06-18-2011 Saturday

Greetings and salutations! : ) It has been quite a busy week. Early Monday morning I went to visit Lynette at Covenant and get another CT Scan of my lungs to see how treatment is progressing. Then on Thursday, Catherine and I headed to the CCTC (Covenant Cancer Treatment Center) for the morning. I had gave blood and urine samples before doing a follow up with Dr. Masri. My blood counts are all holding pretty good and the CT Scan gave us good news. Of the three masses in my right lung, one was quite a bit smaller than the 04-25-2011 CT Scan, one changed to a more round shape and was slightly smaller, and the third had remained the same size. The mass in my left chest/breast was also the same size as well. At first I was kind of disappointed that they hadn't ALL shrunk but Dr. Masri pointed out that I am now in a "maintenance cycle" and the goal is to shrink the masses if possible but to definitely "maintain" their size... we don't those nasty things getting bigger! That made feel alot more positive about the results! After that I had my treament, which only took a couple of hours and then we got to go home. Eli spent the afternoon with us too which made our day even more special! Then, last night I went to the Relay For Life walk at Hawkeye Community College. I was truly impressed! It was extremely organized, free food was provided to cancer survivors (my cancer isn't gone but I am surviving so I'm considered a Survivor) and their caregivers, I got a free "Survivor" t-shirt, and walked my first "survivor lap". Not an event anyone really wants to participate in but it was an honor for me. As we all walked the lap, the spectators and team members applauded all of us all along the route. It felt kind of strange to be applauded for being sick but it was truly moving to have them appreciate the mental and physical strength needed for all of us to become survivors. I also ran into a bunch of old friends and classmates (most of whom were team supporters and not survivors thank the Lord) and got to chat for a while with them. You truly felt the support and compassion of your fellow man and the presence of God. He truly is an awesome God and I believe He is guiding the efforts of researchers to find a cure for this disease. Have a blessed week everone and all you fathers (including my son this year... woo hoo!) have a safe and happy Father's Day. God Bless.

06-13-2011 Monday

Hi everyone. I have a few things to share that I think you will find interesting. To begin, let's start with news of my brain tumor. Last Wednesday morning I had another MRI, my 3rd so far. As I've said before, they are not painful in any way but this time I had to hold my head still - perfectly still - for around 75 minutes! If that wasn't bad enough, I was fighting of the tail end of a cold and swallowed so much to keep from coughing, that I almost ran out of spit! talk about cotton mouth! But God was with me and we made it through with flying colors! Later that afternoon, Dr. Ryken (my neurologist) compared my three MRIs. Even he was somewhat surprised to see that the tumor is now about 1/3 of the size it started at in January! He even said he was going to do some reading on the current studies of the effect of Avastin (one of the drugs I get during my chemo treatments) on benign brain tumors. He also noted that since I don't seem to have any permanent hearing loss or symptoms, he now believes that my tumor is not an acoustic neuroma but a meningioma. Needless to say, with these results, Catherine and I were beyond happy! We know that it is the hand of God guiding my healing, my treatments, and all of those who care for me during this ordeal! Thank you heavenly father!!! As for the cancer, I had another CT Scan this morning and we will review the results with  Dr. Masri (my onocoligist) this Thursday before chemo treatment #7. The side effects on the new chemo cocktail that I receive seem to be much less caustic (for lack of a better word) to my body than the mix used during my induction phase. My biggest complaint at this point is the perepheral neuropathy (numbness/nerve damage) in my feet caused by the treatments during the induction phase. However, as I've said before, I new there would be pain and discomfort going into this situation, and I also know that God is guiding my treatment and my recovery and we all know that God's plan is not always easy to understand. We have become creatures that want immediate satisfaction, but must remember that our ways ARE NOT God's ways nor vice versa. Thank you for your healing strength Lord. To close, I had to include a little about our newest family member... my grandson Eli. He is simply awesome! In addition to being the cutest baby ever, he is now starting to smile a lot and coo, giggle and talk back when you talk to him. Thank you Lord for blessing our family with this source of joy! He is the the boost that we all needed at this time in our lives! God Bless all of you and thank you for your continued support and prayers! Praise Jesus!!