Updates on Everyone: Mr. Mark (Bangkok), Miss Stephanie (England) and the Austin crew: Mr. James, Miss Betty the Mom, Mark's friend Bruce(All the cartoon characters) Plus Mr. Frank)
Mr. Mark has bounced back after chemo although worried he looked jaundiced in the mirror a couple of days ago. Dr. T. said the lab tests are ok. Mark talks to his friend Bruce in Austin on the computer. Bruce asked if Mark wanted to play chess on the computer and Mark said he had not played for 20 years. Bruce says that "Mr.Rusty" had him to check-mate in 10 minutes, so he is looking for a different game to challenge Mark to. Speaking of years ago, I found Mark's first SCUBA card, from 1970, when he was 16, today; we'd given it up for lost years ago. Mark actually got another card somewhere along the line years after the first one, perhaps when he and I were on Roatan diving with the crew from Till's dive shop and some guys from Holland.
Stephanie is in England, about four hours from London, in Plymouth studying educational technology and enjoying the local culture. She told me that the food is great and this time in college she can afford to eat unlike when she was in UT and was a starving college student. Her favorite aspects of Plymouth, though, are the wonderful people and their love of history.
James (Mark's step-father figure, Aggie from the Panhandle) has found a new way to make popcorn. While I was gone James decided to make popcorn. He got distracted before he got the lid on the popcorn pan. Watching TV he was thinking this was some sort of gormet popcorn as it was popping so well and so loud. When he got to the kitchen- the stove, counter, and floors were covered with popcorn.
I (Mark's mom, Betty) am still finishing two text books due on the shelves this fall and I passed my ACLS for all you medical types who know what ACLS is. See information on Miss Betty's textbook(s) at http://www.allbookstores.com/book/compare/1401838472.
Mr. Frank Mr. Frank is a little older than Mark and still a young man by my standards. Frank was recently diagnosed with essentially the same esophageal gastric adenocarinoma as Mark had, but without the secondary liver cancer. Frank expressed surprise that Mark got esophogeal gastric cancer so young as it usually is diagnosed in men in their 50's and 60's. Frank is sharing his experience, with Adenocarcenoma of the esophageal gastric juncture, with Mark and I. Frank went to MD Anderson for evaluation and the plan is for him to get six weeks of weekly chemo: Cysplatin, 5FU, and Taxotere in Austin. This is a different time schedule and a different drug regimen than Mark. Frank has had his first round of chemo and will soon have radiation in the same week as chemo. After the tumor is shrank or gone, he will return to MD Anderson and the area of the esophagus where the tumor was will be cut out and the esophagus sewn (reanastamosed) to the upper portion of the stomach. We will follow Mr. Frank's progress along with Mark's progress.
If you have cancer or friends/family with cancer, keep Mark and me posted about your treatment. We are interested in you and want to support you in whatever way we can. Here is a good British site to look up different types of cancer http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Cancertype. I clicked on secondary liver cancer on this site and relearned that the cells that metastacize to a different site are the same type of cells as the original site. This means that secondary liver cancer will respond to the same treatment that your original cancer tumor responded to. Secondary liver cancer is very common according to the experts on this. Mark would love to communicate with someone who is being treated for secondary liver cancer.
Stay positive at all times and find a way to enjoy each minute of your life or at least to convince yourself that you are enjoying it. Perception is what is important. It is perception, not reality, that we act on. If you think you are enjoying the minute, you are. If you are barfing in a plastic bag in the back of a taxi, be thankful you had the forsight to bring a bag and find some humor in the situation. Keeping stress and negative thoughts down helps you stay well or get well.
POST SCRIPT: August 28th. Ross with Lung Cancer is reported free of lung cancer. He had one round of chemo with a horrible reaction to chemo but miracle of miracles...he is said to now be free of lung cancer.