The nearly Ides of June?

Just a quick update for the nice people who check. Life has been lovely since the latest diagnostics, people are so warm and wonderful. Working fulltime again, with the exception of a quick trip to Lompoc for a special funeral service over the past weekend. He hitting golf balls on a regular basis, still losing a little weight from the soft food diet. In a couple of weeks I should be back on solid foods, the challenge will be keeping it off when I can have bread and butter once more.

The voice is still a frustration. Last week's procedure went well, though it tightened my vocal cords a touch too far. So I'm hoarse this week, and perhaps for a few more days. When they "loosen" I can tell that I'll have more punch and less of a wheeze as I push the appropriate level of air through my vocal cords. It has been far too long, seems to me, and continues to frustrate my efforts at work. Pretty hard to call people, or even leave messages on voicemail.

Given the challenges of the past couple of years, though, I shouldn't complain. Life could be much different, with "lesions" growing elsewhere...so I'll just keep my hoarse voice to myself as much as possible and get on with living. Hi to all, keep me posted on how you're doing. too!

Strrrrrrrrrike THREE!!

Well, what ELSE is new?

The trip to New England was marvelous. Surrounded by the kids and their partners, smiled upon by my parents, and loved by Ms. Jillian, I graduated from Boston University on May 18. It was the highlight of a trip filled with highlights…

We scrambled off the airplane and hit the taxicabs for the Boston Pops Concert on Saturday night. Sunday was filled with commencement festivities, and more goosebumps than any of us anticipated. Get ready, you’ll hear it at some point, now that I’ve actually STOOD on the campus of BU…”Back when I was in grad school…” I can now say that I’ve met some of my professors, all of whom were so supportive of the journey…

Monday night, most of us hit Fenway Park. Billy & Liz missed out, because they had work responsibilities, but did get to tour the City on the Duckboats with us. No big game on the Red Sox schedule, just a random Monday nighter against the KC Royals. Then Jon Lester surprised us all with a no hitter, collecting the final out with a "K." Sports Illustrated reminded us that Roger Clemens, Steve Carlton and Greg Maddux have over 1,000 career victories and ZERO no hitters…so this was a special night, after all.

From Tuesday afternoon forward, Mom and Dad shared vacation time with Judy and me. We ventured to Salem and had a lovely B&B, toured Nantucket and learned how the trust-fund half lives. Every stop, whether the Kennedy Museum and Library—or lunch in Nantucket—was special in its own way. We couldn’t have asked for more interesting hosts at our bed & breakfasts, nor more fascinating history when Judy and I wandered the battlefield at Concord.

The North Bridge, site of the “shot heard ‘round the world” sits in the back yard of the Emerson home, called The Old Manse. One learns it is older than the Revolutionary War, and served as a home for not only the Emersons, but those skinflint Hawthornes, as well—Nathaniel and Sophia. Sophia, something of a writer herself, inscribed a description of an ice storm onto a window with her wedding diamond…and the glass still sits in the home, untouched by future ice storms, falling limbs or baseballs. (Baseball was invented some 40 years AFTER she saw the ice storm…pretty amazing!) Never restored, it is more solid than my home on A Street, and was built several years before the War….the skirmish that started in 1775!

We ate lots of lobster, more clam chowder than anyone deserves, but had time to chat with each other, too. I got acclimated to the driving and routes, and can now say that I’ve handled “the Big Dig.” Ted Williams Tunnel is far too small for traffic now, who knows what they’ll do in forty years?

If you’re headed to New England, holler for some ideas and suggestions. If you aren’t, put it on the list of “places to see” you keep hidden in your desk, because it is definitely worth the plane ride!!

No hepatic lesions...O, the Joy!

For the first time in a long time, some very good diagnostics. Many have heard this story, but if you haven’t…
the best comparison is simply to re-type the important segments of the two comparative PET scans. I’ll skip all the information about how the images were obtained or how much radioactive sugar was involved.

October 17, 2007:

Findings: …There are at least three focal areas of increased tracer uptake within the liver. One is located along the superior margin, right lobe just beneath the diaphragm. Another lesion is within the medial segment, left lobe of the liver. There is one, or possibly two adjacent lesions within the lateral segment, left lobe of the liver….
(It then goes on to talk about no additional sites, and suggest that neither the neck, chest nor abdomen contain any other metastatic lesions…)

Impression: There are at least three metabolically active metastatic lesions scattered throughout the liver as discussed above…

May 27, 2008

Findings: …The hepatic lesions identified on the previous PET scan are not apparent today. Mild uptake is seen in the rib area, however the patient has had recent trauma and I suspect healing results in this mild degree of isotope uptake….

(Same comments about head, neck, pelvis, etc…)

Impression: No definite hepatic lesions evident this time. This demonstrates marked improvement in comparison with the previous PET scan.

So there is good news, and then there is a surprise that is more embarrassing than anything else. It turns out that when I didn’t catch myself when I fell down in Ontario, I landed on with my left wrist at my ribcage and probably cracked a rib while I was doing all that fun dental trauma, as well. Trust me, I’ll take “mild uptake in the rib area” as compared with “metastatic lesions scattered throughout the liver” any day.

Dr. Chang and I discussed the plan for the next few months. We considered one more cycle of the erbitux in June, but it would complicate the vocal cord “fix.” He recommended that we just start our “summer hiatus” now, and come back in August for another PET scan. That will determine whether further erbitux would be needed in the fall. I’ll probably need some level of “protection” chemotherapy at that stage, but we won’t know whether to include the erbitux until we get the next PET scan. He is comfortable, and so am I, with the three month interlude…and if we need to get pimply and hit the liver again in the fall, that’s life on my journey.

Next stop, a voice that I can share the news on the phone. I cannot, in any way, thank all of you enough for your prayers, kind words of support, phone calls, cards…and being a part of my care team. No matter whether it is a golf day in Coeur d’Alene, a trip to Boston, a surprise text message, or lunch to share good news with my ladylove…EVERYONE has played a part in making this happen.

We are not “done.” There will be no talk of “remission” for the time being. We still have miles to go before we sleep in peace, but this is a terrific way-station on the journey. I compare it to William Clark, knowing that he was only halfway done when the Corps of Discovery got to the mouth of the Columbia:

“O, the joy!” “We are in view of the ocean.” That great Pacific Ocean for which we have so long been anxious to see.” “And the roaring, or noise of the waves…may be heard distinctly…”