6/16/25

Hi all.

It was a chemo day today, and the jury is out on whether it's a good idea to try and assemble any thoughts in writing with these drugs in my system. "Chemo brain" is real!

Since I last posted, I did get the results from the blood biopsy that we did through our functional/integrative medicine doctor. And it was all good news! There were a low number of tumor cells circulating in my blood, which again indicates that all the work to date has had the desired effects on the cancer cells in the tumors and the ones circulating in my blood.

That second part is important as we think about more longer term outcomes - we don't want the more aggressive cancer cells floating around in my blood while my system is still trying to figure out how to fight those.

We also have the makings of a good longer term plan coming together with input from both my oncologist, the recent blood biopsy, and the counseling from the functional medicine doctor.

I'll note that that the two doctors don't look at this the same way, which can be stressful when trying to ultimately make some decisions. There can be a temptation to pick one approach or the other - that would certainly make it easier. But this experience and life in general has taught me the value of the both/and approach over the limiting either/or thinking.

The visual for me is one of those giant mixing boards you see in a recording studio. My aim is to pay close attention to the levels for all the different inputs (traditional oncology, supplements, reading, community, juicing, meditation, sunlight, movement, prayer, detox, etc) to create music (wellness, joy, growth, etc) that sounds and feels balanced and harmonious.

For what it's worth, this has been quite the education. For complex, late-stage cancers, I think some of the stuff we have landed on just has to be considered. Of course I'm biased. Again, I'm no expert, and I just don't think there are any silver bullets. But happy to share any of the info we've learned with anyone who might need to consider it so they can adjust their input levels to make their own unique music.

So the input level that got raised for me today was chemo. All my labs pre-chemo looked "normal" according to the oncologist which shows a good recovery from the last chemo infusion. That last one hit pretty hard for a few days, probably a little bit more than any previous ones. Two more cycles after this one, and then we will do all the imaging to see how things look.

I was really happy to see my friend Beverly again today while both getting chemo, and got to have another soul-fueling chat with her. If you have space in your prayers or thoughts, send some her way please! She has more teaching to do, mainly through the model she is for anyone lucky to be around here, me included.

I'm currently reading The Five Invitations - Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, and I highly recommend it. I recognize the idea of talking openly about death can feel morbid or taboo in some way, but the book is a great reminder of how a healthy view of and relationship to death can push us to LIVE (yep...all caps LIVE...not the lower case "live" that can sometimes/often feel like anything but feeling alive).

I'll wrap up with a quote from the book: "As we come in contact with life's precarious nature, we also come to appreciate its preciousness. Then we don't want to waste a minute. We want to enter our lives fully and use them in a responsible way. Death is a good companion on the road to living well and dying without regret."

As always, thanks for loving us well. And sending all the love back to you!

Matt

Pic is from some music on the lawn at the Long Center in downtown Austin. Good medicine!