Hello to all

Thank you for keeping up with the blog. We do appreciate the thoughts and prayers that come Marc's way.

Marc is keeping very busy doing things around the house. I think he does too much and doesn't rest enough but he is not one to sit around and never has been. He is so tired and weak from the radiation that he has a lot of trouble doing the things he wants to. He is getting anxious to be finished with the radiation treatments at which time he will be weaned from steroids. I am not sure which he wants to finish the most but I know he hates the way the steroids make him feel. There is not much time left as he will have his last treatment on February 10th.

He still is having a significant amount of swelling in both feet. He can just get his sneakers on but has to pull the tongue up and loosen the laces as much as he can. It looks like his feet are going to pop. It has to be uncomfortable but he doesn't complain.

I am married to a remarkable man. He is a fighter and a doer. He gets frustrated but that is understandable. I know I wouldn't be as brave as he is.

I will post pictures next week when he finishes his treatment. They have a celebration after each person finishes their treatment, it is really remarkable to see all the people cheering on the one who finishes.

God Bless you all!

Great News!!!

Marc and I had wonderful news today; the PET scan he had yesterday revealed no evidence of tumor growth! That means that, so far, the chemotherapy and radiation therapy are working. Marc says "I still have a monster on my back but now the outlook seems better." What a wonderful feeling it was to hear the news.

Overall everything is going well. Marc continues to go to speech therapy twice a week and his speech seems to improve every day. He still has some trouble expressing what he wants to say but I can see improvement every day. He is keeping busy doing things around the house and catching up on chores that needed to be done. The other day he said that his to do list just keeps getting longer.

We had a nice visit over the weekend from Marc's sister, younger brother, next to oldest brother and his wife. It was good to see them but the visit went by much to fast. It was wonderful to hear Marc and his siblings reminisce about old times.

On Sunday we celebrated our son, Steve's birthday and had a good time visiting with the kids and playing with the grandchildren. We look forward to seeing the grandchildren every weekend, they are such a joy!

Enough for now, I'll post more next week.

Marc the Plumber

As you can easily see, Marc has some pretty severe swelling in his left foot and lower leg and a little less in the right foot and lower leg. I had to cut the elastic out of several pair of socks just so he could get them on his feet. The swelling hasn't improved any this last week and I am now concerned that he is getting a cellulitis (skin infection). I will have the Dr. look at them tomorrow, in the meantime we are keeping an antibiotic ointment on it. I have tried to keep him down with his feet up but that is almost impossible. Marc has never been one to sit around when there is something that he thinks needs done; he has also never been one to ask for help! This week he has been "Marc the Plumber". He replaced the faucets in the guest bathroom in the house and in his office bathroom. He took out the old water heater for his office, by himself. His friend Ricky was here this morning and offered to help and they tried to get it out then but couldn't. Later I went outside with Annie to ride her bicycle and low and behold, the water heater was sitting out by the curb for the garbage pickup. How he got it down and out is beyond me. He then put in a bypass so that he would still have water in the faucets in the office. I have no idea what he has planned for this week but I hope I can convince him to take it easy. Fat chance!

Marc is now more than half way through his radiation treatments and should be finished with them on February 9th. this week he has lost his hair on the left side of his head where the radiation is aimed. The Dr. has been weaning him off the steriods the last 2 weeks and he went to only 2 tablets a day on Friday. Since cutting the dose on Friday he has started having more trouble with his speech again. He doesn't want to increase the steroids again but if the speech doesn't improve or if any other signs of increased inflammation occur he will probably have to increase the dose. I will also talk to the Dr. about that tomorrow. It just seems that every time he is on an upward swing something happens to go back down again. One of these days everything is just going to go right for a change. I pray for it every day.

Marc is scheduled at MD Anderson for an MRI on March 2nd and to see the neuro-oncologist on March 3rd.

More next week. . .

Getting more active . . .

Marc has started getting a lot more active around the house now. Our neighbor called me about 2 weeks ago and asked me if I knew that Marc was up on the roof. Well by the time I got out there he was down but only because the leaf blower wouldn't start. I was beside myself! He did get a chewing out from me and his response was that he had technical difficulties or he wouldn't have come down when he did. Since then, he has started remodeling his shed and has decided to re-side it as well as reorganize, add shelving and insulate it. He just can't sit still and has got to be doing something. We went to Home Depot the other day to get siding and after they loaded the siding in the truck he got in and drove home. The Dr. had told Marc because of the risk of having seizures, he was not to drive. I was a nervous wreck! He did fine but he knows he cannot be driving anymore, at least not until he is released by the Dr. to do so.

Marc's speech continues to improve daily. He can converse in short sentences now. That is wonderful! He is not having any further problems with the blood clots but is on daily injections of Arixtra (an anticoagulant). He does have severe swelling in his left leg, the leg that had the clots; it is at least twice the size of the right leg, which is also swollen but on a much lesser degree. The oncologist told us this morning that the swelling is common after someone has blood clots and that there isn't much that can be done to improve the swelling other than get some regular exercise, massage the leg and elevate it as much as he can.

The radiation therapy is going well and should be done about the 9th or 10th of February. We will go to MD Anderson 3 weeks after the treatment is complete for another MRI, to see the neuro-oncologist and get started in the clinical trial.

That's all for now, I'll post more next week.

Clowning around at radiation therapy . . .

The top picture is the "Pecker Cane" that Steve's family gave Marc for Christmas. The cane is made from the reproductive organ of a bull, has an eagle handle, has 2 Indian head nickels embedded into the cane, a label indicating the cane's origin and a label with Marc's name on it. The picture on the bottom is of Marc and a buddy he met at radiation. They both enjoy clowning around. Marc is wearing his "hair hat" that the kids gave him for Christmas (our granddaughter Abbie has a matching hat with blond hair). Marc's buddy had been telling Marc that he needed to wear a hat to keep his head warm, so Marc surprised him by wearing the hat. The staff at the clinic loved it.

Marc seems to be doing better this week. He has a little more energy and has been puttering around in the garage and yard some. His speech improves some every day. It is still difficult for him to express what he wants to. Speech therapy is helping a lot. The appointment at the neurologist today was encouraging and the neurologist seemed to think that because of the recent improvement the speech would continue to come easier. He explained that Marc would just have to relearn all of the language skills that had previously come easily.

The radiation is going smoothly and Marc no longer has to take the sedative to lie there with the mask on for the treatment. The staff plays music during the treatment which Marc says helps a lot.

We had a wonderful Christmas with our family and enjoyed watching the kids on Christmas morning. Marc and I feel truly Blessed to have the wonderful family and friends that we have. Everyone has been so supportive, we can't ask for more!

Happy New Year to all and I will post more later in the week.

Discouraged

The photo is of Steve, Julie, Annie and Abbie all clowning around with Marc. Seeing the grandchildren brought out a smile from Marc that I haven't seen in many days. It was good to see him smile.

The progress has slowed, leaving both Marc and I quite discouraged. Marc is not able to speak more than one or two words and then can't come up with what he wants to say. Communication is difficult at best. We are continuing to go to speech therapy and have an appointment with the neurologist on 12/30 to see if there is anything we can do to try to improve things. Marc has finished 4 radiation treatments so far and seems to tolerate them well. He has lost his appetite and I'm not sure if that is from the chemo or the radiation. He doesn't have a lot of energy and feels really tired all the time but we were told that would happen with the radiation treatments, so it was expected. We have 2 more treatments this week and then they are closed Thursday and Friday for Christmas, so we willl start back again on Monday.

I'll post more after Christmas. Merry Christmas to all!

We're home

Marc was discharged yesterday afternoon, just in time to get his radiation therapy. It seems like we are having trouble getting the radiation going. We just hope we have no further setbacks so that we do not miss any more treatments.

He is glad to be home but is really tired; which are most likely effects from all of the medications that he is taking now coupled with the radiation therapy. We are hoping that there will be no further admissions or complications.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will try to post more next week.