VACATION!

Here is a COUNTDOWN TO OUR VACATION!!

We are going to Sunny California and we can't wait!

Flucation 2010

So Jeanah and I tried to get away for a 4-day weekend and it turned into a 5-day because we both went to Klamath Falls and had the flu all weekend long. The Running Y Ranch seems to be a beautiful place, much like Eagle Crest in Redmond. We would have loved to report better on it, but we were horizontal most of the time.

On the cancer front, I continue to visit Dr. Dramov 2x/week to get Vitamin C drips and will have the next PET/CT the last week of March (no firm date yet). Will visit with Dr. Chang after that for the results. Hoping the tumor area is shrinking with the Vit C treatments.

We plan to go on vacation in Mid-April to sunny California for 16 days of fun in the sun.

Be sure to take your Vitamin C!

So today I will start an 8-week, twice per week, Vitamin C IV regimen. I go to my Naturopath, Dr. Dramov, from 1:45 till about 3:45 on Mondays and Thursdays and he will put a large dosage of Vitamin C in my with an IV. I did this once back in October, but because it is $100 per visit and I didn't have the money, we tried to get the insurance company to pay it.

Recently, Dr. Dramov called and said somebody wishes to take care of the cost of this. I do not know who, or even if I know them personally, but we're going forward with it. Jeanah and I have discussed it and prayed about it and we think we would be crazy not to do it and see if it has any effect on the tumor.

Since the tumor has not grown or shrunken in the last two PET scans, it will be interesting to see if doing the Vitamin C IV does anything. I will be doing going in for another PET scan on April 5, so we shall see if it does anything.

Dr. Dramov is confident that this is enough time to see an improvement if one is going to occur from the Vitamin C IV. Our goal is to be able to use the Vitamin C to "shrink the tumor out of existence" or at least "make the SUV number go to below 2.5" which is in the "normal" range.

Both Dr. Chang and Dr. Dramov say that the SUV number being higher than 2.5 on the last 2 PET scans could mean that there is either still cancerous cells having activity and/or healing taking place in that region. Since the tumor has not gotten larger, there is a good chance it is just healing, but it's "tough to tell because of the mass of scar tissue in the area due to the radiation therapy".

All for now...

I'm Lucky!

Is it always good to be lucky? I guess not. Today I had a visit with Dr. Chang, my medical oncologist. I only had one question, it's one that has kind of been hazy for me over the last year. "Why me?"

He said we had, in fact, discussed this in our first consultation, but there was so much to go over then that maybe it got lost in the shuffle.

Basically, the answer is "You're just lucky."

He said that in simple terms, everybody's body is different. Everybody's environment is different. When a person gets carcinogens introduced into the body from the environment that the body cannot deal with properly for one reason or another, sometimes cancer happens. This makes plenty of sense.

He also said that this type of cancer happens more often in western society. He thinks it's because we eat more. He personally doesn't think it has as much to do with the "what" we eat as much as the "how much" we eat. (But, if we eat less, we should focus on higher nutrient things).

That answered that question, I guess...

We also discussed treatment proposed by Dr. Dramov, my N.D. Dr. Chang doesn't think there is enough evidence that the Vitamin C treatment works for it to be warranted, but he said ultimately it's up to me.

He did say that both Vitamin D and Aspirin in low dosage daily amounts have shown a small amount of help with colorectal cancers.

He said the result of the last PET/CT scan (back in November) was encouraging in that there is no spread and the tumor is the same size. He said the SUV number did jump to 14, and that it is tough to say what that is due.

Hope all is well with everybody in the new year!

A Great Time Had By All!

So an update on what was to be our 10th Anniv. Staycation...Jeanah came home and told me she had packed my bags and we were to go to Seaside for a 3-day weekend...

We had a great time!

At many places of business in Seaside, there are old-time photos of Seaside's past. We ran across one that looked familiar. I think it's of some old-time gamblers...before there were Indian Casinos on the coast...

Happy Anniversary!!!!

It was one year ago we found out I get to do this battle with cancer. Oh what fun that was! We're hoping for many many more years!!

On that note, tomorrow is our 10th anniversary of marriage!!!! Can you believe it!!?? We're going to celebrate this anniversary all weekend with a "staycation".

We are still lining things up to start a Vitamin C IV drip with Dr. Dramov...hoping this will help assure no more cancer cells grow either "down there" or anywhere else. It's interesting how the intensive Vitamin C makes Hydrogen Peroxide around cancer hot spots and helps the healing process...we hope that's what happens anyway...

Merry Christmas everybody!

No Spread!!!

I just spoke with Dr. Dramov, my Naturopathic doctor, about some other happenings, and the potential ability to get back on the Vitamin C I.V. at little to no cost to me. That would be great if that's what we decide is best.

In any case, I asked him if he had the results of my PET scan from Tuesday, and he did although he had not looked through it yet. He examined it and said that according to the summary there is no sign of any metastatic disease and the tumor is about in the same state it was in two months ago, although the SUV was slightly higher.

He encouraged me to discuss this with Dr. Chang as well (which obviously is the plan for next Tuesday).

Anyway, thought I'd pass along what is seemingly good news!