The latest from Houston

Well I am writing this in the hospital room in Houston. I just finished the first round of five and so far all seems well. I did have what they call rigors. They are actually chills from the drug interferon. They make you shake uncontrollably, so hard it makes the bed shake. And once it reaches that point for me they have to give me Demerol. It is the only thing that will stop it. It is a long twenty or thirty minutes. The itching and rash has started as well but it is not too bad, yet. Rebecca and I are doing our best to just have fun, even in the hospital. The nurse was asking a list of questions yesterday and one of them was are you easily distracted? I started staring at one of the monitors. She asked me again, sir, are you easily distracted? I said, sorry that monitor distracted me. She found it very funny. She is one who actually has a sense of humor. We joke with all of the staff and some are more receptive than others. I see it as another challenge, to get all of the to laugh be the end of the week!

On the medical front, I had a chest x-ray yesterday before we met with the doctor. When we met with him the news wasn't what we were hoping for. The good news is there are no new tumors, and the current tumors haven't grown any. The frustrating news was they haven't shrunk any either. The doctor said with this rigorous treatment, they usually see results after the first round. After some discussion he said, and we agreed, that we would go ahead with round two. At the end of the week we will hopefully be able to come home for two weeks like we did last time. Then we will come back to Houston and have a full round of test's done to check the progress. If at that point the tumors haven't shrunk by at least 25%, the doctor will stop these treatments and we will look at other options. PRAY FOR SHRINKAGE!

Pray for my wife and her family as well. Late last her her grandfather, her mother's dad, was rushed to the hospital with a possible stroke. After keeping him over night and testing, they have ruled out a stroke. He is okay now but they don't know what is going on. Pray for my wife this week as well. This is tough on her and she never complains, ever. It's not easy to spend a week in a hospital room when you are not the patient. And don't be afraid to call or text us. If we don't answer it just means we are busy or asleep. And don't worry if you don't know what to say, we don't either. We can talk about the weather, or how bad our Dallas Cowboys are this year!

Well that is all I have for right now. Time to lay back down and rest. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Remember everyday to put one foot in front of the other, drink a lot of water, and don't forget to breath...............................