Pretty Girls
I wanted all of you to see our pretty granddaughters - Sarah Elizabeth and Anna Katherine. Hopefully I'll get a picture of everyone when they visit again.

Sam is really having a tough, tough time. I think he has decided to not take anymore treatments. He is so weak that I don't think he could make the trip to Birmingham on Thursday. Please keep us in your prayers and ask God to send us a miracle.

Camptosar and Erbitux Treatment
I think this will be a very short posting today. Things are not going well for Sam and I find it really hard to write anything and I find it extremely difficult to stay upbeat lately. As far as the treatment yesterday, it went O.K. but he is so sick today and was already so weak before the treatment began. He had lost an additional two lbs. even though we have tried everything we could think of to maintain his weight. He just doesn't have a good day anymore and never wants anything to eat. We use to enjoy going out for dinner every night since it was just the two of us and I can't remember the last time we did that.

While I was waiting for him to take his treatment, I read a book by Charles Stanley called "GOD IS IN CONTROL". It is about obtaining an unshakable peace in the midst of life's storms. It's good and I needed it. I intend to read it again and again. My prayers to all of you.

Like Putting Lipstick on a Pig
This is how Sam described his visit to the doctor yesterday after hearing the results of the CT. It's just impossible to try and make this situation look pretty but we certainly keep trying. Dr. Posey reviewed the results of the CT with us and started out with the good news and then followed with the bad news. It appears that the Erbitux did have some positive results - nothing to jump up and down and shout about but we had seen no results from Gemzar, Oxaliplatin, or the XL-119 trial vs 5FU. There had been a decrease in the size of the retroperitoneal adenopathy (aortocaval nodal mass) and there were no new liver lesions. The ablation procedure on the liver appears to be successful so far. The spleen, pancreas, adrenal glands, kidneys appear unremarkable and there were no ascites.

Now for the bad news. We have not seen a copy of the chest CT yet but preliminary results showed an increase in the size of the lung nodules. Apparently the Erbitux had no positive results in this area. At one time there were approximately 22 nodules in both lungs; I'm not sure if there are any new nodules are not. I also do not know if the lesion in the sternum had changed or not. I'll find that out when they fax us a copy of the CT. This was disappointing but not really a surprise. I remember somone saying (I think it was the Petersen family) - we didn't get good news; we didn't get bad news - just slapped with the reality of this disease.

These are our next plans. Dr. Posey is adding Camptosar (CPT11) to the Erbitux and we will start a round of six treatments beginning May 18th. He is going to give Sam two weeks off from everything except the ProSure. He again stressed the importance of the ProSure because studies have shown that it helps combat whatever the tumors in your body are giving off and should make you feel better overall. He said he wasn't concerned too much about Sam taking in calories - just be sure and drink two cans of ProSure everyday.

Thanks for all of your prayers. We are still hanging in there!!

Picture
Finally located a picture of me and Sam. In case you can't tell, that is Sam on the right and me on the left. Who said I can't find some humor once in a while. I had to give Kelly a little competition. Her blogs are always so delightful
to read.

Big day Thursday - please send up some prayers.