Another Dr. appt.

We had a great Thanksgiving with children, grandchildren, my sister, brother and his wife all present.  Needless to say, there was lots of activity - it's always fun to see the grandchildren play together.  On Friday, David helped me with some winterizing chores and we finished mowing the grass.  I think we have finished turkey leftovers so Thanksgiving is over.


We had the two-week follow-up visit with the dr. today.  Since I'm still coughing, experiencing pain, and sleeping short periods only(maybe 2 hours before coughing), he wants to do scans again.  Therefore, I go for CT and MRI late Thurs. afternoon and Thurs. night this week and return to him next Tues. to find out what he sees and what do we do from there.  He suspects the cancer is growing but wants to know before we change anything.  I don't like the scans, mainly MRI, but am glad he wants to know and not just assume.  He did give me pain and sleep medications.  We'll see if they help - maybe I can sleep in bed instead of my recliner.

I've had better weeks!

The last week or so is the first time I've felt less than normal from cancer.  While taking sutent (chemo drug) I felt very fortunate that the side effects were mild but it was always nice to get a break and feel normal.  I started taking the reduced dose of afinitor last Mon. but before that, I had begun coughing more and had a dull somewhat persistent pain in my side.  I've now taken afinitor for a week with no apparent side effects but the cough persists and the pain is not better - maybe worse.  Therefore, I called the dr. today to see if we needed to check on the pain.  His response through the nurse was that the pain was probably from the cancer - hoping the afinitor may lessen the pain in time.  My next dr. appt. is next Mon.  While I'm experiencing effects for the first time, I'm not in great pain.  Coughing, most sever when I'm laying down, makes sleeping all night a challenge.   I just don't feel good, and it's easy to choose to do nothing.

As always, thanks for your concern and continued prayers for me and my family.

New drug update and golf trip

Sixteen crazy golfers just returned from Myrtle Beach after three days of golf and fun.  We had a lot of fun, some good weather (bad for Nov. Fri./Sat. but Sun. was nice), so-so to bad golf although some guys played well.  I especially enjoyed having Chris and David join us for the first time.

Today has been a busy day after returning from golf trip.  Workmen showed up at 7:30 and started working on our new circle driveway - so much for sleeping in!  It's about 5:00 now and they're long gone with the driveway complete!

We had dr. appt. at 2:00 today.  For those not aware, the mouth sores got so bad last weekend that the dr. took me off medication (10/31) until they clear up.  Today, he decided I needed another week to heal (my mouth has improved the last day or two where I can eat without great pain but I'm still well aware they're there).  I have another dr. visit next Mon. at which time I'll resume afinitor at half strength assuming my mouth has completely healed by then.  I'm hoping half strength works since I felt very good otherwise on this drug, and still do.  I felt good on the golf trip, just didn't play very well.