot of forks in dealing with my third round of cancer. I say “we” because I would miserably fail in making the right decisions without Cheryl in my life. Our kids and their spouses have been troopers with this health challenge. They are changing their schedules to make sure that one of them drives (or flies) us to our appointments. And they are not just serving as drivers, they are participating in our discussions and asking hard pertinent questions.  

Allison, Cheryl and I came to a fork in the road this past week, and we took it. We have chosen Dr. Dung Shin of Emory to be our team leader. We had consultations with physicians at three different medical centers: Winship Cancer Center at Emory, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and Fred Hutch Cancer Center at the University of Washington.

At our meeting on Tuesday, we decided to enroll me in a clinical trial at Emory. I will be having six infusions over an 18-week period. During the treatment Dr. Shin will be consulting with physicians from the other two medical centers.

In the past month we have dealt with 12 physicians about my cancer. None of these oncologists could help me with what would seem to be a minor issue to resolve. I have three places on the inside of my left gum where small pieces of bone have broken through the skin under my molars, and small pieces of sharp bone are rubbing against my tongue. Most of my oncologists agree that this is a problem that has roots in the proton therapy that I had in 2020.

My tongue makes hundreds of movements against my gum each day to the point where a lesion about the size of my fingernail has taken up residence. My dentist felt sorry for me and gave me a prescription for a bottle of Lidocaine. The medicine does just what you would expect—it temporarily deadens the skin, but the irritation and pain continue.

I have learned that when you are dealing with oncologists you can assume that for every ailment there is an assigned oncologist for that malady. We are praying the Lord sends the “right” physicians and other staff to work on our case.

After Dr. Shin and his nurse practitioner finished telling us about the clinical trial, we learned that I would be the first patient that Emory would work with on this treatment, and there will be about 116 participants from the USA.

We are not afraid even though there are a lot of things that we do not know about this clinical trial. Just a few weeks ago when we first learned that another round of cancer was well established in my neck and face, we proclaimed Joshua 1:9-10 as our battle cry. We know that this trial is not curative, but I will fight until the Lord lets me know that He is ready for me to transition to eternal life with Him.

P.S I will be posting updates and new information at this website:  www.jameslarrycox.com