Five and Counting

Chemo number five is underway today. Interestingly, there is a nationwide shortage of saline, probably due to the number of flu cases.  Won't affect my treatment. Well, it actually might actually speed it up a bit. After today I have just one more scheduled chemo near the middle of February then sit tight for a month and have another PET scan. Hopefully all of the tumors will have been completely melted away by the chemicals and I can proceed with the final leg of this portion of the journey...the stem cell replacement. Not sure what to expect from this other than the fact that it will keep me in a hospital for a full month. WOW!

My infusion today is being done over in the Tahlequah Oncology clinic, next door to TCH.  They have officially moved out of the hospital. The new room is six or seven times as large as the hospital, which is great because Anna will be able to be next to me for the entire treatment (crocheting dish cloths for some of the staff).

I have been surprised of late at the number of people I come in contact with that do not recognize me. I guess being 90 pounds lighter than I was in July, having a short buzz cut, and no big bushy beard makes me look like a different person. I noticed it a few weeks ago when I ran into one of my former students, Will Grayson, at Walmart. As I approached him with a big smile on my face, he noticed me out of the corner of his eye and quickly looked back down then glanced again at me as I approached him and looked away again, probably hoping I wasn't heading staight for him, but I was. Then when I spoke to him he immediately recognized me. It was kinda funny and surprising to me, but it has happened many times since then and I am getting use to it.  So... If you see a thin guy with a beanie cap on approaching you like he knows you, it just might be me.

Thanks to everyone who is continually lifting  me up in their prayers...it is working.

Good Times!

Ok, so I realize I haven't update in a while so here we go... the Christmas season and the New Year have been wonderful times with family and friends.  My health has been very good and I have felt mostly like my normal self, other than being thin with no fat layer for warmth during these cold day.  Some days I actually forgot that I was fighting cancer. 

After the last chemotherapy, the neupogen shots did their job and kept my blood numbers where they should be and even improving, so I really can't complain. With the good numbers we were able to travel a little bit and see both sides of our family during the Christmas break. It was great.

The day after Christmas I went in for another PET scan.  They did one before my treatment began and now that I am halfway through the rounds of chemo they do one to see how the treatment is affecting me. I met with my oncologist a week after the scan and the word he used to describe his reaction to my PET scan was "ecstatic".  Now that is something I like to hear from my cancer doc.  The tumors in my abdomen are nearly half the size of when we began and all the other lymph nodes that were swollen in my body have reduced "considerably" in size (i.e. one in my chest was 3.5 centimeters is not only 1.1 centimeters).  Praise the Lord!

I am so grateful the the Lord for what he is doing through the prayers of his saints and the medical staff treating me. I am truly blessed to have so many who care about me.  

Thank You! Thank You! for your prayers. The Lord is teaching me much during this time. 

Chemo number four begins in the morning!