Hello everyone,

We just got home from MDA and are all feeling pretty okay. Joey is Stage IIE, intermediate like we had hoped and prayed for (they just keep getting answered - ya'll are good!)

Anyway that means he can start chemo Monday. Three consecutive days of chemo in the hospital, four days at home with injections, another day of chemo then about 2 weeks to recover and then repeat. With this type of cancer the chemo regimen is fairly intensive. Radiation is after all chemo treatments are done. Joey will probably be in a study (clinical trial) where he may or may not get radiation - we'll deal with that later. Chemo starts Monday October 22, 8 a.m. He only has 3 doctors appointments this week so all he has to deal with is making up school work and playing golf.

The good things in the report today are of course the stage II, no tumors below his diaphragm, and even though one of the 3 larger tumors in his chest is 1/2 as large as his chest!!! he has had no respiratory distress. This is all very good news.

The down side of chemo of course are the side effects. Some of the more common for his particular treatment regimen and drug combo are hair loss, irritability, mouth sores, weight gain, mood swings, fatigue, skin color change, and on and on. Most of these will correct themselves when he is done with the chemo. The upside to chemo is it will kill the cancer! Enough said.

We are checking into supportive therapies (enzyme, acupuncture, pshyconeuroimmounology, etc.). The doctor said all are fine and they can only help. We just gotta fit them in. Guess that gives me something to do this week.

Our hope, now, is that the tumors are readily responsive to the treatment.

Amy comes home this weekend to "check on things." Other than that, it will be a fairly "normal" week for us. Hope all of ya'll have a good week too - don't worry about us, just keep Joey in your thoughts and prayers.

Love and Hope,
Cindy

P.S. Feel free to send this to others or let me know if I should add someone to the list - we want everyone on the same page in order to avoid misinformation and/or rumors.