4/28 - 5/1 - Sunday - Wednesday

Feeling better. Flew to Baltimore for work. There was a guy sneezing and coughing sitting next to me. I wore a mask on the plane to help with my depressed immunity. I could just see the bacteria headed my way. What a pain..."hey look at the guy with the mask"...I felt like a bubble boy.

4/26 - Friday

Got a shot to boost my bone marrow production of white blood cells...Nulastin I think its called. No side effects - hope it works. I don't want to skip another week.

Chemo is kicking in hard this time. The sour taste in the back of my mouth has me on the edge of nausea. There is this thing called anticipatory nausea - the thought of chemo makes you sick. I had that this week. This is getting old real fast.

4/25 - Thursday

Chemo #6; moved up to Thursday to make time on Friday for a shot to help counter immunosuppression.

4/20-23

Minnesota friends came to stay with Jen and I for a few days. The time together was priceless. They are amazing. It made me realize how very small my problems were relative to what could be wrong. To the person, each friend that has stood by my side has also suffered a family tragedy already - one friend has a child with a life-threatening heart condition, one lost two of her brothers, another couple's child is blind in one eye, most have had miscarriages. Compared to them, I've got it good. God gave me these exact friends for very specific reasons - its because they all suffered, they all have shed tears for loved ones, and they all know what I'm going through.

Thinking of how this could have been - I've got nothing to worry about.

Thanks for your every word whispered to God on our behalf.

4/19 - Friday
Chemo #5.

4/15 - Monday
Infection seems to be our greatest enemy until Friday.

With my WBC count at its lowest point since starting chemo, I'm on the razor edge of immunosuppression - near an area called "neutropenia" (low neutrophil count). I may get a shot on Friday to help fix that - boosting my bone marrow production of WBCs.

I posted an article on this website with a link called "Infection" explaing the details. Here's a key paragraph from the article that sums up my situation:

"Chemotherapy is the most common cause of immunosuppression (a weakened immune system) and myelosuppression (insufficient production of blood cells) in people receiving cancer treatment. The severity of immunosuppression and myelosuppression depends on the specific chemotherapy drugs used, the dosage, the schedule, previous treatments for cancer, age, nutritional status, type of cancer, and the stage of the cancer. Some drugs have a greater effect on the bone marrow than others do. When chemotherapy drugs are said to be myelosuppressive, this usually means that the drug affects production of all blood cells. However, drugs may have different effects on the production of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Generally, white blood cell production is the most sensitive to chemotherapy drugs."

That's true in me right now - my WBC count is way down, but RBC count is improving. Hmmm...the balancing act continues.

p.s. thanks for the many e-mails sharing in our good news from Friday about the excellent CT scan results. I/we so much appreciate your continued and faithful prayers and support. They work. As the doc said Friday..."we've got 'em [tumors] running now."

Get this - I could feel them dying. Yep, no kidding. I told the doc two weeks ago I was feeling some periodic, acute pain on both sides of my abdomen - like someone sticking a finger in my side. He said the tumors may be experiencing their own individual "infarctions", like a heart attack (myocardial infarction). He said they have their own blood supply and nerves, etc. So its entirely possible, that while they were being attacked by the chemo and being killed, they were going through a somewhat painful, dying, heart attack-like event, or "infarction" - making me feel pain through their nerves.

Not sure if that's true - but its a great feeling. Morbid...but great.

When you get tumors, you'll understand.

4/12 - Friday (60 days since diagnosis)

Good news and bad news...bad first:

Chemo today was canceled...the chemo has diminished my blood count too low by beating up my bone marrow. For those following closely, my Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) was 700 this week. Last week it was 1,100. Go/No-go for chemo is 1,000. Normal range is 1,600-7,000.

I was told that taking some time off is normal, and it allows my body to recover. I'll be back at chemo again next week. Sort of makes me anxious to keep it going - we've got those tumors running, don't want the process to go backward even a little bit.

So this week we'll focus on building immune function - we're checking into both the nutrition and herbal supplement ways to do this. If my immune system is still depressed next week - we can do chemo but I'll need a shot to boost immune function and stay out of the hospital. The one thing we definitely don't want is to get some sort of infection - putting me on the "no-chemo" path for a month while I recover. That would let the tumors regain a footing. This is quite the balancing act.

Now the good news - your prayers are working.

The results of my CT scan from Wednesday (4/10) shocked the doctors. I was told this morning my tumor response has been far better than expected after only 4 chemo treatments (6 weeks total time). The oncologist thought he was looking at the wrong scan at first. My progres has been, to use his words, "fabulous." I guess that's medical jargon for pretty good! Since starting chemo on 3/1, the 5-6 tumors in my liver have decreased in size more than 50%. It is assumed the primary tumor in the stomach is also diminished in size. A future PET scan will verify this assumption.

The plan is to continue chemo for another month, hope for continued tumor reduction, then look at surgery for the liver tumors. Later, they'll consider surgery for the primary tumor in the stomach.

God is listening - whatever you are praying for, and the events that have happended in my life by way of His wake-up call to me - its all working.

You have no idea how much Jen and I appreciate your support. Its not over, but we're on the way. I would say thanks regardless of this CT scan news - but it feels better to tell you things are working well. "Thanks" is not enough, but its all I can say, and please know I mean it with everything in me.

4/10 - Wednesday
CT scan.

This is a milestone event. We're not anxious, just ready to know. Its the first time we'll see how this mix of chemo is impacting tumor activity.

The goal is to have chemo shrink all tumors from the size of a golf ball to the size of a pea, then laser zap the various ones in my liver, and finally remove the primary tumor in my stomach.

Stomach surgery is a big deal - it might be removed. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, and deal with the choices we're given. We anticipate God's peace and grace will again be sufficient to get us through it.

Your prayers work - you have no idea how much I(we) thank you for each word whispered on our behalf.

For now, we just keep moving...

4/5 - Friday
No chemo today - the beginning of 7 days of heaven.

Jen and I went skating today. See the Photo Gallery to see what that looks like.

4/2 - Tuesday
Family visit.

4/1 - Monday
At work.

The expected chemo hit to my energy level makes me feel like I just can't step on the gas pedal. Not sick. Metal mouth mixed in my saliva greets my every waking moment. It coats my teeth.

Now that we know it happens, Jen is helping me adjust my diet to help boost my energy level a bit. The doctor said if my energy level drops too much, he can give me a shot of Procrit - a new drug used for this purpose. I hope to not need it or use it. It costs $1,000 per shot...wow.

 

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