Jim, Canada

“Cancer” is still a hard word for me to say and it’s been almost 6 years for my family, who has had to live this new reality. It all started on Valentines Day of 2020 with vague symptoms that were first diagnosed as a UTI, then renal colic, then it was an infection in the bowel, then finally diverticulitis. On March 29th, 2020, however, due to excruciating pain that led to a trip to the emergency room, I was diagnosed with a complete bowel obstruction requiring a colostomy. Even then our surgeon was confident it was diverticulitis and we were instructed to go home and rest and heal. On April 22, 2020 at 12:17 p.m. our phone rang and it was our family physician. His words to us were “Jim you have colorectal cancer and it is Stage 4 with mets to the liver and peritoneal cavity…it’s not good”. We were dumbstruck and so the journey began. First thing that had to be done was wait on biomarker testing results to determine what chemo would be our best course of action. Then we were dealt with a second devastating blow on May 9th, 2020, my cancer was MSS but it did carry the BRAF V600e mutation. At the time, I had no idea what this meant but was quickly informed by our oncologist that a cure was not to be and my life expectancy was 6-9 months given the widespread metastases. That night I went home and began to research possible clinical trials and found two that were of benefit to the BRAF V600E mutation. I printed them off and put them in a binder…they were my silver bullet against this disease. I proudly brought them to our appointment the next day and for once I felt hopeful but again that was not to be as our oncologist stated that clinical trials were not covered under our drug plan. I went home that night and sat by my patio firepit and carefully tore each page out of the binder and watched them go up in smoke one by one. I felt we were also watching our lives go up with each crispy page. But we gathered ourselves together and prepared to do battle…, I was determined our family was not merely a statistic…we were people and so we began FOLFOX with Avastin. This, however, only slowed the disease and after 8-9 months we saw progression of disease. Next came the last option at that time and that was FOLFIRI chemotherapy. “And what to our miraculous eyes should appear….” Calcification of the peritoneal mets and a stabilization of the liver mets and that was in Jan 2021. And here we are in Jan 2026 and we are still stable!!!!!! I have been on the FOLFIRI chemotherapy regimen for 5 years and I am still here today. I share this story with you to provide hope, when it seems there is none, to provide light when you are surrounded by darkness. Never give up…patients are more than statistics, because a statistic is merely a number that cannot and never will define us. — Jim Pendergast, Stage IV CRC Survivor