January 12th, 2011

Tonya and I had a conference call tonight with mom. Mom got a kick out of it - this was her first conference call. Mom gave us the scoop. Dad received his last Neupogen shot today - last shot for round one of chemo, anyway. Needless to say, he was very happy. This is the shot that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. His blood work indicated that his white blood cell count was down, but this is to be expected. Without the shots, the counts would be even lower. He lost 4 1/2 lbs this week. The nurse that seen him was pleased. She thought that most of the weight loss was probably water weight. Dad's kidney tests have been indicating that he's dehydrated due to not being able to eat or drink much. He's had to have fluids via IV on a few occasions over the past week. Swallowing has been very difficult. The mouth wash (Swizzle) has helped a lot. It numbs the inside of his mouth. The chemo is causing his throat to be very soar. He has to take very small bites in order to get the food down. Most of his nutrition has been through fluids. He drinks a high calorie diabetic drink similar to ensure, and gatorade. His back has been bothering him quite a bit lately. His chiropractor burned his back while treating him this past week, causing a big sore on his back. He'll have to watch it closely for infection. He's a little grouchy, but that's also to be expected. He's developed some diarrhea. He says it's not too bad, but nobody likes diarrhea. He was able to get his port-a-cath yesterday. This will help tremendously. He won't have to get stuck nearly as much. They can do his chemo, and take blood via the port-a-cath. He plans to return to work on Friday. Depending on how well it goes, he may opt to take add'l time off.

Dad now has a week and a half of down time before doing his next round of chemo. Hopefully, he'll get some relief before starting the next round. He feels like the lumps in his neck have started to shrink. Please pray that the chemo is doing its job, and the tumors are shrinking into remission.

Hang in there Dad. We all love you and we are so proud of how strong and courageous you have been. We know you're enduring this for all of us and we admire you for it.

Much love,

Shanon