Hi, All - I thought you might enjoy this picture. It's a Saturday Evening Post cover made by John Falter showing our hometown, Falls City, Nebraska, at Christmas time, 1946. Most of the buildings where about the same as when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s.
I flew down to St. Louis with my good-luck charm (my Aunt Sarol) yesterday and got the results of my latest CT scan. You may remember that the largest tumor in my lung had grown after my September CT scan. Well, this time the scans showed that the largest tumor in my lung has shrunk! (Yea!) The other tumors are stable and there are no new tumors. Needless to say, I'm very relieved and grateful.
In other news, I no longer have to go down there every six weeks. They've decided I'm trust-worthy enough and that my local oncologist is competent enough that they'll give me a two-cycle supply of the drug and I only have to go down every 12 weeks. That will really be nice. It's not a bad flight from Omaha to St. Louis, but I'll be glad to save the money and the time. I'll remain on the same 4-weeks on, 2-weeks off the Sutent cycle and stay on the same dose.
I guess that's actually two early Christmas presents!
My St. Louis oncologist said it's unlikely that the study will ever let my Lincoln oncologist monitor me for the study completely, but he said he'd keep pushing them on it. I keep hoping they'll expand it to an Omaha location (they're still recruiting in St. Louis and recently expanded the study to Washington, DC), but even if they don't, I'm very grateful that I'm in the study.
The side effects were about the same this cycle. There's still research going on to help the worst of them (the Hand-Foot Syndrome and fatigue), but nothing has come of it yet. I actually had more pain from the tumor this time, but nothing too bad. (Sara says it's the tumor screaming from the drug working on it - I like that imagery.)
We got to have lunch with Sara's Aunt Rosemary, which was nice. She was kind enough to run us out to the airport after lunch, which was really nice as the airport is no where near her part of town.
I'll have C/T scans in late February and go down to St. Louis for the results and to pick up a new supply of the drug on March 4.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support. Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!
John
2 comments:
Wow, thank God, the lump in your lung shrunk! That means your condition is getting better and probably going the right path. Not only that, you can now do a lot of tasks by yourself. It must be something new as you have gotten used to going there every six weeks – but you will feel that the somehow the burden’s not that heavy too carry anymore. You can survive this challenge, I am positive with that.
Wow, thank God, the lump in your lung shrunk! That means your condition is getting better and probably going the right path. Not only that, you can now do a lot of tasks by yourself. It must be something new as you have gotten used to going there every six weeks – but you will feel that the somehow the burden’s not that heavy too carry anymore. You can survive this challenge, I am positive with that.
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