Hello everyone,

Things are pretty rosy here. Joey came through the 3 days of chemo wonderfully. He did have another "anafalactoid " reaction to that same drug (Etoposide which is the one drug he gets each of the 3 days) - that was just a bit hairy. So they pulled it and replaced it with the same drug with one molecule different - Etoposide Phosphate!?! Anyway that pushed everything extremely late (because you have to wait 20 hours between each dose of it) but it went fairly smooth after that. We are very, very grateful for such a gentle round and we are sure it is the direct result of the many, many prayers.

Joey has another day of chemo on Monday and then the BIG day is Monday Nov. 26. That is the day he gets rescanned (CT, PET and x-rays). The result of those will determine if he has to have the 5th and 6th cycle of chemo - which of course we do not want. Those scans have to show a 70% reduction in all of his tumors so it is a really, really big day. We will get the results late on Nov. 27.

Unitl then we start the injections tonight and continue those until his blood counts come up. He will probably bottom out on Thanksgiving. After that he will have blood drawn every couple of days until his ANC is above 1500, then we stop the injections (if you think about it say a prayer that I get better at giving the injections, Joey would appreciate that!)

Golf update (for those not interested skip this paragraph)
Joey did play in the Austin tournament last weekend. He led after the first day, but got pretty sick that night. He did play the next day although it was more a matter of hitting the ball and resting than really playing. Regardless, much to our pleasure and his displeasure he came in 4th (on the upside his friend Dylan Smith won it). Joey won't be playing any tournaments this month, however, because the "prolonged exertion" could give a false positive on the scans and that would be bad - apparently recently used muscles may have up-take of the radioactive stuff they give him for the PET scan and then it may look like the muscle is tumor. So Joey is forgoing the next couple of tournaments and holding off on any 2 day tournaments until this is over - 2 days is more than he has in him right now.

One last thing. A good friend is planning a MD Anderson blood drive for Joey at our church (Christ United Methodist, on Austin Parkway). Probably sometime in December. We have been told he will most likely need blood after the 3rd or 4th cycle (Dec 3 and Dec 26). Because it is the holidays, the blood supply tends to run out and we are in hopes that the blood drive will help keep it up so if he does need blood it is available. I'll send out more info on that later. In the meantime you can always check it out at MDAnderson.org/bloodbank (they are really nice to talk to if you have questions). If you are a regular donor at MDA please mention Joey (medical record number 728734) next time you give - while he may not get the blood donated he will be alerted that blood has been given in his name. We do have insurance coverage for blood so if you know someone else that needs the "credits" please donate in their name.

We'll I'm done, hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and can celebrate with friends and family. We have so very many things to be thankful for this year and each of you is on that list - we thank God for you all

Love, Hope and Health,
Cindy