Author Archives: beghtelam

4/2/20 Annie: It’s been 3 months since we first heard the word cancer applied to Matt and our unanticipated journey started. It’s been 90 days since Matt has had any cooked food (other than boiled oats or boiled beans) and for tomorrow night he has planned an EPIC vegan chili to break the cooking-fast. TimeContinue reading “MP 16 (90 days!)”

Matt: I had noticed coworkers getting suspicious of how long my voice had been hoarse. I suspected that a couple particularly wise coworkers may have known I was covering up a potentially serious issue. I knew I needed to tell a wider audience and I wanted my team to know. I had been waiting toContinue reading “MP 11”

Matt: On Friday afternoon (1/31/2020) we met with the oncologist for the first time. The doctor gave us the results of DNA testing. I recalled the one-pager that the social worker gave me at the radiology meeting and wondered if the cancer had some of the common mutations like EGFR, or PDL-1. The oncologist gotContinue reading “MP 10”

Annie: We bought our home in the evening of July 8, 2010. It was our 4th wedding anniversary and my best friend had her first baby unexpectedly that morning (5-6 weeks early, I can’t recall)–so unexpectedly that her husband was out of town on business and miraculously caught a flight home and was able toContinue reading “MP 9 (refinance)”

Matt: My bonus-mother-in-law (Annie’s dad’s wife) recently walked a path from cancer diagnosis to healing using diet and naturopathic treatments after surgical intervention. Part of her journey involved meeting with a naturopathic, integrative oncologist and finding alternative treatments that have known healing abilities. During my two weeks of waiting for a treatment plan from theContinue reading “MP 8”

3/14/20 Annie here. We’ll start with “Happy Pi Day” and then get back to that later on. Matt had blood labs drawn on Tuesday, just over 2 weeks since starting his targeted treatment (8 pills split between AM and PM). The labs were to check liver enzymes/liver function as this treatment can have an impactContinue reading “MP 15 (2 weeks into treatment)”

Matt: During this season, Annie and I were part of a leadership training group at church. The group was reading through Pete Scazzaro’s book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and meeting monthly to discuss a topic often neglected in Christian circles: emotional health. At our group’s meeting on Wednesday 1/15/2020, my phone was not near me whenContinue reading “MP 7 (diagnosis #2)”

1/9/2020 We weren’t sure why Matt was sent to pulmonology (lung specialist) first, but it came to light quickly that this specialist was the one who could confirm or contest the diagnosis given by an ENT and 2 radiologists. Yes, the images looked like metastatic disease, but the pulmonologist said we couldn’t know precisely untilContinue reading “MP 6 (biopsy)”

2/24/2020 (Monday) Matt started the targeted oral therapy today. 4 capsules with breakfast and 4 with dinner. His next scan could be between 6-12 weeks from now. Blood labs will be done every two weeks for a few months. I didn’t anticipate having to go to the appointment for him to be told how toContinue reading “MP 14 (grow to be a hero)”

1/5/2020 I know Matt said the CT scan went well, and it did, but truth be told, medical stuff terrifies him. Given the result of the chest and neck CT scan on the 2nd, his primary care physician ordered an MRI of the brain. Having had a few MRIs myself, Matt asked me all aboutContinue reading “MP 5”