I was supposed to start the new treatment on Tuesday but my platelet counts weren’t high enough again. I was having so much pain that they wanted me to get an implant that would deliver pain medicine directly to my spine. Since it was going straight to my spine I would need a lot less of a dose each time and I would be able to control the frequency on my own. Since my platelet counts weren’t high enough I had to get transfusions to have the surgery for the implant. In order to start this new treatment, my body has to be making platelets on its own so the transfusions won’t help with that. They put the device in and when I came back from the surgery I was having some post-surgery pain and couldn’t feel or move anything below my waist. I had an MRI and they saw that there was a tumor pressing up against my spinal cord which is why I couldn’t feel my legs. I had surgery last night to remove that tumor and they also removed one above and below it. The surgery went well but there was inflammation in my spinal cord from the surgery so they said it could take up to a week to see if the feeling would come back in my legs. Removing those tumors has already relieved pain. I’m doing physical therapy to help with mobility and to get home quicker. Right now I don’t have that much pain, just surgical stuff. 

My spirits are high again still just trusting God through it all. I’m still staying really positive and hopeful and keeping high spirits, not upset or depressed at all. I ask that you would pray for healing of my legs and that my platelets would come up on their own so I can start this new treatment and get home soon. Thank you as always for all your prayers. I love you all and will keep you updated as I find more out.

So in waiting to start my new treatmnt I’ve just been sitting at home taking pain medicine to cover the pain I’ve had. And because I wasn’t doing anything to make my tumors better the pain has been increasing getting worse and worse. So a fee days ago it was just terrible I could barley get up to go to the bathroom without help and all I would do is lay in bed trying not to move to avoid pain. It got so bad that I was just laying there finding myself in pain no matter position I was in or whatever meds imwas on so my family and I decided it was time to come to the hospital to get my pain under control. I’m currently at U of C feeling a lot better pain wise but still am having pain. I’m on pretty heavy dose of iv pain meds so I’m hoping this ismmakingn sense! Tomorrow I should be starting ,y new treatment as long as my platelets are high enough they’ve been running low so please be praying formthat! Hopefully this ne w drug will shrink my tumors and reduce my pain! I dontnthink iv ever been this happyrmto have treat,net! The drugs are really steering to hit me so I’m going to nap! Love you all and thank u for ur prayers

Still holding firm in the fact that God has got me and I trust him! He works all things together for our good!

So I’m still waiting to get meet with my doctor about getting into a new treatment.  I’ve had one meeting so far and we discussed that my best option was to go to a new hospital in the Chicago area.  The new hospital, which I can’t remember the name right now,  offers a clinical trial that looks very promising for my type of cancer.  It was looking like I was going to have to wait until the 13th before there were going to be any appointments available, but luckily Dad has a connection at that hospital and got my appointment moved up to this Tuesday.  This is a very good thing, because I have been in A LOT of pain these last few days.  Not having had any kind of treatment for three weeks is taking it’s toll on my body.  The growths that are in my body currently are causing me quite a bit of pain.  I hope that this post makes sense because I am on a few different heavy duty pain medicines at the moment and am still having pain.  The pain is worst in my shoulders, which is weird because on all of the scans I’ve had there is nothing showing up in either of my shoulders, my docs think that it is being caused by growths pushing up against nerves elsewhere in my back but can’t pinpoint exactly which ones are causing the pain.  The shoulder pain has been pretty bad though it feels like I’m constantly being stabbed and poked and movement doesn’t help at all.  I can find relief with the right positions but it’s no fun.  Also I’ve been having pain in my left hip and neck which seem to randomly come and go throughout the day, this pain makes more sense since there are growths showing up in both of these locations on the scans.  Over the last few days I’ve also been dealing with many other side effects to the medicines that I’ve been on I’ll spare you the details but it has not been very pleasant.  I haven’t been able to do much other than watch tv and lay in bed.  I don’t want to complain just want to keep y’all up to date and be honest about what is going on.  This pain has not shaken my faith and I’m really excited to see how God will work through all of this, because he really does work good through crappy situations! I’m excited about getting into this new treatment because all this is not the majority it has ended up being the cure for some people with my type of cancer and has had promising tumor shrinking results for others.  It is still very new and the research is limited but I’m excited!   I’ve been clinging to God these last few days as always to give me strength to get through all of this junk that I’ve been dealing with physically and I ask that you could all be praying for him to ease this pain and that this treatment is the one!  

Also I still am unsure if I’ll get to spend the rest of the semester in Knoxville or Chicago.  It is my personal desire to be in Knoxville, but I ask that you would pray, and I’ve been praying, that God would give me peace over the situation and just lift it up to him being ok with wherever he has me end up.  So far he’s given me so much peace about everything but I just continue to pray this prayer because there have been times that I’ve gotten very frustrated about constantly moving back and forth!  

Thanks once again for all of your unwavering support.  I am so thankful and blessed to have all of the awesome friends and family in my life that God has given me.  Nothing you do is unnoticed and I appreciate all of the love you show me!

If anyone ever has any questions or wants to anything more just send me an email at sgianopo@gmail.com!  I’d love to hear from you!

I got the results to the scans that I had over the weekend and there is good and bad news.  The good news is the growths that are in my pelvis that were pushing up against some nerves have shrunk and improved the bad news is the spot that is in my upper back has begun to get  worse.  My Dr’s believe that the spot in my lower back improved due to the radiation that it received a few weeks ago and they’ve concluded that the current chemo that I’m on is not working.  So the next step is to try and get into a clinical trial.  I’ll have to do the trial through the University of Chicago which will either mean a lot of traveling back and fourth from Knoxville to Chicago or moving back to Chicago to get the treatment.  Right now the ball is just starting to get rolling on all of this so the Dr’s aren’t sure which study I’ll be in or what all of the details will look like.  I’ll probably be home again sometime in the next week or two to meet with them to discus which treatment option is best for me and have some tests done.

For now I’m in quite a bit of pain and am taking a lot of medicine to deal with it.  I have to be off of chemo for 4 weeks before they would start me on any of the clinical trials so hopefully the Dr’s will figure everything out and have me enrolled in my new treatment by the end of these 2 weeks off so I can start getting treated!  My Dr told me that she’s had patients in the past that have gone on to these trials and they ended up being the cure for them so that is what I’m hoping for once I start mine up!  I’m excited to try these new treatments!

If y’all could be praying that in my time off of treatment nothing would progress and that when I do get into my new treatment that it would be the one that finally ends my fight with cancer that would be awesome!  I’m so thankful for all of you and all of the support you have shown me!  You are all so loved and appreciated!

So I spent most of last week in the hospital from last monday to saturday for pain I was having in my hip/shoulders.  The pain in my back I think has been chalked up to fluid that I had in my lungs which was due too withdrawal from some steroids I had been on.  I got on different medicine and the fluid in my lungs is gone and the terrible pain that was in my shoulders is now gone.  When I was in the hospital I found out that the new treatment that I’m on helped to shrink the tumor that is in my upper back, which has caused a small fracture in my back, but it is shrinking!  However the growths in my pelvis/hip have grown a little bit.  I’m told that you can’t really tell if chemo is going to work until you’ve had two or three treatments and I’ve now officially had two treatments on my new chemo.  So I have scans in two weeks, if all of the spots seem to be shrinking then I’ll keep going with this course of treatment and continue with school down here Knoxville.  If the scans show that the spots are continuing to grow my Dr. wants me to think about going onto a clinical trial which would mean I would be getting extremely new treatments that are not proven but very promising and if I’m on a clinical trial I would have to do that all through the University of Chicago. They would want to keep a little bit of a closer eye on me than when I receive conventional treatment.  So I’m not sure what life would look like hopefully if it does come to that I could still be at school in Knoxville and just come home once or twice a month, but it could also mean moving back home.  Really just not sure what life is going to look like here in the next couple of weeks.  If you could be praying that the chemo that I’m on right now is working that would be awesome!  Also I’m currently withdrawing from one of the pain medicines that I was on in the hospital some pretty heavy duty medicine so if you could be praying that the withdrawal is over with quickly and not too bad that would be great too!

Other than health stuff I’m doing great! I got back to Knoxville yesterday and am so happy to be here!  Luckily I’m not too far behind in any of my classes missing the first few days.  I am so blessed to be living with some great guys here, willing to help me with anything I need, I really do appreciate everything they do for me!  Can’t wait to see what this semester has in store for me!

Hey friends! 

Just to keep you up to date I’ve started my new treatment and have already had one full cycle!  I didn’t have any side effects really which is awesome, not sure if that’s because the chemo isn’t that bad or all of the other pain medication I was on while getting chemo but I  guess I’ll find that out with my next cycle.  Right now I’m still having some pain in my hip and back but it is not as bad as it was when I had to be in the hospital so hopefully that means that the chemo is working! The main thing that I’m trying to do right now is wean myself off of all the pain meds that I was given when I left the hospital.  I tried to go cold turkey which was a terrible idea and had bad withdrawal so now I’m taking it slower still feeling some withdrawal symptoms but feeling better than when I went cold turkey.  If you could be praying that I can get off of these meds by the time I get back to school I would appreciate it!

Even with all of this going on life is so good right now!  I just got back from Passion in Atlanta and God showed me so much while I was there that I’m still trying to take in and process.  Also I have been able to spend time with some awesome people this break, it’s been great!  I really am blessed and have just been loving life couldn’t ask for anything more!

God has continued to show me how great he is through all of this junk, I got a chance to share a very abbreviated version of my story this week which was great!  Also I’ve had a couple of people tell me how my story has truly inspired them and helped them to grow closer to or trust God and that alone makes it worth it.  I’m still trusting in him during all of this and am excited to see how he is going to use this crappy situation in the future! 

always I can’t thank y’all enough for your continuing support and prayers!

Joshua 1:9

for those of you who don’t know or just want more details I’m going to start blogging about my health again. Last week was pretty roughy for me. Starting last Wednesday I was having really bad pain in my back and left hip. I went to the emergency room got some pain medicine and had some scans done only to find out that I have two new growths in my body. One on my upper spine that has caused the bones to crack a little and one in my left hip. It’s a good thing that they both are in the bones though because that makes both growths much more treatable than if they developed in a different organ or part of the body. I had a four day stay in the hospital last week so the dr’s could manage my pain and start to figure out a new treatment plan. I’ve already gotten radiation therapy for both of the new spots and already can feel the difference, it is really helping to reduce my pain. Today I’m starting a new regiment of chemo which looks very promising. I’m feeling well and have almost no pain at this point.

I’m also keeping my spirits high and am really not very worried. God has shown me in the past that he is faithful and has me so once again I’m totally trusting him in this situation. Where would worrying get me anyways? So right now I’m just trusting God and enjoying life having a great break so far seeing some great friends and my awesome family! I thank all of you for your prayers and support for everything that I’ve been through I really do appreciate it. If y’all could continue to be praying for me that would also be awesome!

I hope you all have a merry Christmas and I will keep you updated whenever I get any news!
If you have any questions send me an email: sgianopo@utk.edu

So even though it’s been about two months I’m still waiting to hear about my study treatment.  The most recent update that we got is that there was a delay getting samples of my tumor to the hospital that is running the study, but now they have the samples and are starting to run the tests.  My doctors have told me that we should know in the next 2 weeks but who knows when we’ll find out.  I was starting to get worried and nervous about it, but the more I think about it the more I see I just need to trust God and that there is nothing to worry about.  He is in control of my life and that fact alone means that I have absolutely nothing to worry about.  God works all things together for our good so right now I just need to be patient and wait and see what he has for me next!

Phillipians 4:6-Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Romans 8:28-And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Thanks for you prayers! 

I had my bone scan this morning and just got off the phone with my doctor who had some amazing news!  He said that there is only one spot on my leg that was “lit up” on the scan but that was from radiation and the scan shows THERE IS NO CANCER GROWING IN MY BONES RIGHT NOW!  God is so good! I am so pumped right now and am in awe that God has preformed a miracle through me, I am so blessed.  I still haven’t heard about my study treatment so in the meantime to make sure nothing new grows and to make sure there are no microscopic cells I’m going to have another round of chemo starting tomorrow.  Hopefully I’ll find out about the study treatment sometime in the next week but we’ll see, until then I’ll be on chemo!

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength! Philippians 4:13

Nothing is impossible!

THANKS FOR ALL OF THE PRAYERS!!!!!!!!

So after a month with no treatment and no doctors appointments I’ll hopefully find out tomorrow about the experimental treatment!  I have a full body scan and a doctors appointment tomorrow.  If y’all could be praying for me tomorrow that would be awesome.  I’ve been feeling great the last few weeks, I haven’t had any pain really and my legs are getting a lot stronger!  

Thanks for your prayer!