Stage 4 Cancer Survivor: My Fight With Metastatic Cancer
Follow my stage 4 cancer journey as I document treatments, immunotherapy, carnivore diet, and integrative strategies in my fight against metastatic cancer.
After being diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer, I turned to a strict carnivore diet and integrative therapies alongside Keytruda. Six months later, the scans told a story I never expected.
High dose IV vitamin C is being studied as a complementary cancer therapy. Learn how intravenous vitamin C works, what scientific studies show, safety requirements, and one stage four patient’s experience with treatment.
I’m Wayne, a stage 4 cancer survivor and dad from the Upper Midwest. My head and neck cancer spread to my lungs, and I’m still in the fight. I’ve walked the traditional path with 70 radiation treatments, 20 rounds of chemo, a five hour radical neck dissection, and immunotherapy. When that wasn’t enough, I became my own patient. I tracked my labs and clinical data, optimized vitamin D, zinc, and magnesium, added repurposed medications, high dose IV vitamin C, and a carnivore diet.
Six months later, two lung nodes were undetectable, and two had reduced by 50 percent.
Wayne’s Cancer Journey Cancer Blog is a stage 4 cancer survivor story documenting my integrative cancer treatment protocols. I’ve documented everything in a 72,000 word memoir that I believe is the first of its kind. Every decision. Every result. Every lesson. This blog is where I share all of it: the medical details, the emotions, the fears, the small victories, and the faith that keeps me going.
A chapter from Still Here: How Faith, Food, and Family Beat Stage Four Cancer Let me start with something that matters: I respect doctors. I owe part of my life to the oncologists, surgeons, nurses, and radiologists who helped carry me through some of the darkest valleys I have ever walked. They are good people doing hard work inside a broken system. And that system has a giant blind spot. That blind spot is nutrition. …
CT Scan Miracle Nobody Expected. Still Here — Available Now on Amazon For more than four years, I have been fighting for my life. Today, I am sharing that fight in a different way. My memoir, Still Here, is now published and available on Amazon. This book was written during some of the hardest stretches I have ever faced. Many of you were part of that journey, whether through support, prayers, messages, or simply …
In the early morning hours of April 7, around 2 AM, I sat in a dark, quiet house and wrote to you. My wife and our oldest son were away in Tennessee helping her mom recover from hip replacement surgery, so it was just me, drenched in sweat, unable to sleep, six hours away from scan results that would tell me a great deal about my future. I told you I was scared. I told …
If you’ve ever waited for cancer scan results, you know the feeling. The anxiety, the silence, the mental replay of every decision. This is what scanxiety feels like at 2 AM, when sleep won’t come and your mind won’t stop. The Night Before the Scan It’s 2 AM. I can’t sleep. I’m sitting in the dark writing this to you. The house is too quiet. My wife and our oldest son are in Tennessee right …
Friends and family, I want to start this update the way I should start every day. By saying thank you. Thank you to God. Thank you to every single one of you. And thank you for the milestones your support and prayers have allowed me to experience since my stage four diagnosis. With Easter right around the corner, my heart is full. Easter reminds me that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, suffering and death …
The most important question in cancer care is also the most frustrating: how do you find it before symptoms appear? For most people, the answer has been to wait. Wait for a lump. Wait for pain. Wait for a doctor to notice something on a scan ordered for something else entirely. By then, many cancers have already progressed to a point where treatment options narrow quickly. The Cancerguard blood test is designed to change that. …
More Time, One Infusion at a Time Four years. That is how long I have been fighting cancer. In June 2025, on my 25th wedding anniversary, no less, I got the confirmation that it was stage 4. Today, I am still here. That is not luck. That is God, good medicine, and every single one of you. Your Dollars at Work Your donations have gone directly toward the life saving infusions that are part of …
One thing every cancer patient knows is the chemo chair. That infusion chair becomes a second home, whether you want it to be or not. You walk in the first time, terrified. By the tenth time, you know exactly which chair you like, which nurse has the gentlest hands, and how to settle in for the long haul. If I added it all up, I have probably spent over 50 sessions sitting in that chair. …
I am a husband, a dad from the Upper Midwest, and a cancer warrior who has now walked through more than most bodies are ever meant to endure. Seventy radiation treatments. Twenty chemotherapy infusions. A five hour radical neck dissection. I followed the maximum treatment path recommended in the United States, not once, but twice. On June 3, 2025, our twenty fifth wedding anniversary, my wife and I received the words no family wants to …
In my New Year’s post, I described how 2025 was a brutal year. I started the year believing I had finally won. Two rounds of treatment behind me. The nightmare was over. Then came June 3rd, 2025. Our 25th wedding anniversary. A day that should have been about celebrating a quarter century of love with my wife, Sarah. Instead, we sat together reading a pathology report that shattered everything. My cancer was back. It had …
I love joking around. I love talking to people. Making a real connection with a person or a group has always been rewarding for me. Conversation was how I showed up in the world. It was how I connected, how I built trust, how I made people feel at ease. That is why losing my voice has been one of the hardest parts of this cancer journey. There are times when I feel silenced. I …
Last night I told you I was nervous. Today I can finally exhale. My January 13, 2026 CT scan shows stable metastatic disease. If you've been following my story, you know what those words mean. You know I've been fighting this battle for four years now. You know about the 70 radiation treatments, the 20 chemotherapy infusions, the five hour surgery where three surgeons cut into my neck. You know that despite all of it, …
Stage 4 to Undetectable: Will the Miracle Continue? Tuesday, January 13th, is a big day. A terrifying day. A hopeful day. It's the day I walk into that CT scan imaging center and find out if I'm still winning this fight, or if everything changes again. My last three CT scans have been a roller coaster that would break most people. Last summer June 3rd my 25th wedding anniversary, I read the words on a pathology report …
This Sunday, I'm flying to Tennessee to help my mother-in-law. She's been in terrible pain from her hip and lives in a small town where getting to specialists isn't easy. Sarah and I have been married 25 years, and her mom needs us right now. I'm going to drive her to see a specialist, help come up with a plan, and take care of her cats if she ends up needing surgery, whether that happens …
I almost didn’t make it to this one. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist who stared death in the face and lived to tell about it, once wrote: “Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” I think about that quote a lot now. Because I am living a second time. And I refuse to waste it. A year ago, I was hopeful. …
It's Christmas Day, and I'm thinking about all of you. Every year, we hurry to shop for gifts, travel by plane and car, and spend hours cooking meals. When we gather, people reminisce about past Christmases. The good, the bad, and the funny. I have my share of all three. Like the Christmas I found out about Santa Claus. At age 6, my brothers and I were loaded up in the family car, the kind …
It's two days before Christmas, and I'm sitting here reflecting on a year I wasn't sure I'd see the end of. On June 3rd, my 25th wedding anniversary, I got the biopsy results confirming what I feared most. Stage 4. The cancer had spread to my lungs and bloodstream. What should have been a day of celebration became the start of the hardest chapter of my life. But I'm still here. In September, the scans …
A Story of Faith, Food, and Finding the Other Half "You have a twenty percent chance of living." Those words hung in the air. My oncologist had just explained the odds for Keytruda immunotherapy against my stage four cancer. Twenty percent. I sat there doing the math. A twenty percent chance of living meant an eighty percent chance of dying. When a doctor hands you numbers like that, fear takes over. But underneath the fear, …
By Wayne Schlicht – Seeking US-based literary representation. The Story Begins Today I'm sharing something that took more courage to write than anything I've ever put on a page. Chapter 1 of my memoir, Still Here: How Faith, Food, and Family Beat Stage Four Cancer, is now available to read in full on this site. Read Chapter 1 Why I'm Sharing This I am not a doctor. I am not a researcher. I am a …
The News We Have All Been Praying For Today was the day my entire family and I have been holding our breath for. My CT scan results came in, and the doctors confirmed something I still struggle to believe. My stage four lung cancer has shrunk again. Not slightly. Not barely. But by almost forty percent. Forty percent. I felt the weight of the world lift off my chest as tears of gratitude rolled down …
Celebrating Small Victories
Every milestone matters—whether it’s finishing a round of treatment, enjoying a walk outside, or simply waking up with a smile. I remember the joy of hearing good news from my doctor and the relief it brought to my family. These small victories gave me courage and hope to keep moving forward. I encourage you to celebrate your progress, no matter how minor it may seem. Each step forward is a triumph worth honoring on your own healing journey.
Finding Strength on Difficult Days
There were days during my treatment when hope felt far away. I want to share one of those moments, not to focus on the pain, but to show that even in our darkest hours, there is a spark of resilience inside us.
On June 3, the day of my 25th wedding anniversary, I received devastating news. The cancer had gone septic and spread to my lungs. My world shifted once again.
But instead of breaking down, my wife Sarah sprang into action. While I was still processing the diagnosis, she was online, diving into research on emerging treatments. She found promising studies on High Dose IV Vitamin C and the Carnivore diet. She scheduled consultations with specialists and brought a sense of hope into an otherwise hopeless situation.
Through all this, I have learned to let myself feel everything, to lean on those I love, and to believe that even the hardest days will pass. If you are facing a similar battle, know this: it is okay to ask for help. It is okay to take things one day at a time. Your strength is real, even when you cannot see it.
