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July 25, 2008
Scan results and travel plans
The Doxil is working! There is some decrease in the size of tumors and nothing new showing up (though the spots in lung and liver are “too numerous to count”!) and since I’ve tolerated the side effects better this past month, I had another dose yesterday. Apparently there is a limit to the amount of this drug that I can take because of the potential damage to my heart. The doctor said I’m about half way to that limit, so if it keeps working, I’ve got another 5 months or so.
I hoped I might be able to see Dr. P while I was at Kaiser yesterday since he was there for his radiation treatment, but that didn’t work out. His appointment was more than two hours long, targeting eight different places around his knees. He called me after he got home and commented on how hard it is to lay still and how hard the table is when you haven’t any spare fat. That’s how I felt about the last MRI I had!
Actually I’m having another MRI early Sunday morning. I seem to be having more frequent headaches and we need to find out if it is because the cancer is spreading again in the brain. I had hoped for an earlier appointment, but that wasn’t possible. I don’t know whether we will get the results before we fly to Minneapolis on Monday evening. I really want to get to my brother’s wedding (Aug. 2) and to see friends in the Midwest. We will be there for two weeks. Please pray the headaches, if they continue, will be tolerable and that nausea will not become more of an issue with traveling and probably eating in restaurants some of the time. My diet is pretty limited, but I have managed to regain a few pounds.
Wil had a great time at the youth camp. The first thing he told us was about all the new twists and turns he was able to do on the wakeboard! Later we heard about the spiritual content of the week. His ankle is still a bit weak, but he’s getting around without the brace. Pray it will be strong enough by the time conditioning camp for soccer starts in August.
Oh, I know some of you expect a garden update. We’re enjoying beets, potatoes, broccoli, zucchini, radishes, lettuce, peas and beans, plus strawberries, raspberries, marionberries and blueberries. The day lilies are at their peak and I counted that I have 21 different specimens thanks to my neighbor JoAnn, and the dahlias are starting to open, but I messed up the tags, so am being surprised daily by the discrepancy between what I thought I’d planted where and what colors and sizes are turning up. Pray the garden will survive our absence. This isn’t the best timing, but Bill wasn’t thinking about our garden when he and Renee made wedding plans!
Posted by David at 1:54 PM
July 17, 2008
Waiting on scan results
Today is the 21st anniversary of the day David asked me to marry him! We celebrated that evening by going out on a very rainy night in Manila to a Pizza Hut and having a pitcher of root beer along with our pizza! The menu will be different tonight (my stomach isn’t too happy with pizza these days) but the joy of having declared our love to one another is as special now as it was then.
We had a great time in Sun River in Central Oregon. We were able to go biking twice and enjoyed time with our friends. We have many memories connected with Sun River from when we were there with Ben and since then with close friends. It was good to get back again for those two days.
I had a CAT scan yesterday. Getting an IV started went very quickly and smoothly, but the vein burst part way through the scan so I ended up with a lump the size of an egg near the injection site. My body has absorbed most of the contrast dye now and it’s not too painful and thankfully, enough of the dye to get clear pictures of my lungs and liver. I won’t get the results until I see my oncologist next Thursday. I think the lower dose of Doxil has been a bit easier to tolerate and I’ve felt better with less nausea. Next is finding out if the Doxil is working.
I’ve just been on the phone to Dr. P and there are two specific areas where he needs prayer. First, he has had to start on daily radiation treatments which will continue for several weeks because nodules containing multiple myeloma cells were found in the area around both his knees. He assured me that this doesn’t mean the stem cell transplant was a failure. Stem cells only work to correct multiple myeloma in the blood, not the skin tissue. So hopefully the radiation will kill all that has spread to the knees. What concerns me is that his knees were already damaged from previous radiation and he is still needing to use a cane to walk. Please pray that the radiation will kill the cancer cells without doing more damage to his knees.
The second issue is his disability insurance. Kaiser had instituted long term disability insurance, but the insurance company they hired has denied Dr. P’s claim! Please pray that this will be sorted out before he loses all benefits. It is a strain on him, especially as he got the news at the same time as starting radiation. He remains hopeful and grateful for our prayers.
We haven’t heard anything from Wil who is at the water ski and wakeboard camp in Idaho this week. They are in a remote campsite so we aren’t expecting news from him and assume he is having a great time and that his ankle is strong enough for him to be out on the water. He returns home on Saturday.
Posted by David at 4:15 PM
July 11, 2008
God news for Wil
Good news should be shared quickly, thus I’m sorry I didn’t get this out on Tuesday. When Wil went in to get a cast on his leg he was told that he hadn’t fractured the fibula in his right leg. The ER doctor who read the x-ray wasn’t used to looking at x-rays for adolescents and misread the growth plates as a fracture! The ankle was badly sprained, so being on crutches and keeping his weight off of the leg for ten days was probably the best thing that could have happened. Wil came away with an ankle brace and nothing more, is able to drive again, and most importantly, to go to his youth group Water Ski Camp, leaving about 4 am Saturday! This was an amazing and unexpected answer to prayer.
Our visitors have been a huge blessing too. The Burdicks are like family to us, and Wil and Dawson hit it off as usual, clowning around together and entertaining the rest of us. The 4th of July visitors didn’t arrive until the 5th, but that was OK. And the Baldwins have been with us today and overnight tonight. Next week Dave and I will be the visitors, heading for Central Oregon where we will stay with the Phillis family for a couple of nights. It’s hard to say whether diet changes, prayer, or just the joy of seeing dear friends, and receiving phone calls from others, has accounted for my feeling better most of this past week. But in this too we give God the glory for the great things He has done.
Posted by David at 10:21 PM