May 9 Mark and Mom returned from the Houston Veteran's Hospital. Mark expected three days of chemotherapy, but as usual on Monday we saw a doctor new to us, Dr. Xiou (Shoe)who was very personable. Dr. Xiou ordered another CAT scan which Mark had on Tuesday. He said he is thinking Mark's cancer could be fairly stable and he could stop chemotherapy for awhile since Mark has had so many days of chemotherapy over the past two years and concern about the effects of so much chemotherapy. The doc found some expiratory wheezing in Mark's lower left lobe of his lung but prescribed nothing for it. I could hear the wheezing with my naked ear i.e. without a stethoscope. Cause? Unknown. As always...no certainty that Mark is better or worse or the same. Life is very uncertain, but when unaffected by cancer, most of us don't worry about it. People with cancer do worry and those around them worry and uncertainty is their constant companion.

After a year and a half of chemotherapy and lab tests requiring access to veins in Thailand, Mark's veins were in very good shape. After a half a year of VA personnel trying to get venous access on Mark, the veins in his arms are in bad shape. He often wants to tell people at the VA, stop you are going about that all wrong and he wants to gather them and give them some instruction like he had in the Navy as a corpsman and then as a respiratory therapist. The lab work this trip was from a vein in his thumb and the cat scan venous access was through a small vein on the inside of his wrist. How painful is that? Answer: Very if you are the one getting the needle. Not so bad if you are the one inserting the needle.

We met some extremely nice people at the VA and elsewhere. In addition to Dr. Xiou I think that Bill in X-ray was one of the nicest people I have run into at the VA. I talked to him on the phone about getting Mark scheduled for a stat CAT scan rather than having us make a special trip back to Houston. He said he would talk to staff about that and get back to me. He called me back and gave me the affirmative and instructions for the prep and how and when it could be picked up. For once I did not have to guess or know the questions to ask. When I went to pick Mark up, I had to wait in line to ask if he was still back in the scan room or if he was done. I could hear this man at the desk being nice to everyone...It was Bill. He is now one of my role models.

We stay at the Best Western Reliant Park which gives a medical discount. Most of the people staying there seem to be patients or relatives of patients at the various medical facilities in the Medical Complex which includes MD Anderson and many more hospitals and treatment centers. We met two ladies from Oklahoma at breakfast in the motel, one has a daughter Debbie who has adrenal cancer. You may know that the adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys and affect many functions of the body. I gave her the blog address. I hope she will write and tell me about this adrenal cancer and its treatment and let us know how she is doing.

May 6 Mark did not sleep for 48 hours or so after arriving home from his month in Thailand Was this due to the 12 hour difference in time, for example when it is midnight here, it is noon in Thailand? Or was it due to something else...thoughts on his mind perhaps. Maybe thoughts about cancer and death or perhaps other fears. He has a fear people will break into our house and this could be due to the mysterious death of a friend's father some years ago in which the father was apparently killed with an axe by an intruder. It could be due to multiple car vandalism on our street twice in recent years. When we moved into our current house 20 some years ago, we felt safe even if we forgot to lock the door or left the garage door up. Not anymore. Doors must be closed and locked. I used to dream of buying a convertible again but I changed my dream to a sun roof after vandals slashed my neighbor's cloth convertible top and stole his new music/radio system, given to him just days earlier by his wife. Finally Mark fell asleep in the middle of the night last night.

May 4 Latest News: Mark is back in Austin. Arrived Thursday evening after 26 hours on planes: Bangkok to Narita (Tokyo) to San Francisco to Denver to Austin. He looked great on arrival, which he attributes to no chemotherapy for two months and a month on a Thai Beach. Friday and Saturday are days of rest for Mark then Sunday we head to the Veteran's Hospital in Houston for blood tests and chemotherapy. This weekend in Austin (May 5-6) is the Pecan Street Festival which has several blocks of booths with artists showing their wares and some live music and food.

May2 Last day in Bangkok and Mark is on his way back to Austin
Mark e-mailed that he was sitting in a dentist's office in Bangkok and e-mailing from there. Reminds me of a time I went to a beauty shop in South Korea and there were free computers to use while waiting for service or waiting for someone. The East is ahead of us in using technology in a number of ways.

April 28-29 While Mark is taking a break from cancer treatment in
Thailand, -Mom and James Checked Out Festivals in and Around Austin





James and Mom went to two festivals in Austin in one day: the dragon boat races on town lake and the German Heritage Maifest. The Asian population and Asian food were evident at the dragon boat races while descendants of German immigrants to Texas and German food and beer were at the German festival. We were surprised to learn that there is a German Heritage Society in a beautiful old building with lovely grounds on a hill on 10th street in the heart of Austin. This was the home of John C. Meusebach (1812-1897) He was called Baron Von Meuselbach by the Texas pioneers, El Sol Coronado by the Indians because of his red hair and beard, and Senator by the Governor. He is said to have founded Fredricksburg.

Read about Meusebach above by double clicking or the left hand picture twice to enlarge it. In the Society's garden, one musician was playing the accordian and the other was playing a garden rake on a wooden bench using salt.

We ran into the young men from Austin Community College where they are studying German. The house is built sideways on a hill which was fascinating to Mom. There are several interesting activities in and around Austin Texas every weekend. We will try to keep Mark going to some of these fun things as we take his mind off of cancer.

If you are new to the blog, be aware you can read about medical care in Bangkok and about Thailand and Saipan in back issues of the blog by clicking archived entries listed on the right hand side.