Hi everyone,

Note to readers: I have included details of the drugs for those of you who are medically inclined - everyone else just skip it. And don't hold me to the correct spelling of half this stuff.

Well he made it through days 1 and 2 of chemo. The days were good, the night between was pretty unpleasant. Suffice it to say chemo is poison and it brutalizes the body - but it kills cancer. Of the 7 chemo drugs (cytoxon, etoposide, bleomycin, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone, cisplatin) Joey was given 5 that went well, 1 went sorta okay and he had an immediate "anafalactoid" response to something called Etoposide. So they backed up, gave him some extra medications to combat the reaction and then restarted the Etop. That evening he had severe nausea. The antinausea medication they had prescribed, Zofran, didn't even touch it. In an effort to get the nausea under control they gave him something that he also reacted to (phenergren) - 4 medications later (benadryl, atavan, more zofran and the phenegran), he was asleep but very restless yet he made it through the night. He started over with 3 chemo medications and 13 support medications at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning. However, they pre-medicated him with some new medications and he slept through chemo. They put him on some "top of the line" antinausea medication (Aloxi and Emend) and that did the trick. The learning curve to figure out what worked for him was intense but short. As a result, he felt so well on Tuesday after chemo, they discharged him so he could get home and go to a school volleyball game and sleep in his own bed. We head back for 7 a.m. chemo Wednesday morning but should be home in the afternoon - we expect NO PROBLEMS.

Joey went ahead and shaved his head in order to keep up with his buddies who had shaved their heads on Sunday. After they showed up at school freshly shorn on Monday several more guys showed up with their heads shaved on Tuesday! This was a great morale booster and actually made Joey happy to be bald and be proud!

The next steps are: more chemo Wednesday, steroids and blood count support injections and 7 support medications Thursday through Sunday, and then a full day (8 hours)of chemo on Monday 10/29. After that he continues to get the support medications and injections until his "ANC counts" get up to 1500 which is the magic number so he can begin round two of chemo on Nov. 12. In the meantime he will experience fatigue, mood swings and increased appetite (steroids). His immune systems will be severely depressed and then hopefully he will gradually get back his strength and immunity.

In the meantime he will play as much golf as he can - the weather here is absolutely beautiful and he will begin his school work here at home. He has a tournament Nov 3 and 4 which he plans on winning (of course).

As always we appreciate all of you - emails, texts, food, cards, calls, books, pictures, floats, t-shirts, bracelets, words of encouragement, advice, tips and tricks, notes, offers to give us the moon and more! For now it is on Joey to get through this - and there is no doubt that he is a fighter and he will make it and he will most likely be on top when he does - some people say he is a bit competitive!

Once again please know how sincerely heart felt our appreciation is even if we don't respond. It is not because we don't appreciate it more than you know, I just run out of time sometime. Thanks you all
It takes a village - but it seems we have an entire metropolis!
Love and blessings to you all,
Cindy