Mr. Mark tickled over a sign on dragon statue in Chang Mai.
Dragon statue named "Mom".
Within hours of the tanks appearing in Bangkok Mark took a flight to Chang Mai. He reported having 4 days there in which he felt "normal." He said he interspersed sight seeing by taxi with a number of well spaced naps. With the help of Jin, who looks after him in Thailand, he is trying to see everything and everyone he can in case his cancer gets ahead of his treatment and all your prayers and any miracles that might occur. On the other hand he is doing everything he can to fight the cancer while he closes out his condo and packs things for home.
Mark's sister Stephanie is flying to Thailand from Japan, She is due there tomorrow. As a department of defense employee, she can ship some of Mark's belongings to Texas through the embassy at a US postage rate.
Few minutes past midnight Wednesday Sept. 27, 2006
Talked with Mark early this am in Bangkok for a few minutes (midnight in Austin and 12 noon in Thailand). He was on his way to get radiation to his chest wall cancer. This involves having a mold made at 200 dollars and 15 treatments at 75 dollars each for about a total of 1300 dollars. He is concerned that cancer has invaded bone and there are other cancer locations in bone. He's also concerned he will not have access to as good care in Texas as he has in Bangkok where he sees the doctors frequently and is only a 50 cent taxi ride away from the hospital cancer center. On the other hand he is concerned that he not wait too long to leave Bangkok and get so sick he ends up in intensive care with a huge bill there that has to be paid immediately.
Talked with Mark again at 8 am this morning and he said in addition to 15 days of radiation, he would also get a round of chemo (3 days of chemo)starting about 8 pm Austin time and he would again be in the hospital overnight. The chemotherapy drugs are going to be somewhat different this time although his liver and kidney function tests are back to "good."