GENIUS OR INSANITY?

I am a little slow on the uptake, but eventually I usually catch the clues. While down in Houston, it finally dawned on me that Be and I own a CLUNKER. When we bought a second car, we kept the CLUNKER because we could get almost nothing for a 1990 GMC van with 240,000 miles and no air conditioning. Besides, we needed a utility vehicle. But I decided to check out the Cash-for-Clunkers offer when we got back to Abilene.

There started to be more and more alerts that the Obama money was running out. I figured that we had missed our opportunity, but decided to call Toyota anyway because there is a salesman there that we trust. Then I ended up in the hospital! Did that deter us? Us, two of the most financially conservative people in the world? Of course not.

Today we put a down payment on a new Toyota truck without even going to the Toyota dealership. We called Rick and asked him to see what he could work out trading in our van on a small (cheap) pickup. He came back with $4500 for our van, $500 from Toyota, and $100 they get paid to dispose of the old car which they pass on to us. That is, a $5100 discount. Over the phone we put down a deposit, and they started looking for such a truck since they did not have one in stock. We are getting a new Toyota truck for a little more than $14,000. Genius or insanity? We will see, but the deed is done. Can you believe it? We do not even know the brand of the pickup or the color (but the color will probably be white or silver), but it is a four cylinder engine and has air conditioning.

Let the kudos or catcalls begin!

Am I Really Home?

When I headed for M D Anderson near the end of May, I took a "Nazarite" vow. I did not take any instrument to shave with. So my beard grew and grew and grew. Following is the evidence. The final photo shows that it is great to be home. By the way, I did not drink any alcohol either.

A quick update on my situation: We came home immediately after my second round of chemo was finished; we have an appointment back at MDA on August 21, conditional on my blood counts being satisfactory; I have to go to the hospital every day for an infusion of anti-fungal medicine.

Twitter is a wonderful thing for our family. I love the way it is working for us.

Flexibility

It appears that one must remain flexible in getting treatment for cancer. Our instructions were to come to M. D. Anderson every evening at 7:00 pm for an infusion of Ambisome, an anti-fungal medicine. The process would take about 3 hours each time.

But everything has to be pre-approved by our insurance or there is a chance I would have to pay the full amount for the treatment. So we started following up on the pre-approval process Thursday afternoon. The person helping us was on top of it, and submitted request right away. On Friday afternoon, the person helping us called and said that the request was sent for investigation by the insurance company, but Friday was a holiday so everyone was out of the office. Therefore no approval would come before Monday. We started calling everyone we could think of to get help. Finally we called the nurses station in the ward where I had been for the last three weeks. They knew how to get in touch with a doctor. They called back in a few minutes and said the doctor had ordered a pill to be taken orally, that insurance would definitely pay for it, and we could pick it up at the M. D. Anderson pharmacy. We drove up to the hospital and picked up the pills, and went by the place I was to take the infusions and told them I would not be coming in for any of the appointments they had me scheduled for.

This method of treatment may not be as effective as the infusions, but it surely is more convenient. Now I take a pill in about 5 seconds instead of driving, infusing, and driving for about 4 and 1/2 hours. We should find out Wednesday when I finally see the clinic doctor how much damage has been done by this change, but I an expecting there to be NO damage. I think the doctors were just being very cautious. We shall see.

At any rate, one must remain flexibile. Monday I will have some blood tests to see how my counts are doing. In the meantime, I am doing some walking, and trying to get back to a more normal life. It sure is nice to walk from one room to another. We are really enjoying visiting with Tinker and Betty.

God is good.

Out But Not Free

I spent last night in a real bed next to my sweet wife. What a joy! Of course, the bed is here at Tinker and Betty's house. They are such good hosts. It is a joy to be with them.

For the first time in 30 days I am not connected to the infusion tower that I would have to roll to the bathroom with me and then plug back in to the electricity when I was done. I am OUT of the protective environment. My WBC has, in the last few days, gone from 0.0 to 1.4. Yeah!. My platelets are in the normal range. My hemoglobin is still a bit schizophrenic, but I do not need any transfusions.

However, I am not free. We have to go in to M. D. Anderson every night at 7:00 pm to get an infusion of antifungal medicine. This will continue until Wednesday when I finally get to see the clinic doctor. After that I do not know what will happen. There are several options. But at this time, my chemo treatments are following a "best-case" scenario. So I am asking you to continue to pray for my treatments to work, and work in such a way that we can get back to Abilene as soon as possible. Thank you for your love and support.

Remission

I waited a day to write this note so that I could be slightly removed from the euphoria of the moment. The best of what we have been praying for is happening. On day 29 of my treatment plan, the preliminary report from the bone marrow biopsy showed that the blasts were down to 4%. That is low enough to be officially called "remission." Of course, I still have cancerous stem cells in my marrow, but now my body can again produce the blood that I need to exist. My blood counts are coming up, and when they reach a point that satisfies the doctors I will be released from the hospital. I will remain in the Houston area long enough to begin the long-term treatment of the leukemia. Be and I will be staying with my brother who lives in League City, south of Houston. What could be better? From now on, I should have treatment on an out-patient basis, some of which can be done in Abilene. I do not know details of a schedule yet.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude. First of all to God, the Great Healer. But please understand -- if this treatment had not worked, God is still good. Second I am grateful to my family. The love and support I feel makes living a precious gift, each moment to be savored and cherished.

Finally, to the Body of Christ on this earth, I extend my sincere thanks. Hundreds, if not thousands, of this Body have been praying for me and for Be, and encouraging us daily . It is a humbling experience to be the center of such devotion. We are accepting this gift in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, and to the praise of His glorious name. I and my family have been lifted to a higher plain in the spiritual world, and we are eternally grateful. May God bless each of you with spiritual gifts that are beyond what you could ever dream or imagine. There is no boundary to God's mercy, love, and grace.

Update

It is time to give an update straight from the P. E. area. Every cycle of my chemotherapy lasts four weeks. Monday was three weeks so I had a bone marrow biopsy to check my progress.

When I started the chemo I had these bad cells in my marrow measured at 21%. The bad guys are called "blasts" and they are red cells produced by the cancer that are larger than regular red cells, and they live longer. They crowd out the good cells so I end up with not enough blood. The goal of the first four-week cycle is to get the blasts measure down to 5% or lower. This state is called "remission." At this level of measurement my good stem cells can produce enough good blood that I can be out of the protective environment. From the biopsy Monday the blasts are down to 9%. There seems to be some hope that the blast measure will continue to decline this week. So I do not have a definitive report to give you. I will have another biopsy this coming Monday and it will determine what will happen next. I am unwilling to speculate what that will be.

The best case is that the blasts go down and I enter the "continuing" phases of my treatment. The goal of these phases is to continue to attack the cancer, but with doses of chemo that do not take my body so far down to need the P. E. So I ask you to pray that my blasts will be down low enough.

One perplexing aspect of this ordeal is that my body is supposed to start increasing my blood counts. This is not happening yet, but the doctors do not seem to be concerned. So pray that I can remain patient. The good news is that I am suffering almost no side effects. I have had no fever since Saturday night, and I am sleeping much better. In fact, they are taking me off of some of the antibiotics because I have had no fever for a while. I am slowly losing the excess fluid that has accumulated in my body. I have no appetite, but I am able to force myself to eat so that I can remain healthy. I am trying to exercise my legs and lungs, but it is difficult because I am so weak. Nevertheless, God is good.

And the USA just beat the best soccer team in the world (Spain) 2-0. What a great game.

What Cancer Cannot Do

The following is in a pamphlet from the Chaplaincy and Pastoral Education ministry of M. D. Anderson Hospital. It has probably been distributed widely, but I had not seen it, and it meant a great deal to me. So I am sharing it with you.

Cancer is so limited . . .

it cannot cripple Love.
it cannot shatter Hope.
it cannot corrode Faith.
it cannot destroy Peace.
it cannot kill Friendship.
it cannot suppress Memories.
it cannot silence Courage.
it cannot invade the Soul.
it cannot steal Eternal Life.
it cannot conquer the Spirit.

Cancer is so limited!