Mark got an encouraging report on his Pet Scan done at the VA Hospital in Houston. He is apparently still in remission and he will head back to Thailand soon. He will travel using his air miles.

Mark Presented his Rotary Club Banner
( Pattaya-Jomtien Thailand Club) at the University Rotary Club Austin, Texas on June 28th to outgoing president Linda Nowlin. This meeting was the initiation of new officers for the 09-10 year. Linda went over the club accomplishments for the year and outstanding contributions by individual members. Dr. John Doty, Austin oncologist for 20 years and now Executive Director of Austin Samaritans, a group dedicated to providing care to the poor and undeserved in Central America and elsewhere in the world spoke about the work of this group. If you are interested in helping in some way and/or for more information go to http://dogoodchannel.com/nonprofits/austin-samaritans

Mark is Back in Texas and Checking in at Houston VA

Mark came in Tuesday June 2nd arriving from Bangkok and all turned around time wise. Bangkok is 12 hours ahead of us so when it is sleep time here, Mark is up and ready to go and when it's time to go, he is ready to sleep. He is working hard on turning his sleep cycle around.

On the 8th Mark saw his oncologist, Dr. Arce-Lora at the Houston VA. Afterward he told us that Dr. Lora has scheduled a pet scan for him. In Bangkok when Mark was treated at Bumrumgrad in 05-07, we wondered about a pet scan but at that time there was no pet scan in Thailand. The hospital had a staff member whose job was to help patients with arrangements for pet scans in Singapore or Hong Kong. A young woman with cancer being treated in the same clinic as Mark went to Hong Kong for a pet scan because she could take her two-year-old son to the Disney Park there in addition to getting the scan. She shared the details with us. There was the cost of travel, the hotel stays, and then somewhere around 1500 to 2000 for the pet scan. The first pet scan to be installed in one of the hospitals in Bangkok so people there no longer have to travel abroad to get a pet scan was I think located in Bangkok Hospital which has numerous facilities around Thailand under its umbrella including Wattanosoth Cancer Hospital which seems to have a Pet Scan or access to one. Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhava elder sister of the King of Thailand, was a royal patron of Bangkok Hospital and I believe it was she who was instrumental in getting a pet scan for Bangkok Hospital and the people of Thailand. She died of cancer in 2008 at Siriraj Hospital, the oldest hospital in Thailand located on the west bank of Cho Phraya River in Bangkok.
More recently Bumrumgrad hospital installed a Pet Scan. "The scanner installed to provide services at Bumrungrad is the PET/CT Biograph 64 TruePoint, Siemens’ latest technology ... PET/CT provides high resolution images even in traces of the disease as small as 3-6 millimeters in size. This instrument provides an anatomical map for pinpointing the ex-act location of tumors in the body with 64-slices per revolution in only 0.33 seconds, thus providing enhanced quality and faster views for both 2 and 3 dimension images (http://www.thaipr.net/nc/readnews.aspx?newsid=09C9CE0EB7EAF1C65306AA3EE6CE4F59 "

At any rate, we are excited and scared too that Mark will get a pet scan and learn the results soon.