Lymph Nodes

Well, I was hoping to show you guys a picture of the adnopothy surrounding my porta hepatis, but - alas - I sent them on up to NIH.

I had been a bit worried about them since the last week's radiology report showed that they grew in size by 50% in the 4 weeks between my pre-Australia and post-Australia scans. However, I looked at them w/ my Dr. today, and they don't look so bad. Also, he explained that these are, basically, enlarged lymph nodes. It could be tumors that's enlarging them, bit it could also be swelling caused by the body's fight against the cancer elsewhere - there's no way to know. Either way, it's not good that they're getting bigger, but it's not as bad as it could be. So, the deal is that we're staying the course w/ Avastin and 5-FU/etc.

In other news, this past July 4th, I helped my other cancer-budy Andrea check off one of her bucket-list items (not that I want her to get through the list... maybe just most of the way through). Here's before (check out the look :):

During....
And after... We had a great ride. It was her first, ever, motorcyle ride and I know it helped that we were BOTH chock-full of opiate pain killers.

While we're at it. Mom and dad saw us on our open-air moterized vehicles and decied to ride their own down to the 4th-of-July picnic. It didn't seem like quite the same thing, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

We're back

Well, we're back from down under and had a great visit with the Montoya's. Here's picture from a rooftop restaurant in Sydney where we enjoyed our last 3 days.

The trip was great, and I felt stronger and stronger each day; my Drs are thrilled w/ how "healthy" I'm looking and feeling (I am too). The flight home was good as well. Getting into LA 6 hours before we left Australia was kind of weird, and then seeing the sun set a second time on the LA - DC flight was weird as well. We all adjusted quite quickly to the new time (I think the time change was so different and the trip home so long, that the body doesn't really know what to do, so current time is good enough.)

I'm writing this blog from UVA where I'm "catching up" on my chemo. Some tentative good news (remember the last good news) is that I had a scan this AM and it seems like all the tumors have remain unchanged in size. The exception, once again, is that the oncologist really couldn't find the 2 tumors in the abdomen, so we need to wait for the radiology report on those; however, this time I'm reasonably hopeful that the report will show no change. Of course, shrinkage would be the best news; but I'm very happy and thankful w/ "stable."

As always, thanks for your prayers; I KNOW that they make a difference.

Aussie Update #2

G'day mates from down under. Our friends the Montoyas finally arrived and we've been hanging out with them for a few days. The weather has been spotty; mostly rainy and cold. We've been walking a ton, and I have been feeling strong and healthy.

It's been a while since I talked about my GI issues. So... here goes... for the past month, the issue has mostly been figuring out how to keep things from getting stopped up. I've got a routine involving softeners, x-lax, and Miralax that seems to work, but yesterday everything came undone and the pendulum swung so far the other way that I had to, how shall we say it, wrap up a bit to keep from exploding. I won't paint a more detailed picture than that, but it was humbling and disgusting. So, needless to say, I figured you'd all want to know about it. Today, however, things were better and I've been able to run about diaper-free. Another of the little things in life that I'll bet goes under-appreciated by most.

As a testament to how free I really was, here's a picture of me trying out Gabriel's (Montoyas' 16-year old son) Powerisers. For those who don't know, these are big springs you attach to your legs that let you hop around like a kangaroo... I'm pretty sure they were invented here. It was fun. Perhaps you can see the Fentanyl bag bouncing around in the picture -- I'm telling you, the narcotics REALLY do come in handy...

After the bouncing around like this for all of 5 minutes, I was ready for something a bit calmer, so we all walked down to the Swan River (which runs through Perth) and over to "Kangaroo" Island. The island has "wild" Kangaroo's running around that are like the deer at Loft Mtn.
One of the prayers someone prayed for me before leaving was that I would return feeling stronger and healthier than I left (unlike the Prague trip where I was vomiting in the airplane bathroom on the way home... not fun...). I know it's still early, but thank you for your prayers; so far, they're being answered and it feels great. I'm having fun here, but I really do miss you all and look forward to seeing you shortly.

Hello from Down Under

Well, we made it -- 36 hrs of travel and a missed connection in Sydney, but overall it went way better than I could have imagined. We all were able to sleep on the plane, and then stay up until (an early) bedtime and then get a regular night's sleep and wake up on Perth time. YWAM (the missions organization that the Montoyas are with) has done an amazing job hosting us with guest housing, meals, and lots of international hospitality.

I forgot to mention in the last blog that last Thursday while at UVA for chemo, i mentioned that i was feeling a tiny bit of pain in my abdomen and that i was a tiny bit worried that there might be some fluid building up again. I almost hesitated to mention it because it was so small and because my pain killers do such a good job of masking everything that I'm not as self-aware as I was (one drawback of the current strategy, but pretty much the only one :). Anyway, they said, "well let's get you down to ultrasound to be sure and have peace of mind before your trip." So they made a last-minute appointment for me. I got to see all my old friends down there (they all remember me), and -- the good news -- they could not find one drop of fluid in my abdomen that wasn't supposed to be there. I am thankful for the Drs and nurses who are working hard to give me peace of mind and who helped get me to AU.

Still haven't seen the Montoya's yet... they come in tonight from Tonga. I plan on giving them all big kisses from everyone at BRCC.

Post-9/11 Securtiy Nightmare... or not...

Well, I'm in the C'ville airport, and we’re on our way to Australia… can you believe it?! Here are some conversations from the airport (Nicole can verify that these are word-for-word accurate).
At the checkout counter:

• Question: “Hey, I’m bringing a ton of narcotics on an international flight, do you have a problem with that?”
• Answer: “Fine with us; talk to TSA.”

At the security checkpoint:

• Question: “Hey, I have this bag strapped to my body that has a big bag of liquid connected to a battery-operated electronic box with a digital timer and all of that is connected to this push-button right here. Do you have a problem with that?”
• Answer: “No.”
• Question: “Yeah, but it’s attached to my body and I can’t run it through the x-ray. You sure.”
• Answer: “Yup”
• Question: “What about this box full of hypodermic needles? Problem?”
• Answer: “Nope.”

Try as hard as I could, I couldn’t get any reaction out of anybody except kindness and professionalism. What's up with that!? Maybe it’s Charlottesville; we’ll see how it goes in AU.
Here’s a picture of the inside of my carry-on (fluid, electronics, wires, push button, and – if you look closely – an hypodermic needle).

Anyone for a Fentynal-Powered Motorcycle Ride?

This pic is from the Murray's Memorial day pancake b'fast (mmmmm). Aggie needed a ride home, and... well let's just say that she was more willing than she looks. This time I didn't have to do the chicken dance to get her on the bike :).

Pray for my friend, Andrea

As many of you know, God gave me a cancer buddy, Andrea (not sure she wants to be called that, but that's what it is). I kind of knew her from a distance (friend-of-a-friend), but then one night I had a chance to pray for her w/ a group of her friends. "How wonderful to pray for someone else's cancer," I said (kind of a selfish, but true). From that point on, we've been trading stories and encouragement. It's amazing how similar our experiences and outlook are, and because she's been fighting cancer for 10 years; in most ways, she's "out in front" and can tell me what to expect.

Here's a picture of me and Andrea this past weekend commiserating about our shared fight with cancer. This was the first time I removed my IV pain killers, taped everything up, and got wet (or damp shall we say). Lots of painkiller-free jolts to the gut, but totally worth it emotionally!!

Anyway, she has a great prayer network herself, but this has been a week of pretty bad news for her and I wanted to ask you if you would join me in praying her strength, joy, wisdom, and hope.