Too Long

Well I know for those few of you who follow me it has been too long since I have last blogged and I am sorry. To say that things have been rough would be an understatmtent. Yes I am on a new drug and it has been very difficult on me. One issue we are having has nothing to do with the durg. The turmor under my arm continues to grow and in in doing so is causuing the skin to split open and bleed more than it doesn't. And when it bleeds, it really bleeds, not just a little bit. Keeping it under control continues to to be more and more of a challenge. The drug itself is proving to be a challenge as well. It has cuased more nauaesa, more to the point of not eating. I went about two solid weeks without eating much of anything, losing around 20 pounds. I was finally able to eat yesterday (Thanksgiving) so I am hoping we are over that hump for a while.

I went to the doctor here last week for reglularly scheduled blood work and found most of my count's were way out of whack. I won't bore you with the all the details other that to say it wasn't good. I ended up having to have another transfusion and had to be given lots's of fluid. I will go back on Monday for another round of test's and after a conversation with the nurse expect that I will have another transfusion next week and more fluids. (When I say transfusion, I do mean blood transfusion by the way.) When we first got home after my first treatment I was having really high fevers and very loose stools. Part of the side effects we are supposed to watch for. I pretty much have had all of the things you don't want. The simplest way I know to put it is I have been really sick. And scared.

I can say this. I think my body if getting worn out between constantly fighting the cancer and dealing with the side effects of all the drugs they have running through my body. The pain is better thanks in large part to being on a program with a pain doctor at MD Anderson. That has made some things a little easier. But I can tell that things have changed for the worse just by the way I feel both physcially, and emotionally. It has become more difficult on a daily basis. I am able to to alone less and less as things have gotten worse. I am unable to to do for myself more each day which is alway's a difficult thing for me. As you can imgaine that had put a lot more pressure on my wife and parents. Especially my wife and as you can guess she needs lot's of prayers right now.

We all need lot's of prayers and support right now. We go back to Houston on the 2nd of December for the next round of drugs. (That I am not looking forward to) We are talking about seeing if we can maybe move the treatments here and do them with the doctor's here. The trips to Houston are simply getting too hard on me. The doctor's here have proven they know what they are doing with this new drug which was one of the big questions we had when we started it. We should know more in a few weeks. That is all I have in me for now. We needs all the prayers we can get, and thank each of you for your support.

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