Round three of treatment is behind me. Today turned out to be interesting while at the clinic. Let me hit some highlights for whoever wants to stay up to date. One low point was the need for two sticks of the needle with blood work. I think the veins are beginning to rebel. To state it simply, it hurt! After the lab comes the one on one with my doctor. I am beginning to really like this woman. Sure she was less than encouraging at the beginning but she is coming along now. We even talked for more than two minutes. My key question concerned the issue of where do we go from here. There will be three more times of treatment. My end date is the first Monday of October. I also will be getting another Cat Scan before round four. This will be a more specific look at what is or is not going on with my body. She really told me that there was every reason to be optimistic. Her view is that since my original growth disappeared so fast that it indicates the meds are working on the core problems of my illness. The scan will either verify this or not. If she is right then after round six we move to the watch and wait approach. This will include regular scans and lab work. No one can know how long this will last. Maybe it lasts only a short time but it may last for several years. I am trying to not be overly optimistic but it is good to know the expert speaks this way.

The day is still very long. Six hours of my life spent doing medical stuff. Most of that time is sitting in a chair having toxic chemicals poured into my body. Stomach medicine is still a large part of the treatment. I made sure to thank my doctor for that. The ladies in the chemo area were working without two nurses who were out. To say it was a stressful day for them is an understatement. I made sure to make as little fuss as possible. Sometimes you just have to get out of the chair to walk around. I drag my IV unit around just to stretch the legs. When I think about it, everyone working there today seemed to be stressed today. I just try to be polite without being demanding. There was another change to my routine. I took my first 100 mg of steroids this morning. They usually were picked up after my treatment so they were taken Monday night. Then I would take the next batch Tuesday morning. This may be reaching for a solution but time will tell.

I realized last night that my comfort level with being ill is a little unsettling. We began this process in that fog of shock. Perhaps my fear ran rampant but it did push me to search for spiritual answers. That was a long few weeks that I have no desire to repeat. Neither is there an interest to take all of this for granted. It is very good to have some reason for optimism. We are praying for a total response whether by miracle or medicine. We will again be very happy with a combination of both. My point is that this is still an illness that can write its own story. Each person's cancer is their own. It may very well be that the optimism will pay off in the end. You will not hear me complain on that. It may be this is only the first step of a challenging battle. My role is to intentionally draw closer to God as often as possible. Life is not meant to be defined by the weakness of cancer. It can be lived in the strength God gives right in the middle of any weakness. God still has the last and best word in our journey. My hope is all of us will learn this along the way.

Bro. Trey