March 6, 2009 Update

Gus felt great last Tuesday, the day of his chemo infusion. He also felt good the following day. The chemo was hardly affecting him. Then on Thursday the chemo took affect and he felt terrible. Today, Friday, is his last day of the chemo tablets for a week and once again he is feeling good. He is so looking forward to this coming week of no pills or infusions.

The one thing that surprised us last Tuesday was the medical oncologist is planning on giving Gus only two more cycles of chemo and then doing another CT scan. Depending on what the CT scan reveals, Gus might be done with chemo for awhile. That is at least one month less of treatment than was the original plan in January. We have not seen the doctor himself for three weeks, but have been seeing his assistants. He found Gus in the infusion room to tell him this. They did another CA 19-9 blood test on Tuesday and it was the lowest yet! It was 64 and anything less than 55 is considered normal. The highest we ever saw was 604 last October.

Gus is flying to Denver March 29th to spend time with his two sisters and his mother. He will then fly home on April 3rd to start his next cycle of chemo. Gus has not seen his mother or his sister, Jan, since he became sick so I expect it to be a wonderful time of memories, laughter and tears.

Gus is also planning on golfing his way to Seattle this spring or early summer to see Grayson, his grandson, play baseball. He will stop in theCoeur d'Alene area to golf with a friend and then he is hoping that his son, T.J., will take him golfing in the Seattle area. He would love if any other golfers between Sheridan and Seattle wanted to meet him on the way. He has no deadlines and no commitments, just high expectations for himself on the golf course.