Friday July 11 2008

Good Morning.

I forgot to give most of you an update after our appointment with Dr. Barth on Wednesday morning. Thank you for all being so patient.

Well, Gary had the Avastin treatment but did not have chemo on Wednesday. His platelets were over 100,000 but Dr. Barth felt that they needed to be a little higher before blasting Gary with another round of chemo. It is probably a good thing considering Gary has been in fairly poor shape all week. We are shooting for Monday at the Hoag Office.

Gary is in considerable pain and discomfort in his abdomen. He has barely left the house in weeks and he is in bed most of the time. He did go to church and he does get up to do dishes, laundry and some other household things. I think that once he gets in a good position in bed and the pain/discomfort subsides even a little bit he probably doesn't want to move. Who could blame the man!

On July 25th we will have scans done on his liver. These scans will tell us if the cancer in his liver is responding to the treatments (Avastin and chemo cocktail). The cancer in his liver is the only cancer in his body that has not been impacted by radiation. It is what they call a biological marker and will be used to measure either the success or unsuccessfulness of the treatments. If the cancer is shrinking, we will remove the lesion on his liver and continue with treatment as scheduled. If the cancer is not shrinking, we will remove the lesion anyway and we will have to switch gears with his treatment regimen.

We are all praying that the current treatment is working.

Gary actually just came down to sit on the couch with me. He has an Ensure in his hand and he is trying to wake up!

I have to get going but wanted to touch base with all of you to give you the latest.

Have a great weekend and I will blog if anything changes. If not, look for the Monday blog.

Love,
Lisa