Fred has officially turned over updates to Lois. She has nagged him for too long!

The fourth treatment of his second round of chemo was week before last. This has left him tired, weak and in a good deal of pain. Hopefully, he will start to pick up this week.

The bright spot in his life has been a visit from all four kids, daughter-in-laws and all eight grandkids (Halloween weekend). Things were hectic around Casa de Cambio but very happy. There was a pumpkin carving contest, popcorn ball making and------the Cambios of N.C. introduced the kids to Halloween "Troha style". Couldn't have been more fun!

Fred is also happy because Oscar can finally say "Opa." Okay, that might not sound too great but it brought satisfaction to all involved.

You will be informed on a more regular basis now that the good wife that I am is in charge.

No Tuscany

We've decided to cancel our trip to Europe. The new chemo treatments, along with the increase in pain killers, are having more of an effect on me than we expected. I am always tired and unable to think straight which wouldn't make our trip very pleasant. Lois would have to do all of the driving and if things got worse we'd be stuck in a country where we couldn't speak the language.

We were also planning on spending some time with Lois's cousin Peter in Stuttgart, Germany. He just learned that he has prostate cancer and is having surgery to remove his prostate this week.

To top it off, the cost of my most recent prescriptions put me beyond the coverage limit and into the coverage gap (the donut hole). We will have to pay for prescriptions until our out-of-pocket costs reach $4,350. We should be able to get some help from the state. Wisconsin has a program, Senior Care, that should cover some of the costs.

Not Good News

Had a PET scan yesterday and met with Dr. Haider today. That light spot on my lung turned out to be a tumor about the size of a nickel. My choices were to do another round of chemo or do nothing. I chose the chemo. It will be slightly different from the first round and will start on Friday (9/11). The pain is back under control with an increase in pain killers.

We're still planning our trip to Europe from Sunday 10/4 thru Tuesday 10/27. My chemo treatments will be scheduled around the trip. I'm hoping I won't lose my appetite.

Confusing

At the beginning of the month the whole family got together at Todd's house. Its not too often that we can get the 8 grandchildren together. They all seemed to have a good time except, maybe, for Will.

I had a CT scan on 8/17 and saw Dr. Haider on Wednesday 8/26. He said the amount of pleural liquid was about the same with maybe a slight increase. He also said that there was a light colored area where a tumor used to be. It could be a return or just some swelling. There was nothing in the area that could be biopsied so they have to assume the worst case. I've also have a pain on the right side of my back. Its been there since radiation but now I need to take pain killers to keep it under control. I'm scheduled for another CT scan in a few weeks. Depending on the outcome I might have to go through another round of chemotherapy.

Thing is: we're well into planning our trip to Europe for most of the month of October. We've already purchased plane tickets.

Good News

Dr. Haider reviewed the scans, with us, today and except for a "very small" amount of pleural fluid my lungs look clear. We're going to keep an eye on the amount of fluid because it might contain some cells and start to increase. The cancer cells were first found in the fluid. Because my cancer is incurable this is the best outcome I can expect.

Lois and I are being optimistic and starting to plan a trip to Italy this fall.

Waiting

Had my last radiation treatment on June 4. We've giving the buggers 5 weeks to reappear after being zapped 33 times. I'm having a PET scan tomorrow and a CT scan on Friday (7/10). We won't get the results until Wednesday (7/15). Still feeling good.

25 Down

I've been getting a lot of flack for not posting to my blog recently. I guess people assume I'm in bad shape or dead. I'm not.

Today is my 69th birthday. On Friday I received my 25th radiation treatment and have only 8 more to go (ending 6/4 because of the holiday). My side effects have been limited to difficulty swallowing, indigestion and tiredness. If that's it I'll consider myself lucky.

Our kids have been great. They've been eliminating a lot of items from our To-Do list involving replacing, repairing, painting and gardening. Todd was her on Saturday (5/7) and rebuilt our outhouse (yep we decided to keep it). Nathan came in from N.C. on Saturday (5/16) and stayed the week to repair our bathroom floor and help out. Mary, Matt, and Todd also came while he was here (that's Will in the picture). Thanks guys.

If you look closely you can see some hair starting to emerge.