First Official Update

I have organized a list of people who have shown interest in what is happening with John. Some of you already know this and some don't. This will be my first update to the group.

We saw Dr. Cruz on Monday, he was absolutely wonderful. We spent at least an hour with him. He explained that the chemo can be done most likely, outpatient. He will have a port inserted and sometimes he will be on an IV at home. He will go through 2 or 3 rounds of chemo approximately 3 weeks apart. There will be upper GI scope procedures in between the chemo to monitor the tumor response. Dr. Cruz said that many of the side effect of chemo can be controlled other than hair lose. John has a beautiful head of white hair and I know that is bothering him. We will deal with that somehow.

Dr. Cruz explained to us that he is not the best oncologist for us to see and is sending us to one of his partners on Monday. John will have a PET scan done on Friday. We will hear the results when we see the new oncologist. I will let you know the outcome of that visit.

In two or two and a half months, the tumor should be shrunken and we will then prepare for surgery. My sense is, we will go elsewhere for the surgery. At this time (it could change) we are leaning toward Mayo in Scottsdale. We have a strong support system in Arizonia which does not exist in any of the other locations of Mayo or in Houston at MD Anderson.

My dear friend of many years, Pat McAfee and her daughter are coming to help us with chores and organization. The daughter, Nikki will be here today. Pat will be here Friday. I am very grateful for that sense we have a lot of paper work, party left overs for the memory book and other things that need to be done. They are bringing work clothes and plan to jump right in.

I want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during this time. John is not in pain now, he has little appetite and has lost a lot of weight. He does keep down what he does eat, now. He is still doing things around the house and in the yard though, he tires quickly and that bothers him. He is sleeping a lot, which I think is good for him.

We are hanging in here and so far, so good.