An Update on Cancer Stuff

I haven't posted recently about the cancer, because I'm a little sick of the whole subject. But, in keeping with my promise to be really open about it ... here's the most recent stuff.

I had my digestive tract fully scoped and reviewed. A few biopsies were taken and everything came back normal. Whewhoo! No cancer in the GI tract. That's a relief.

Unfortunately, now I have to decide what to do with the cancer that is still there. I met with my Oncologist about 10 days ago. He had attended a conference where *the* specialist in my cancer spoke. He learned that the itching and fatigue are hallmark symptoms of active disease. So, I suppose it's no surprise that the itching has returned with a vengeance and that I'm back to being so tired that it's ridiculous. (And, I don't mean ridiculous in the way my 15 year old daughter uses the word.) He also learned that it definitely IS a relapsing Cancer and that for about 1/3 of the patients with this Cancer, it will become a more aggressive form of cancer.

So, if I weren't symptomatic, we could just wait to treat it until the symptoms start. Unfortunately, I am symptomatic which means we need to treat it. My Oncologist consulted with this other specialist about my case and he called me yesterday to go over the options.

My options are chemotherapy. There are 2 types of chemotherapy that I can choose from. I've read a little about each of them and I'm not sure which to choose. One is a more aggressive treatment than the other. What I don't know is if one will provide a longer remission than the other.

I don't know and I'm out of time (and energy) for discussing this right now. I'll keep you posted.

Please keep us in your prayers. We appreciate and feel the strengthening power of prayers!

The Zoo

Jacob had his first TAKS test ever. It took him about 2 hours and then we picked him up. All of us went to brunch at Magnolia Pancake Haus. We had a yummy breakfast ... and lots of silliness, too.


After we pulled ourselves together from the silliness, we went to the San Antonio zoo.

We first went to see the Komodo dragons being fed. We were a little early for it, but we waited ... and waited ... and waited. We finally gave up and moved on to other things. But, we were there long enough to get this great picture of Johnathon.

We made our way over to the Africa Live part. We saw these two beautiful birds there! The pictures probably do not do the vivid blue justice. It was really beautiful!


Ryan was about finished by this point, but on our way out, I agreed to let the little munchkins go into the Lory Landing display. It's this caged area that you can walk through and it has lots and lots of birds.

The first time I went in, we bought stuff to feed them. Sounded fun to me. Reality wasn't as fun. They kept biting me instead of just eating the food. Definitely not my idea of fun. Plus, if you know me really well, then you might know that I scream when an animal moves on me unexpectedly. (Remind me to tell you about the Hawaiian sand crabs sometime.) So, I stayed outside while Aunt Joyce ventured in with the kids. (No, I didn't mention my previous experience to her. Someone needed to go with the munchkins.) :)

Nearly as soon as David entered the Lory Landing, a beautiful bird landed on his head and there it stayed for about 15 minutes. If you close in the following picture you can see it on his head. (If you click on the picture it will enlarge it for you.)

Another little girl inside the Lory Landing was really entertained by the bird on David's head. But the most entertaining part was actually what the bird was doing... at least entertaining to me.

The bird spent the entire time picking up something out of David's hair and eating it. No, David doesn't have bugs in his hair ... although the thought did occur to me. I think the bird was eating at David's dandruff. Gross, right? It was really funny. I think David was just really lucky that the bird didn't poop on his head. haha...

Deborah didn't last long on the inside. She's like me in that she preferred looking at the beautiful birds from the other side of the cage.

It was fun to have Aunt Joyce with us. We really enjoyed her visit here in San Antonio and can't wait to see her again! We love you, Aunt Joyce! Thanks for a really good time!

(PS I think we wore her out.)