Here we are again!

A new development in the saga. No I am not going to get better with my writing skills. Despite my good intentions it has been almost a year since I logged what is happening.

Since last writing I have visited Rexburg once every three weeks for a dose of Alimta, my maintenance chemo drug. In March Denise and I went with Rick and his subs to Harrison Hot Springs in Canada for three days. What a treat that was. We got to see the work he had done in the temple on our way back. It was very impressive. We've made several trips to Utah and one to Rathdrum. Sara and Daniel sealed Corbin in January and were able to finish the adoption and seal Natalie in June. Despite the ongoing treatments we had a great spring and summer. Josh and Tiffany blessed us with a new family member, Deacon Kirk Aikele, late in September.

The CT's in January and April were unchanged. Doctor Cardinal could still see the affected lymph nodes but they were not changing. The CT in June did have a little bit of activity in the lower left lobe. Doctor Cardinal thought it looked like pneumonia or a new metastatic process. With no new tumors and ongoing pneumonia like symptoms we chased that avenue for 2 months without much improvement. I started having coughing and lung congestion issues about the first of August. The end of August we repeated the CTs. The left lung showed a major opacity involving the lower half of the left lung and the right lung looked about like the June CT of the left lung. I was scheduled for a surgical biopsy consult when Marcene called and suggested we visit Dr. Schrader a pulmonologist in Afton before jumping into surgery. The visit with Dr Schrader was excellent. He has exceptional skills as a doctor. He did a bronchoscopy a few days after our consult resulting in plenty of material for pathology but no visible masses big enough for biopsy. The pathology returned the same cancer but it now has alveolar involvement. It is following the lymph channels and surrounding the alveoli resulting in troubles with gas exchange.

Doctor Dixon thought we had perhaps over stayed our welcome with Alimta. He told us they usually give Alimta 7-8 times before moving on to something else. I had it for fifteen rounds the end of September. The new drugs of choice in November were Caroplantin and Taxtere. They made me a little sicker and more tired. The treatments were every week.

The cancer has not changed, I am still dealing with the same cancer but it has changed its stripes and is now attacking the alveoli, the grape clusters in our lungs where gas exchange takes place.

Imagine this, here it is February second and I did not get the previous lines posted.

The November CT's showed the same opacity as before. It had invaded over half the left lung and was moving into the right lung. This was part of the reason for the chemo change.