Cancer-battle: Adventures of Mark Richardson

2011-12-31T21:47:00.000-08:00

Early Christmas in St Georges' Caye, Belize
Mark, his mom and step-father went to Belize from December 10-17. We flew into Belize City and went by boat to the St. George's Caye Resort. Our cabanas were over the water so water lapped underneath and lulled us to sleep. Every morning very early we found our choices of coffee or tea and juice placed on a table outside the door. What a treat.

While at the resort Mark went snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking and fishing. Richard, our guide for fishing took us up and down the river waterways near Belize City. We were sometimes casting near the shores and sometimes trolling. There was a pot of money for the person who caught the biggest fish and that was Mom although Mark caught some very nice fish that were much better for eating. Of course the biggest ones got away. Mark also caught some fish off the docks with just a line and hook. The fish were specially prepared by the resort chef and his staff for the guests.

Mark spent time reading on the beach and on the docks. He continues to be an avid reader which takes his mind off cancer for awhile. He is approaching 7 years since his diagnosis of stage IV cancer with a prognosis of 3 months or less. Every day is a gift. There is that thought creeping into the consciousness now and then of "what if cancer lurks within and pops up again?" We have to put that thought aside and live life to the fullest. Great adventures like going to Belize are part of that plan to cram into life all we can.

2011-10-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

Mark is Still in Thailand and Helping Jerry Make Another Movie
Our friend Jerry did some filming for "Fembots" his new movie around Austin and Mark's mom had a small role which was filmed down on South Congress. Now Jerry is filming in Thailand and Mark has a role. It's a small world isn't it. It's the rainy season and it rains about every day sometime during the day.Some areas of Bangkok have been flooded and the airport was closed a few days. When Mark was going to Bumrumgrad Hospital for treatment, some days our taxi would turn off Sukumvit (street) onto the narrow street to the hospital and the street would be flooded. A boat would have been more in order for getting down the street.
Mark will be back soon for a CAT scan (maybe a Pet scan) and consults with his oncologist and the kidney doc. Cross your fingers and also pray for a good report for Mark.

2011-07-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Mark Is Encouraging Others With Esophageal Cancer By Staying Alive and Well

People with cancer, especially esophageal cancer with metastasis e-mail periodically and relate how Mark's story has given them hope and encouragement in their battle against cancer. Mark loves the idea that his story can encourage others. I think back to when Mark was so sick that we thought he could die any day. When we traveled we never knew if he would make it back alive. Sometimes when traveling with Mark, I thought about my friend who took her mother to Europe on a fun vacation. Her mother was sick for a month and died unexpectedly in Europe. My friend brought mother's ashes back in the overhead bin and later talked about how strange and heartbreaking that was, but she did it. Her sharing this story impressed me with the idea that we all do difficult things when we have to. We arise to the occasion.

Mark is now in Thailand again. The food there is less fattening than here and he is walking more so he has lost down to a healthy weight. His weight has been up and down for the past 6 years so he has a small wardrobe of currently fitting clothes. Mark's friend and former co-worker Alan is going to visit him in September and Mark has some fishing plans for himself and Alan.

Thai politics are heating up. You may recall the demonstrations last year in Thailand by the red shirt party (Peua Thai party) with the airport taken over and closed for awhile and the Democratic party soldiers in the streets of Bangkok with tanks and yet helping old ladies across the street. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is of the Peua Thai party which is considered the people's party in a battle of haves and have nots. Somehow Thaksin is a billionaire and one of the haves which raises some questions. He was accused of corruption and ousted in a military coup in 2006. He is in exile in Dubai. It is of interest that Sunday, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, a US educated business woman was elected Thailand's first female prime minister. Will she be a puppet of her brother or not? The Peua Thai party holds 264 of 500 seats in the Thai parliament and the rest are held by the Democratic party. The Democratic party is the party associated with the royal family and the military. They have been steadily loosing power and seats in Parliament. Is there a similarity to the US?

2011-04-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Mark Celebrated His 6th Birthday Since Prognosis of 3 Months or Less to Live

Mark celebrated his birthday by going to one of the many food trailers in Austin to have some tacos. He is wearing the birthday glasses I bought in Thailand. The glasses play the Happy Birthday song and the candles have lights that flash off and on. Mark wasn't too keen on posing with the glasses but being a good sport he let me get a picture of him with the glasses. Mark has been raising a vegetable garden on our decks and keeping the pool clean which has been no easy feat during the time the live oak trees over the pool loose their leaves. He will soon go back to Thailand and we will miss him.

2011-01-12T16:12:00.000-08:00

Another Friend of Mark's Died this week
Ron Cruzan (1960-2011)
Mark meet Ron in Junior High. They were friends through high school. Mark and I visited with Ron and his mother a couple of years ago when it was high school reunion time for Mark and Ron. The guys hung out for a few days and in the past month they have talked on e-mail and on the phone. Ron will be missed and remembered always.

Ron cooked in a number of restaurants in his home town over the years. I think he enjoyed cooking. Mark loves to cook. Every day he cooks something that is amazingly good. Even when Mark was his sickest during early chemo and radiation days, he would cook when his nausea and vomiting subsided a little. He'd send me off to various stores in Bangkok to get the ingredients and he would fix something that appealed to him. I've been thinking of doing a cooking blog for Mark and perhaps calling it "What's Mark cooking today?"

2010-12-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

More on Mark's Kidney Tumor Removed Using the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System by Da Vinci

Mark was seen today for postop follow-up in Houston. His oncologist and surgeon both told him his tumor was cancerous and the cancer was called "clear cell" carcinoma.

You can read about the da vinci robotic arm system at http://medgadget.com/archives/2005/07/da_vinci_robot.html See picture of same above. It is like three arms on a post. Each arm has a wrist with 8 degrees of function. The surgeon sits across the room from the patient with their arms inserted into a console. The focus is adjusted by foot pedals.
Addendum 1/12/2011 Four days before Mark's surgery Time Magazine Dec. 13,2010 had a seven page article on the Da Vinci surgical robot. We just read it today. The article says there are a thousand hospitals and clinics in this country and 400 others in the world that have this machine and that half of all prostate cancer operations are done using this robot.Dr. Mani Menon, born in India, was the first surgeon in this country to use a robot to remove a cancerous prostate gland. He was a protege of Dr. Patrick Walsh of Johns Hopkins and learned Dr. Walsh's technique for doing surgery for prostate cancer that left the patient still potent and continent. This technique had the surgeon doing the work using his hands and going by feel not sight. Using the robot, Dr. Menon and now others, can see the surgical site. In 2000 Dr. Menon opened the country's first center for robotic prostatectomy at Henry Ford. Currently the da Vinci robot is used for many types of surgeries in various parts of the body. The da vinci robot costs more than one million dollars and after each procedure parts worth around $1,500 have to be replaced.

2010-12-23T17:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Holiday Wishes From Mark and Family and Follow up on Gout vs Infection
We are having our family gathering at our house on Christmas eve. We will cook a lot and our friend Suzie will help us cook. We will do a white elephant gift thing and play some games. Mark's sister will stay in Okinawa. We urged her earlier to take her Christmas vacation and head to Thailand for her health check-up which she did...and it was a good thing. When Mark gets better maybe we can go visit her.
Mark is not feeling peppy. He is taking it easy and will go to the VA hospital in Houston on Dec. 29. He will see his oncologist and the doctor who did his kidney surgery. Maybe there will be a report on the kidney tumor. Maybe we will will find out if it was malignant or not and if it is a primary tumor or metastasis.
To follow-up on Mark's earlier hospital stay for intense pain and swelling in his elbow: It was gout. Mark had another bout but managed it at home and it subsided just before going to Houston for his kidney surgery.

2010-12-20T03:44:00.000-08:00

Mark is "a lucky man" According to the Surgeons
Mark was released from the hospital yesterday (Sunday) after the doctor told him how lucky he was. It turns out the docs were able to save 99% of his kidney. The doctor explained that the tumor was growing on top of the kidney like a tree with only the trunk dipping into the kidney so it seems they only had to core out the trunk. Mark had great doctors and great nurses and nurse aides. Everyone of the staff were super. The pictures above include Susan his favorite nurse (although he liked and appreciated all his good nurses) and the cutest Santa whose name I did not get. You can also see a picture of Mark's wounds...a few incisions where the robotic arms were inserted and his Jackson-Pratt drain.
On his fist and second post-op days, Mark was no longer doing dance steps and was not joking with the nurses as much. He was still in and out of bed and walking a lot but he was having pain and was tired.
Mark was worried about the trip home and all the jarring from the road which causes him pain, but he survived the ride home nicely and without complaint (except for my driving), reading a book all the way home..

2010-12-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

Mark's Kidney Surgery and Follow-up About the Gout ... We started the 3 hour Houston drive on Thursday at 4 pm not knowing if the surgeon had clearance for Mark's surgery on Friday or not. We were 90 minutes on our way going on faith that the surgery would take place when the surgeon called to say that the surgery was cleared. Traffic was very heavy as we got into Houston but we arrived safely...and too tired to go out to eat so we ate at the hotel.

We were told to report to the VA Hospital at 0530, so we were up at 0415. Mark was in surgery at 0740 and stayed there for four and a half hours. It was a partial nephrectomy, robotic arm assisted. The doc finally came to tell me that surgery went well...they saved 90% of the kidney. The margins around the tumor which was cored out were clean.
After about 25 minutes I was able to go to recovery room and Mark was wide awake and joking with the nurses. He immediately asked me to get his Kindle book reader his sister Stephanie sent him. He was in his room in another 30 minutes, and luckily he got a private room. He retaped all his tubes himself, got up, stood at the bedside and did some dance steps, sent me to get iced tea and candy, joked with the nurses and walked all over the hospital. At one point the nurses thought he was walking the hall, but he'd gone downstairs into the fresh air. He may get to come home tomorrow (Sat) to continue his recovery. More info on the tumor that was removed, when Mark gets a report.
PS Mark's elbow pain and swelling was due to gout. He had a second bout of gout but not as bad as the one which put him in the hospital. See earlier post. The second bout subsided in time for the kidney surgery. Good timing.

2010-11-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

Mark is in the VA Hospital in Temple Texas
The guys from Reno, Alan and Mike, were here and great fun was had by all especially at the football game which UT won on a beautiful sunny day. Mike went back on Sunday and Alan on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. On Tuesday before Alan left, Mark was up at 3 am complaining of excruciating elbow and arm pain. When the local VA clinic opened James and Alan took Mark there. Mark ended up going by ambulance to the VA in Temple. He had x-rays, labs, fluid taken off elbow and now bets are being taken over whether it is an infection or gout. Mark will miss turkey day at home. The docs have disappeared for the holidays and there is apparently no one to discharge him or give him a pass home. What a turn of events! Oh well, this too shall pass and we'll go on to the next adventure.

2010-11-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Mark Will Be in Austin Soon and And So Will His Buddies Allen and Mike

Mark's friends and former coworkers Alan and Mike are coming from Reno for a visit this week and Mark is coming from Thailand to get ready for his kidney surgery in December. The guys have tickets to the University of Texas football game on Nov. 20th. Barry who sold us some of his family's season tickets has invited the guys to a tailgate party. This is exciting like getting extra icing on your piece of cake. Barry let me know that someone has been making a documentary of their tailgate party and they have a lot of footage already, but wouldn't it be fun if Mark and the guys could get in the film scarfing down some ribs or chicken or something? Mark gets his energy to fight cancer from doing fun stuff and being with fun people. Having something to look forward to and then enjoying is always good medicine.

2010-08-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

On August 2nd Mark went to the VA to Schedule Surgery for Renal Tumor

Mark and I made a mad dash for Houston on Monday for a 3:30 appointment regarding his upcoming surgery for a renal tumor. About 4 pm he saw the most knowledgeable lady doctor who showed us the MRI and the tumor. Mark will probably have three incisions which is lots better than the large incision we thought he was going to have. Mark is hoping to schedule the surgery for a little over a week before Christmas. The plan is a couple of days in the hospital and then home for about a six week recovery. This may be renal cell cancer separate from his adenocarcinoma or it may be metastasis from the adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or it could be benign. We will know when the tumor is examined after surgery.
As you may have guessed we got away from the VA in time to play with the rush hour traffic in Houston before exiting the city for Austin.
We wonder how many people have experienced two different kinds of cancer. If you had two different kinds, please post a note.

2010-07-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

Mark just back from an 11 day trip to Lake Tahoe, Reno, and California
Mark went camping, fishing, and seafood-eating with Alan and Mike, guys he used to work with in Nevada. They had a lot of fun, caught a lot of fish and saw a white whale. Mark needs days of fun to help him deal with fighting off cancer. At the present time he is 5 years and 5 months out from his diagnosis of esophageal cancer with metastasis to the liver. Does he have cancer now? Is it in his kidney or lurking somewhere else?

Although Mark's recent pet scan was clean, his MRI showed that his small kidney tumors have doubled in size in the last year. He will see the urologist/nephrologist this coming Tuesday and he will see his new oncologist at the VA the next day. Mark is staying positive. He's ready to head to Thailand and has a ticket for August 11, but could end up staying longer for kidney work.

We'll miss Mark when he heads to Thailand. We really enjoy having him close by - he is good company, keeps the pool clean (having brought it back from green to beautiful blue), keeps the grass mowed, the kitchen clean, cooks, and is upbeat and positive. We've all seen what a tough battle he wages against this cancer, and it's both impressive and especially nice to see him in such good spirits.

In the meantime, Marks sister, Stephanie, has taken a transfer of sorts with her job and moved to Okinawa, Japan, with her ancient cat, PingPong, in tow. This means she will be much closer geographically to Mark and I will be able to potentially stop in to see her both on the way to/from Thailand. We're waiting to hear her first impressions of Okinawa, and perhaps both Mark and I will be able to visit her while she's there.

I'll put some more cultural information about Thailand on the blog soon.

2010-06-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Mark in Austin at the Tacco Express

Ever heard of the expression "Keep Austin Wierd?" One of the places that lives up to this motto is the Tacco Express on South Congress. On Sunday at noon and some evenings, there is live music. Today's music was a gospel and blues group. Some people dress up in things like tutus feather boas and dance. That includes men as well as women. Sometimes people show up dressed to the nines while most go casual or off beat. If you go, you will fit right in.

Mark has been busy since getting to Austin. He has been to the Veteran's Hosp. in Houston twice and has to go again. He has cooked brisket in the smoker, brought the swimming pool back to blue from an ugly algae green, been working on healthy living from eating healthy to exercise and has cared for the yard. Another trip to the VA for an MRI is scheduled for next week. You might want to pray (or send good energy Mark's way) that his test results are good.

Life in Thailand
Soon I will put something more on this blog about life in Thailand.

2010-05-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Mark is Leaving the Land of Smiles (Thailand) Today and headed to the USA
When Mark is in the airport in Bangkok, he will be in one of the most beautiful airports in the world. There are beautiful huge statues of mythical characters and scenes from Thai myths. Orchids are in magnificent abundance along with other flowers.
Mark is coming to get a check-up with his oncologists at the VA hospital in Houston this coming Wednesday. Say a prayer for him. It's been a long time since he had a scan of any kind or a check-up.
Mark just called to say his flight out of Thailand or somewhere else along the string of flights got canceled so he is on a new flight schedule. He is on his way

2010-04-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mark

Shoe Cart in Pattaya/Jomtien Beach Thailand

Tomorrow is Mark's 6th Birthday after Prognosis of 3 Months or Less to Live

After the frightening discovery of cancer and metastasis in 2005, I was afraid Mark wouldn't live until his birthday in April of 2005. Not only did he live until that birthday, but he'll celebrate his 6th birthday after diagnosis, tomorrow.

How thankful we are that Mark has survived. It could easily have been otherwise. Yesterday dear friends lost their young adult daughter who had lymphoma. She died not because of lymphoma but rather to decreased immunity due to treatments for the lymphoma and then getting a bacterial infection. How sad this is.

While Mark wasn't lucky enough to have health insurance for the first two years of treatment, we were lucky to be able to pay cash at Bumrumgrad Hospital. We lived a 50 cent Taxi ride from the hospital. The hospital kept a close watch on his WBCs and RBCs and would let me take injections home to give him to stimulate WBCs or RBCs as needed. Mark and I kept a close watch on his temperature and other signs of infection. In Thailand we could buy antibiotics at the pharmacy without a prescription. When we were on a trip, we could start antibiotics ourselves. So many things have kept Mark alive: grace of God, prayers, lots of support from so many people, his love of reading, fighting spirit and luck. Love of reading really helped as he could take his mind off his situation. This helped keep the stress down. We think we know what helped keep Mark alive, but in the end no one really knows why one person lives and another does not. We know it wasn't from avoiding sugar as Mark loved sugar and ate things with sugar. We know it wasn't from herbal medicine or special seaweed preparations. He had to choose between herbal medicine and his oncologist and radiologist. He chose the doctors, which for him turned out to be a good decision. There were times when it felt like Mark could slip away from us, but somehow he survived.

More on the Culture and Life in Pattaya/Jomtien Beach, Thailand
In Jomtien Beach, a vegetable and meats cart comes by nearly each morning. Small portions of meat hang in plastic bags to keep flies out and there is a wide variety of vegetables. When I was in Thailand recently, I bought things from this cart to have made into soup or other dishes in the guest house where I stayed.The guest house manager "Da Da" was eager to cook me delicious things with lots of vegetables and pork, chicken, and/or shrimp but not beef. Many people here do not eat beef for religious reasons.
Sometimes a cart comes down the street with a wide variety of clothing for women. There are carts down the beach road and main roads that have all kinds of food for sale. Vendors are on the streets selling all kinds of articles made by hand. There are people selling women's underwear on the street. One of my favorite carts is the shoe cart which has racks of all kinds of fancy women's shoes on a cart powered by a motorcycle. See picture above. Click on any picture to enlarge it.

2010-04-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

Mark is still in Thailand and Using Easy Cheap Transportation to Get Around in Pattaya/Jomtien Beach Thailand

In many ways life in Jomtien Beach Thailand is less expensive and easier. I thought I might do a few blogs on how life is different there and perhaps give you a little insight into why Mark stays there so much.

In the pictures above you see the popular truck with bench seats transportation. It is called a Songtao and sometimes Songtail by Forang (foreigners) . For 10 baht (100 baht = approximately $3) you can travel lots of places in the city and for 20 baht you can travel to more distant areas. You simply flag one of these vehicles down and climb on. If the vehicle is full or if you just want to, you can stand on a back platform and hang on. Many people who live in Pattaya/Jomtien Beach do not own a car thus avoiding all the costs and other problems that go along with operating a car. This can make life a little less stressful. Maybe less stress will help Mark stay in remission. When he comes home, he'll go to the VA hospital in Houston and the doctor will try to find the answer to the question of remission or not.

2010-03-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

Mark at Jomtien Beach at Sunset

Mark and Mom in Pattaya-Jomtien Beach Thailand

I (Mark's mom)arrived in Thailand at 1:30 am. Mark had sent a driver (Mr. A.) for me. The plane was late but Mr. A waited and he recognized me right away. After sleeping on the plane and on the ride from Bangkok to Jomtien Beach, I was up and ready to go the next day. I am staying at Angel's guest House on Chiaprauk Road and Mark has a one bedroom condo a mile or two down the same road. Mark had been saying he was putting on weight and indeed he had put on some, but of course he is still not very pom puey (fat). everyone remarks about how handsome he is.

The movie is off. The proposed cast was very "wiggly", coming and going and not available for critical times and some prospective cast members thinking this movie was going to gross millions and wanting to be paid accordingly. Here movies have to be approved by the Thai govt. but that didn't seem to be any problem. The real problem was getting a working cast committed to the project.

So far our adventures have been confined to Pattaya-Jomtien with one foray out to the Silver Lake Winery and gardens which is very beautiful. There is a gorgeous lake viewed from the abundant flower gardens. Across the lake there is a windmill that looks like a scene from Holland.The vineyards are beautiful.

We also went to the turtle conservatory at the Sattahip Naval Base. Our driver and guide was a Navy Marine. Apparently you can be a marine in the Navy. There is a submarine on the navy base. Farang (foreigners) can see the outside but are not allowed inside the submarine. There were many many turtles at the conservatory from very small to very big ones. At one point we were driving along the coast on the navy base and came to a barricade. Our guide got out to talk to the guards and later told us, we could not go on that road as the Thai prince was staying somewhere on a nearby hilltop at the navy base.

Mark and I made one Rotary meeting at the Cliffs Hotel Complex where the Rotary Club has their own dedicated room. When the hotel was built, one room was created especially for Rotary. It is a round room with the Rotary flags displayed all around the room. When the meeting begins, we face a picture of the king, not the flag and the national anthem is played. The food is good. We had duck and red curry. Each person orders what they want from an extensive hotel menu. The speaker talked about an orphanage he has created in the north of Thailand. Like Mexico, children are not necessarily orphans. Families send them to the orphanage if they can not afford to feed and care for them. The children can stay as long as they stay in school and are encouraged to finish high school.

We had a picnic with friends on the beach last Monday night This was an official Budha holiday. The weekend was a three day holiday and was packed until Mon. night when a lot of people had returned home to go to work Tuesday.

I am thinking about going to Hua Hin for a few days. This is a city on the coast and it is the location of one of the palaces of the royals. The king and queen used to spend a lot of time in Hua Hin as well as in Chang Mai where there is another royal resident. Years ago they would go in motorcades out from Hua Hin to meet with the farm families and the king would drive his own car. They would stop wherever people had gathered on the road. The king and queen were very concerned about the welfare of the people. I read that they also loved animals and would stop for any domestic or wild animal and once stopped to let a pair of cobras cross the road.

It is very hot here. I change clothes 3-4 times a day. I wash my clothes in the sink and hang them on the balcony. I walk one hour in the morning and am drenched when I return to my room. There is a lovely breeze off the gulf of Thailand which helps a lot.

Mark and Mom

2010-02-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

After 4 days of Marti Gras Mark's Mom Headed to Thailand
I just spent four days in small towns in Louisiana with Mark's step-father James. We experienced the customs and festivals around Mardi Gras beginning with supper at DI's on the Evangeline Highway near Basille, La. DI's had Cajun music and the people in costume dancing and begging for food and money. For information on DI's and some Cajun music go to http://www.discajunrestaurant.biz/music.htm
We went to the Savoy Music Store for the jam session by people from all over who came with their music instruments. We went to Jennings for the Squeezebox Shootout which is an accordian contest.
For more about Louisiana customs of Mardi Gras go to http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Festiva1/en/lsm/page4.html

In the morning I head to Thailand to spend time with Mark and see how he is doing.
Stay tuned for more information and pictures

2010-02-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Mark is Close to his 5 year Anniversary After Being Told He had Three Months or Less to Live
Around Valentine's Day 2005,I listened to the messages on the phone answering machine. Mark's voice came on "Mom, I'm in a bit of trouble" Lots of possibilities swirled in my mind as I called Mark back and learned that his bit of trouble was a huge doughnut shaped tumor in his esophagus at the gastric juncture with several tumors in his liver.
He was given a bottle of liquid morphine and told to get his affairs in order. Not one to give up easily, a major battle with cancer followed. Mark, his sister, and I are thankful every day for all the care Dr.s Theera Umsawadi and Sunantha Srisiebut Playsongsang at Bumrumgrad Hospital in Bangkok gave Mark and for all the support of family, friends, and strangers and later his VA doctors and nurses.

There is every reason to celebrate this 5 year anniversary, but weighing heavily on Mark's mind is the possibility his cancer could come back and not feeling as well as he would like and not having as much energy as he would like. He perked up this week and is cooking tacos and is closer to his positive and cheerful self. Perhaps he is perked up because he began helping our friend Jerry Barrett to make a movie in Thailand. Not to be left out, I am headed to Thailand next week to assist in casting or production or whatever is needed. This is the third movie Mark has been in since his diagnosis.
Check in periodically to learn more about this movie and to keep up with Mark's other adventures.
Note the picture above is from the first movie Mark was in. He is second from the left. Third from the left is Jerry Barrett, film maker.

2009-12-21T17:48:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Mark, His Mom, and Sister Stephanie,

Another year is coming to a close and the three of us are all happy to be alive, especially Mark after his prognosis in 2005 that he had three months or less to live. Does this go to show that you shouldn't believe everything you hear?

This Christmas Mark is in Thailand, Stephanie is in England, and Mom in Austin. We'll have another Christmas together another year.

Mark is waiting for our friend Jerry Barrett to arrive in Thailand from the Katmandu valley. Jerry is planning to film another movie with Mark in it. Mark is doing his own cooking and taking it easy.

Stephanie was in Boston area (Southbridge, Mass) last week for a conference and Mom went to be with her and to eat lobster and shop. We were in Southbridge for a couple of days then we went into Boston and stayed at the Royal Sonesta Hotel across from the Galaria shopping mall.We found an Afgan restaurant and it was really good. We toured the historical sites. Good thing we didn't go to Boston this week as the area was snowed in and many of the airports closed on the East Coast.

2009-10-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

A Miracle Cure?

Mark's doctor at the Veteran's Hospital called me this week. He said he was thinking that Mark might have gotten "a miracle cure." A lot of you, from all over the world, were praying for him, so maybe so. The oncologist reminded me that Mark's Pet Scan was good. He suggested that cancer could come back as a new cancer or the old cancer could pop up again, but he wanted to focus on the possibility of a miracle cure and begin to screen Mark for any other health problems that we might have been ignoring as we focused on the esophageal and liver cancer and the strange suspicious spot on his kidney. Of course that makes sense.

I'm writing an instructor's manual for a text book about to be published and one of the chapters is on Cancer. What do the authors say? For starters that the experience of cancer is a disruptive and life-threatening experience. This is certainly true. Mark left his dream job on the island of Saipan. I left the Rotary GSE team that I had worked with for a year preparing to study violence on the Mexican border. Mark headed to Thailand for treatment and his sister and I followed. I cannot convey how difficult the next two years of treatment were for Mark and how much he appreciates all the support he got from friends, family, his doctors and nurses, medical personnel, and strangers.

It is initially hard for Mark and I to wrap our minds around "a miracle cure" after his various dire prognoses from medical personnel,after all he has gone through, and with the effects of cancer and chemotherapy and radiation still very much with him.

Should we embrace this cure with all our energies and hopes or move with caution knowing the cancer can come back or another cancer pop up like the chest wall tumor that came out of nowhere, was radiated and is gone? I suppose the answer is that Mark and even his sister and I will go on squeezing everything we can out of every day and living life to the fullest to the best of our abilities and we will deal with whatever comes our way.

I'll keep you posted on Mark. He is still having adventures in Thailand.

2009-09-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Elke and Hinrich

Another dear friend has died from cancer. Hinrich died September 8, o9 at his home in the loving arms of Elke his wife, who greatly misses him. We celebrate his life and morn his passing. He was a wonderful person and friend. When Mark was very sick and he wanted to travel in case he died and never got to travel again, I took him to Amsterdam. All the rooms in Amsterdam were taken as it was the 25th anniversary of the queen on the throne. Hinrich gave us the information that allowed us to find the last two vacant rooms in Amsterdam. He contacted his cousin in Amsterdam who showed us around. Hinrich and Elke invited us to travel by train to Groningen in the Netherlands where they picked us up by car and took us to their home in Emden, Germany and fed us a delicious meal. Mark was so very cold in those days even in the hot Bangkok sun, but especially so in Northern Germany. Our friends Hinrich and Elke loaned Mark a coat, fed him, and let him rest before going to a small village to visit with distant relatives of ours. Hinrich had helped me with my genealogy sparing no effort to find the descendants of my great great grandfather who came from Ostfriesland Germany. What fun it was for Elke, Hinrich, Mark and I to enjoy an Ostfriesland tea ceremony with our Gerdes relatives in their home and to learn of their branch of the family. We were so lucky that Elke and Hinrich came into our lives. At that time Hinrich looked so healthy and Mark so sick. What a strange thing that Hinrich is gone and Mark continues on nearly five years beyond his three month prognosis.

I recall when mark got his three month or less prognosis and his saying something like: "Mom I am too young to die, dying before my mother and my older friends. I've just begun to get my life in order." I remember telling him not to count on death before me or others and that I might get run over by a garbage truck on one of the multi-lane streets in Bangkok where you take your life in your hands to cross the street. Ironically Mark has lost a number of close friends including young and old in the past nearly five years. It is inevitable that Mark too will eventually die but not before his time is up.

What is Mark doing now? Mark has been lying low or as he says: "I've been hunkered down: not going out and not spending any money." 10 days ago Mark discovered his debit card was expired and the ATM would not give him any money. I got a new debit card for him, mailed the card one day and mailed a package the next. The package arrived into his hands in Thailand in 5 days and the card in 10 days. Life is looking up as he now can withdraw some money and get out and about. Fortunately Mark has a number of good friends in Jomtien Beach and Pattaya and several would have loaned him a little money as they know he is good for it and they know Mark's mom and that she would never let him go without enough money to make a loan good. He just didn't want to borrow any money. Good for him. Mark says he feels good and life is good. He still has to pace himself to have enough energy and he still has pain.

Kind thoughts and prayers are still greatly appreciated.

2009-08-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

Mark reports he is doing well. He called Wed. morning US time which is Wed. evening Thai time. He had just finished going to a Rotary meeting where he met a lot of interesting people. There was not long to talk because it was about to rain and he was on a motorcycle so he wanted to try to beat the rain home. Mark reported he had been to Bangkok by bus and gotten his visa business done.

It looks like Mark is feeling much better and getting out and about with friends. Last week when he called he was eating at Shenanigans. This is a nice restaurant with a very reasonable menu. I will double check with Mark the details but my recall is that on Fridays we would get a T-bone steak, salad, and potatoes for 200 baht or about 6 dollars each. If you are in Pattaya or Jomtien Beach, I recommend you go to Shenanigans which is reasonable with good service, however if you want lots of service and atmosphere and are willing to pay much more...go to the News Cafe or Manhattans. There are lots and lots of other real nice restaurants.

2009-08-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

Mark is back in Thailand Again and it's 2 Years Since any Chemo -

Picture of Mark wearing a hat made by one of the Thailand hill tribes of indiginous Indians.

I was reading old blogs today and was astounded at what I had forgotten or lost track of. I was amazed that it has been two years since Mark last had chemo. His doctor in Thailand had wanted Mark to continue on chemo as long as he was alive and he was willing, but when he left Thailand after two years of treatment and sought care at the VA, the VA doc in Houston wanted him off of chemo and enjoying a quality of life which is difficult or impossible with all the side effects from chemo. While short on energy, Mark has still accomplished and seen a lot that he never thought would be possible over the past two years.

If you have not heard from Mark in recent weeks, realize it is not just you but all his friends and acquaintances who have not gotten a note. Mark had not touched a computer in weeks...too sick and no energy. Today for the first time he used his Acer notebook and sent some thank-you notes. Mark's sister wanted him to have an Acer since she and I both have one. Stephanie paid for it and I picked out a cool red one for him. Mine is red too. Steph has a conservative color.

In some early blogs I reread quotes of Mark writing his sister about why he wanted to be in Thailand once he was diagnosed with cancer. He was saying that people in Thailand have a different view of death and accept people dying differently (better) than we do in the USA. Since Mark has survived now nearly five years, I've had time and opportunity to study the Thai culture and come to better understanding of the Thai thoughts on death and the ceremonies and beliefs surrounding death as well as life. Hopefully I can accept my own eventual immortality and death when the time comes. Maybe Mark will outlive me and if not, I will accept and celebrate his life and his new adventure after life. He has outlived many friends and family members and who would have thought it when he first shared that he had been given three months to live. Thanks again to all of you who prayed for him, sent him cards, letters, kool-aide, licorice, small gifts, and pictures. It meant so much to him that people cared about him and wanted to lift his spirits. Hopefully Mark and I can do this for others in this period when he is doing ok.

Addendum: Stephanie alerted us that Robbie, one of her young teacher friends and a wrestling coach when he was at Kennick High in Yokoska Japan, had died suddenly and unexpectedly. What a contrast in the length of time his wife Melissa had for good-byes (perhaps none) and the length of time we have had with Mark since his 3 month prognosis (four and a half years). We have to be thankful for what gifts we are given in spite of the diagnosis of cancer and all it entails. It is also joyous that Robbie and Melissa had an extended trip to Australia this summer. I was so impressed with Melissa's work in planning a wonderful trip to many places in Australia. It's not all about Mark or all about cancer but also about the young friends who have died and leave us with a sense of loss as well as the gift of having known them.

2009-06-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-09T08:39:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-05-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

Mark, here with shrimp, is coming to Texas June Second

Mark paid rent in advance on his small condo in Jomtien Beach, arranged for cleaning and bug spraying and is preparing to come home for awhile to get tests at the VA hospital in Houston. Pray that he will still be in remission.

Report on Recent Chaos In Thailand which reached Pattaya Jomtien Beach I've promised you a report and finally here it is. The Financial Times headline on page one April 14 said "Thailand gripped by chaos".... "Anti-government protesters and the military fought dramatic battles on the streets of Bangkok that left at least two dead and almost 100 injured." The red shirted anti-government protesters want an ousted exiled prime minister Thaksin back in power and called for the resignation of current prime minister Abbisit Vellajiva. How did this affect Mark and his sister, Stephanie, and her friend Rossina who were visiting him? Prime Minister Abbisit had arranged an Asian summit to take place at the hotel where Mark's Rotary Club meets on Wednesdays. Mark planned to take his sister to dinner at the Rotary Club. Prior to the Rotary meeting, the red-shirted protesters pushed past the gate guards and stormed the hotel complex. Dignitaries were moved safely by the government in helicopters and by boat, but PM Abbisit's car windshield was damaged. All this activity forced the closure of the Asian Conference and a change of meeting place for the Rotary Club. There were street closures and two way streets were changed to one way streets. Lots of excitement in Pattaya-Jomtien Beach. Mark and his sister and Rossina were actually able to buzz right on past the roadblocks to get to the hotel, in a hired baht bus, only to find out the meeting had been cancelled. They ended up at a nice restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. Yes, Condoms! They all also had a harder time getting around due to traffic changes. Nonetheless it was a big adventure.
Addendum May 31st Cabbages and Condoms (C&C)Restaurants - The C & C restaurants were established in several cities in Thailand with all proceeds going to support the activities of PDA which stands for Population and Community Development Association. The Cabbage and Condoms Restaurants offer excellent food and promote health and safety aspects of condom use. Diners can get free condoms and the glass table tops reveal an interesting collection of condom packages. Handicrafts produced by rural villages are on sale with profits funding PDA's development and social welfare activities. There is a C&C at 12th and Sukhumvit in Bangkok. This is about half-way between where we lived in Bangkok (near the corner of Asoke or Soi 19 and Sumhumvit) and Bumrumgrad hospital (just off Soi 1 and Sumhumvit). Another C&C is in Pattaya and this is where Mark and Rossina and Stephanie ate when the redshirt anti-government group stormed the hotel complex where Rotary meets.

2009-04-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

Early pictures of Mark in Cancer treatment. Contrast these pictures with how he looks today 4 years beyond early prognosis of three months or less to live.

Mark and The Mom in Amsterdam, 2005

Mark and friend Ruben's cousin Eugenio in Amsterdam

Mark had lost his hair other than a bit that was light gray to white and thin. He had lost a lot of weight and had no appetite. He started feeling better after visiting some coffee shops and museums and riding in boats on the canals in Amsterdam.

I have pictures of Mark looking sicker but even sick he always tried to look his best and smile with and for people. He would look really really good and often after the pictures would go back to bed for several hours and sleep interrupted by pain, nausea and vomiting.

Mark with former co-worker. Mark is thin, weak, and hair falling out in 2005

I took a picture of Mark at one of his low points trying to have supper with Charlie Praloomratana who, along with his wife, was visiting family in Thailand. They were former co-workers in the respiratory therapy department on Saipan. Mark had no strength, could hardly stay awake and got so nauseated he had to leave in a taxi with Jin, who fortunately had a plastic bag so Mark could vomit during the taxi ride home.

I want people who are fighting cancer and having a difficult time, or their caregivers, can to contrast this picture with Mark now in 2009- see that for some people adventures are possible, remission is possible, we never know what will happen, and it's best to hold onto some hope until it is crystal clear there is no hope . Mark told me in January that no matter how sick he was early on, he never once thought of giving up...never once thought he would actually die.

Check in frequently to the blog. We often say in our family: "Don't worry about it especially if you can't do anything about it." This may have been one of the many things that helped Mark: the ability to not worry. I'm sure he knew he did not have to worry about many things as his mom and sis would take care of whatever needed attention while he was sick.

2009-04-05T07:58:00.001-07:00

Click on any photo to see it larger

Pictures from Mark's induction into Rotary Club of Pattaya-Jomtien Thailand - pictures taken by Graham Hunt Crowley one of the Rotary members. Pictures are of Mark getting his Rotary pin from the president, receiving his membership, and the dinner with fellow Rotarians

Mark's birthday is April 20th. This is his fifth birthday since being told he had three months to live. We were amazed he made it to the first birthday after that dire prognosis and the wild roller-coaster ride that year was. We celebrated that first birthday as if it were his last. This is not a bad attitude for all of us: to enjoy each birthday and each day as if it will be our last. Time and life are precious. Mark's sister Stephanie and Rosina, one of her friends who is a DODDs teacher, are in Thailand right now to see the sights during Spring break and they will celebrate Mark's birthday early.

If you want to send Mark a birthday card that would be wonderful. Mark enjoys home-made cards, notes, and pictures drawn by children or adults and loves to hear what's going on with you. It is the thought that counts the most. His address is Mark Richardson c/o Angel and George Richardson, Angel's Guest House, Jomtien Beach Road 131/23-24 M0012 (Chaipreuk Road), Nongprue, Banglamung, Thailand What an address! Even if you're reading this after the big day, send a note - he loves news and we're still celebrating every day.

2009-03-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Songkran Festival is coming to Thailand (April 13-15). This is the Thai New Year. The Thai people believe that water will wash away bad luck and in some places the people shoot water at each other with water guns and hoses and also throw buckets of water on passing folks It is also a time when many Thais return home and honor the parents and grandparents by pouring scented water over their hands. It is a time of washing Budha statues and a time of doing merit (good deeds to others). This seems like a good time to post some pictures of past festivals enjoyed with Mark's friend Jin (Yuwanit Tipkunok July 1976-June 2008) who left this earth way too soon. Pictures posted are of Jin, Mark and me, Mark having fun with the hose and Stephanie and her friend Phil in a dousing trying to hold their own with water guns. At the time, Mark was getting chemotherapy and was very sick. He was cold even in the hot Bangkok sun. He wondered if he should wear his good suit jacket or not to keep himself warm against the cold water soakings. I advised him to go ahead and wear it, to live every day to the fullest and not save anything for a special occasion. Right now is a special occasion.
Mark's sister Stephanie and her friend Rosina are going to Thailand during Songkran this year on their spring break. I think this may be the first time to Thailand for Rosina.

Mark's birthday is coming soon. (April 20th). Does anyone want to send him a card? He is doing well, living in his own apartment and doing his own cooking in Jomtien Beach, Thailand.
Mark has officially joined the Pattaya-Jomtien Rotary Club - hopefully we will get a picture of that occasion from Mark soon. He really enjoys being with the people in the club.

2009-03-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Mark is joining the Pattaya Jomtien Rotary Club. He's been to five consecutive meetings and received word he has club approval to join. Formal initiation will take place soon. Mark has been concerned that he'll not be able to do as much service as his Rotary peers in the club, since he still has to pace himself due to his cancer and after effects of treatment. He describes the members of this club as enthusiastic for club projects. When the president asks who will help, it seems nearly everyone raises their hands.This club does all kinds of projects to raise money such as road rallys and club members swimming the bay. The money raised is used for a number of fine projects including water projects involving taking potable water generator systems to remote areas of Thailand to provide drinking water to school children and others. Mark reports that he is excited to be joining this club and will participate in whatever projects he can to the extent he can. He enjoys helping people and worked very hard when he and his mom volunteered in the Moskito Coast of Honduras and Thailand.
Mark will be in Thailand until June and then will come to Texas to check in at the Veteran's Hospital in Houston for tests and evaluation of his cancer status. He will go back to Thailand as soon as he gets a green light from the VA docs.
I (Mark's Mom) am in Austin working at the community mental health center. High lights of the week include going to the symphony to hear the Charlie Daniels Bank backed by the Austin Symphony (tickets compliments of a co-worker whose wife plays in the orchestra) and being invited to meet Mark's sister Stephanie in Phoenix in April. Read old blogs and you'll see she lives north of London. She is coming to the states twice this spring for educational conferences.
Watch this site for pictures which Mark is sending soon.

2009-02-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

Mark saw Dr. Theera Umsawadee at Bumrumgrad Hospital in Bangkok, We were in Bangkok yesterday and today. We took the 2 hour bus ride from Pattaya to Ekami Bus Station in Bangkok for about 3 dollars each then a 3 dollar taxi to our hotel and a 50 cent taxi to the hospital. This was the economy trip to Bangkok. Dr. Theera had ordered an x-ray of Mark's hips since he had complained of hip pain and Mark got the x-ray before seeing the doctor. A suspicious lesion in the sacral area warranted a Cat scan this am which we thought would be 700 dollars but ended up about 3 or 4 hundred dollars (11,000 baht). Mark is actually having joint pain in many joints. It may just be mild osteoarthritis but Dr. T. is like a cat ready to pounce on any possible cancer. He feels certain Mark will have cancer crop up somewhere eventually.Wouldn't it be wonderful if this did not happen. Dr. T. is very happy with Mark's overall health at present and pleased with the chemo regimen he prescribed for Mark when he first went to Bumrungrad for treatment. We are happy with it too since Mark is enjoying what has been labled as remission. We still recall times on chemo with the vomiting in plastic bags in taxis, complete loss of appetite, the weight loss, the dizzyness, feeling faint, the neuropathies, low blood counts, low BP, the loss of some hearing and lots of other side effects which we tend to

blame on chemo but Mark seems to think it was all worth it. Dr. Theera was so careful with Mark, monitoring him very closely during chemo, hospitalizing him for some of the chemo runs and 24 hour urines to monitor kidney function. Notice all the papers and journals surrounding Dr. T. He reads everything he can about cancer research.

Peking Duck We ate an assortment of appetizers and Peking Duck in a Chinese Restaurant in the hotel last night and stuffed ourselves. We took the bus back to Pattaya Jomtien Beach today. Tomorrow is my last day in Thailand. I am sad to leave Mark, the beach, the sea, and the seafood.
Friday Feb. 13 I am back in Austin and Mark is still in Thailand.
Friday Feb. 20 Probably should do a new blog instead of a post script on this one but not much news. Mark has moved to a new place that he loves. It has a pool which he is enjoying. Unlike the guest house, he is now doing his own cleaning and reports he has made many trips to the store for cleaning and housekeeping supplies. He is still close to the beach. I think he is still visiting the Jomtien Pattaya Rotary Club with a plan of joining the club.
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2009-01-29T06:03:00.000-08:00

We are on the island of Koh Chang - Mark and I nearly cancelled our trip as Mark injured his knee and could hardly walk. We decided to carry on as it would cost us to cancel the car and driver we'd scheduled to take us to the ferry at Trat. Mark wasn't up for the minivan ride with 12 backpackers to save a little money. We had a nice trip from Jomtien Beach to the ferry and for 100 baht (a little over $3) we had a ferry ride. Our hotel is the Chang Buri which has accommodations on the beach and accross the road from the beach. We are in the hotel part across from the beach and is a very nice. The part of our hotel that is on the beach is very exclusive and very expensive.

At the other end of White Sands Beach are some colorful accommodations welcoming backpackers. Next time maybe we will stay there. Koh Chang (koh means island) is the second largest island in Thailand. Puket is the largest island and Koh Samui is the third largest. Koh Chang is part of a large island chain. We hope to get to Koh Mak which was voted to have one of the 100 best beaches in the world.
Day two: Mark is hanging out in the exclusive area of our hotel and sunbathing there by the pool overlooking the sea. Because of his knee pain he is not up for scuba diving and island hopping. I took him to eat at the Texas Steakhouse tonight. It is owned by a man from Switzerland who was interested in our Texas connections. The food and drink were outstanding.
I now know a whole sentence in Thai. I can ask where the toilet is. This is an essential thing to learn.
Saturday Jan. 31 I can now ask for ice and lemon for my drink in Thai. We have eaten so much seafood. The best are the scallops with garlic pepper sauce. We have rented a car for tomorrow to go see all of this island.

I noticed that Mark still has a string bracelet one of about 30 put on his arm when we made a visit to Jin's family near Korat in his chemo and radiation days. This particular string has 33 knots each tied by a different monk from the village temple. Mark has worn this for 4 years through showers, scuba diving, skiing and all the things he does.

Sunday Feb. 1 Mark drove us all over the island. You can't drive all the way around. The roads don't go through. We went down one side and then backtracked and went down the other side which is much less populated and none the less beautiful. Our first stop today was an elephant camp where we fed the elephants. For 900 baht you can ride one to a watering hole and swim with the elephants.

We went to several beaches and to a Fisherman's village where the shops and restaurants and homes are built over the water. We saw a little dog in a dog house built over the water. Continuing our trip up winding mountainous roads and hairpin turns, we had to stop for a monkey sitting in the road. We meant to get home before dark but we didn't and it was stressful for Mark driving on narrow hairpin mountainous turns coming back. I offered to drive but for some reason he turned me down. We had dinner close to the hotel at Paddy's Irish Pub and watched Newcastle play soccer against a team whose name I have forgotten.
Monday Feb. 2 - We took another drive, turned in the car, sunbathed, and walked on the beach. The restaurant was out of scallops so we had mussels and two kinds of shrimp. We have found no Americans on Koh Chang...lots of Canadians, Englishmen, Germans, Russians and French. Some of these European ladies even go topless on the beach.

Tuesday Feb. 3 - Leaving Koh Chang We hate to leave and I wish I had scheduled the car for two days later. A car came from Pattaya to pick us up at the hotel, take us on the ferry and all the way back to the guest house. It was about a six or seven hour trip. We stopped for late lunch at a Thai restaurant for Thai people and ate duck soup: a dark broth with yellow noodles and a duck leg and pieces of duck. This was the first duck soup I had ever eaten and it was good.

Wed. Feb.4 - Mark, George Richardson who owns the guest house we are staying in and I went to the Pattaya Jomtien Rotary Club at the most fabulous hotel, The Royal Cliff Grand Hotel,where the Rotary club has their own room. The man who built this gated hotel complex was a Rotarian and built a room especially for the Rotary Club. On the right is the President of the club,Brenden Kelly. Instead of the 4 way test, the national anthem is played while everyone faces a portrait of the king. Mark is thinking about joining this Rotary club.

Sunday Jan 8 Lot's of beach time since last note. Sorry about cold weather in other parts of the world, but if any consolation it is really really hot here right now. We are headed for Bangkok today. We wanted to do some banking tomorrow as well as for Mark to get an x-ray and check in with Dr. Theera Umsawadee and take him all the records from the VA in Houston where Dr. Theera used to work. It seems that tomorrow is a big Budha day and all bars will be closed which is a clue that the banks might be closed as well. We may have to stay two days in Bangkok. We will stay at the Ambassador Hotel which is nice and I will try to take Mark to the Oriental Hotel which is so posh there are fashion police in the lobby to prevent people in shorts from entering. Only guests going from pool directly to rooms may cross the lobby in shorts but they can not linger there. Mark has not seen the Oriental or some other places in Bangkok due to being so sick for so long while living in Bangkok for two years.

2009-01-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

Watch for new post soon. Mom is going to a Thai Rotary meeting Wed. evening and Mark and Mom take off for some Thai islands on Thursday

Mark and Mom are Now Both in Thailand: Welcome to the Land of Smiles
I (Mom) arrived in Bangkok at 2:30 am January 15 after long flights. A delayed flight in Japan made the trip longer. Mark sent a taxi to the airport for me. I slept on the ride to Jontiem Beach. When I arrived at the guest house, I found an orchid plant from Mark in my room and a note to warm a mother's heart. It started with "Welcome to the land of smiles and the biggest smile is mine since you are here."
Up at 9 am and to the beach day one. Day two we took a motor scooter ride to explore the area looking at beaches, hotels, temples and monuments. The excitement of riding on the back of a motor scooter in Thailand with Mark driving is similar to accidently skiing the black slopes. It brought back memories of when he was in high school and had a motorcycle. He would tell me: "Get on mom. I'll take it easy this time" and then he would go like a bat out of hell through the woods and scare me to death.
We had a heart to heart talk about what his doctor in Bangkok told him. The doctor thinks this fight with cancer isn't over even though Mark seems in remission. We are enjoying our adventures and making ready for the battle. Thanks to all who are praying for Mark and we are praying for you.
Addendum: Day 3 in Thailand. We have a routine : I walk an hour then we have breakfast at Yorkies, a British place on the beach. We get the same thing each day: egg, bacon, sausage. a hot canned tomato, and toast. One day I got the "baked beans" too but it was just pork and beans out of the can. Between 12 and 2 we get a bowl of soup at a Thai kitchen. Today we went to the beach. I stayed all day. Mark came and went. He has adopted a beach dog and he reads and plays with his dog. We are thinking of going to Hua Hin for a couple of days. We will go see his doctor again too.
Mark Thinks Mom takes too many pictures This is Mark hiding under a book with his adopted beach dog in the background.

Lost track of time. We went to eat with friends then to an Austin Texas type open mike bar. Foreigners can't play music or do any work without a big fine so this was a charity event and that makes it ok. George, our Host at the guest house was fined 80,000 baht for working on his own house. I was sick in bed 30 hours, lost track of time . I'm just creeping out to take a cup of tea. I think it is early on day 5. Sidetracked now thinking about whether to go to a Thai wedding or not and how to get transportation and a hotel in Koh Chang. In the meantime we went to eat at King seafood. Mark is holding a two pound lobster and a one pound shrimp

2008-12-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

Look for update soon - Not hearing much from Mark who has been in Thailand 2 weeks. He did ccok up a shrimp boil dinner along with a fellow guest at the place he stays (Angel's guest house). Mark had the spices with him in his suitcase. I (Mom) head for Thailand January 14.

Mark is now on the beach, Jomtien Beach, Thailand - Mark arrived just in time for a party at the guest house where he stays. He plans to walk the beach for exercise then read and rest under a beach umbrella. See the picture of his Christmas stocking that we hung by the chimney for him in his absence. We had the tree up for three weeks before Mark left so he could get the feel of Christmas. If you think we have a lot of gifts, many are gift bags for people who are mentally ill living in group homes. The contents are donated by Rotary friends, our neighbors and other friends.
Mark got his eyeglasses in Thailand the day after he arrived . He used his old frames and got prescription lenses for 25 dollars.

Mark's cancer is said to be in remission by the doctors at the VA hospital in Houston although they are watching a small mass in the left kidney which has not enlarged in recent cat scans.
For those of you with cancer or caring for someone with cancer who are interested in the treatment aspect: the last chemo Mark received was in June 2007 (18 months ago) at the VA hospital in Houston. It was a 3 day regimen of Carboplatin (paraplatin) 517 mg in 250 cc normal saline over 30 minutes on day one only, Fluorouracil 1000 mg IV push days 1-3, and Leucoverin Ca 600 mg in 100 ml. normal saline infused over 30 minutes days 1-3. We stayed in a Best Western in Houston for three days and three nights going to the hospital each day for Mark's chemo. Mark wanted to stay on chemo...his goal to stay alive no matter how sick but the docs were concerned about his quality of life. Granted life has better quality when not on chemo but quality is a mute point if you are not alive.
Mark's initial chemo in Thailand was somewhat different. I will look it up and report it here later. At that time, he got a lot more IV fluid with his chemo and had to stay overnight in the hospital at least one night of each chemo round. He was a lot sicker. He was followed very closely as he was just a 50 cent Taxi ride from the hospital. At that time he was fighting ongoing nausea and vomiting, lack of appetite, weight loss, periodically low white counts, low red blood cells, tremendous chills, a tendency to over heat, weakness, low blood pressure, foot and hand neurasthenia, feeling weak and exhausted and many other symptoms as well. Mark was also getting radiation initially and again later when he developed a chest wall tumor. While others thought he would surely die within months, Mark tells me he never ever thought he would die. Maybe that helped keep him alive along with your cards and prayers. Being in remission and on the beach is like night and day compared to his first two years of treatment in and out of Bumrumgrad Hospital. A good Christmas present would be for Mark to stay in remission.

2008-11-22T18:53:00.000-08:00

Mark Has Five Whirlwind Days After Resting a Week To Get Ready.
Mark seemed a little down and not his usual positive funny self, so James and I got him a ticket to go to Reno to meet up with his former co-worker Allan and Allan's friend Mike.

The guys managed to get in some skiing on Mt Rose in Tahoe. They went Scuba Diving in California, watched a Football Game, and ate seafood at the Atlantis Hotel in Reno.

Mark came home in a great mood; all psyched up. Right now he is resting up by reading a lot so he can be ready to go to Thailand soon.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I know Mark is thankful to have good friends like Alan, Mike, and others who are too many to name here. Everyone reading the blog is a friend to Mark.

Addendum December 5th 2008. Mark leaves for Thailand on Tuesday the 9th. Our friends Barry Nowland and Pinetop Perkins the 95 year old Blues piano player are headed to Washington DC. and will go in a limo in tuxes to the White House this weekend. Pinetop is nominated for another Grammy. We know Barry doesn't have the big head yet cause he dropped by with a hamburger for mom at work and went out with Mark and friend Frank on Thursday night. See earlier blogs for pictures of Pinetop.

We have had 16160 visitors from 90 countries to this blog

2008-11-09T17:33:00.000-08:00

Trip to Antones Blues Club - Mark and I went to the Blues Club and had a table center front. Rotary friends went also (Dr. Clift Price and wife Sue, Sandra Jones, Paul and Lucy). Pinetop Perkins (winner of two Grammys this year and 95 years old) played keyboard with his friend Willie Big Eye Smith on harmonica. It was quite a show. We did the early show and were home in bed about 10 pm.

The Christmas season has begun. Two Christmas parties last Sunday. Austin Family Magazine Christmas card shoot and right after that we went to a cast Christmas party and shoot for the

movie Mark is in called Ten Little Santas. I am seriously thinking about putting our Christmas tree up.

Picture above and left - Mark top left, Frank Seccuro top middle, Jerry Barrett top right (click on any picture to enlarge it).

We squeeze trips to the VA around our shoots and parties. Mark had a headache at the base of his skull for three days so he took a trip to the local VA clinic. They sent him immediately to the VA in Temple Texas to get a cat scan of his brain. The next day Mark decided the pain had gone into his ear. He had an appointment to get an admission history the next day at our local VA and mentioned his ear. It turned out that his pain is probably due to an ear infection so he is on antibiotics. Two appointments coming up in Houston at the VA; a urology appointment on the 10th and an oncology appointment on the 21st.

2008-10-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

Mark Received Word today that his good friend Kenny Walker died. In the 1980s and early 90's Mark and Kenny shared housing at least twice. They shared a house in central Austin close to the Draft House. Mark was a respiratory therapist at a nearby hospital and Kenny was a bank examiner. They threw parties that were legend in Austin. At one time they were room-mates in Dallas living in an apartment close to where the Dallas Cowboys practiced. Kenny was in love at that time with a Hispanic girl whose family made and sold ice cream. Kenny loved ice cream, playing the banjo, listening to bands, and telling a good story on himself and his brother. Kenny made us laugh. He was soft spoken and kind.

Kenny moved to Mississippi to help take care of his mother. Last year Mark went to Mississippi to visit Kenny and rocked with him on the porch of his home. Not too long ago we learned that Kenny had an illness which he was fighting, adult onset acute leukemia . Today Mark learned in a letter from Kenny's brother that Kenny took a turn for the worse, went into ICU, and his heart gave out. Mark was supposed to die more than three years ago from his cancer. He wonders why he is still alive and several young friends are dead. His only conclusion: "God obviously has work for me and I wonder what it is."
Kenny Walker is loved and missed. We will write more about him and put a picture on the blog when we get ourselves pulled together.

Mark had an MRI last Wed. and saw the Doctor on Friday. We stayed overnight in Houston Tuesday for the Wednesday MRI and made a flying one day trip down in the car on Friday. We know little more than before the test. The doctors are watching a spot on Mark's left kidney. He was doing poorly last week, not eating, not drinking, dehydrated, lost 12 pounds, sleeping nearly around the clock, mood depressed, complaining of excess saliva a symptom he had when first diagnosed and this worried him. By Saturday night he perked up and was making lists of things he wanted from the grocery store. Mark went to our neighborhood block party (BBQ and a band) at the end of the block for a little while Sat. night. This was called a recession buster party and it set a new standard for neighborhood parties. Mark didn't stay too long, conserving his energy for a film shoot this morning (Sunday) which lasted about two and a half hours in which he had several scenes including a couple of running scenes and one scene in which he discovers a dead girl.

Mark's step dad James and I played hosts/docents to 650 American Bar Association members and guests who came to the Bob Bullock museum Thursday night for dinner (prime rib), music performances, dancing and the three floors of exhibits. 12 buses brought the attendees. There were museum staff and catering staff but I believe we were the only two docents. Amazingly, the museum can accommodate 650 guests quite well. James and I did get to eat prime rib and dance a little.
We went to the museum again today to help with activities for the children in connection with a new exhibit called Cowboy Presidents. We also got to hear Ben Sargent, our local Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist, speak. We felt OK leaving Mark. He was feeling better but not well enough to go with us. My hat is off to Mark for all the common sense he has gained and how he paces himself to have strength to battle cancer and do a few interesting things.

2008-10-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

Mark in our swimming pool with all water removed.- This week the pool is being resurfaced
Mark helps host our neighborhood watch party- Each year in Austin Texas neighborhoods are encouraged to have neighborhood parties so neighbors can get together and get to know each other and find ways to make neighborhoods safer. This year our neighbors were invited to meet in our yard and eat hot dogs and visit. We ended up visiting on the driveway as well as the yard. People brought food and drink to share so we had pizza, appetizers, slaw, chips, salsa, health drinks, etc. Twenty five people showed up along with children and two special dogs. Mark is upper left in the garage in the top picture talking to neighbor Troy who works for Dell Computers. Mark is on the left in the middle picture where he is visiting with Pete (center) who is a pilot flying ultra-lites and larger planes and Dagmir (right) who along with his wife Rose own a travel agency specializing in cruises. To find out about their travel deals go to www.Sterling Vacations.com or call toll free 1-866-345-7755,
Click on any picture on this blog to enlarge it and get greater detail.

Events and activities take Mark's mind off his cancer and worry that his esophageal cancer is back or his liver cancer is growing or his chest wall tumor is coming back. He has been depressed at times recently. He always rallys himself and fights off his depression by taking on an adventure or a chore. Yesterday Mark cleaned, organized, and cooked for the neighborhood party. Today Mark cleaned James' truck and did a great job. Tonight Mark is being filmed for the movie Ten little Santas.
Mark will get an MRI this coming week at the VA in Houston. If the MRI report is good, Mark will head for Thailand next month.
Sister Stephanie sent an e-mail this morning and said: "I'm on the SeaFrance ferry crossing from Calais to Dover right now and they have wireless... so thought I'd check in.". She heads to Turkey for eye surgery on Saturday; her second and hopefully last eye surgery.
Below: Yuki from Japan married to Troy who is in top picture talking to Mark. Their little girl is in the middle picture playing with a neighbor doggie. click on the picture to get more detail.

2008-10-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Above: Hinrich (right) and cousin Werner Gerdes (left) go over some village records that include our ancestors in Ostfriesland
Below: Elke (right) and Betty (Mark's Mom)

Hinrich and Elke
Sometimes the blog is about friends who need prayers (not always about Mark)
Today Elke wrote to say that Hinrich is fighting for his life. He has bone cancer and is undergoing treatment. I hope all of you who read this blog will say prayers for Hinrich and Elke.
You can read a little about our day with them May 11, 2005 in Emden, Germany and some little Ostfriesland villages by going to the archives May 12, 2005. Ostfriesland is an area in the north of Germany very near the North Sea. Much of the land was reclaimed from the sea. Elke's husband Hinrich is a boat builder in Emden and he is a great genealogist. He helped me immensely with finding some ancestors in Ostfriesland and living cousins there. When Mark was his sickest and we were in Amsterdam, Hinrich and Elke talked Mark and I into riding the train to Groningen and they picked us up there, drove us to Emden, let Mark rest, fed us lunch, spent the day with us at our cousins' house and drove us back to Groningen to catch the train. Even though I was not sure at the time whether Mark would live through the day everyday that we were in Europe and wasn't sure if I would get him back to Bangkok alive, he went and had a memorable time....thanks to Hinrich and Elke.

You can read a little about our day with Elke, Hinrich, and our cousins (Werner Gerdes and his family) May 11, 2005 by going to the archives dated May 12, 2005 (see archives in right hand column).

Note: Mark was diagnosed in Feb. 2005 and given three months or less to live...He was loosing weight rapidly and extremely ill when we started the trip to Europe but he returned looking much better. He looked so bad in pictures taken in Germany that I can't post one of him as he would kill me or at least be mad at me.

At one time early on Mark had bone cancer as well as esophageal cancer with metastasis to the liver. I often fail to mention his bone cancer as it responded early on to treatment. Let's hope and pray that Hinrich's bone cancer responds to treatment and disappears.

2008-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Mark and his Mom suited up for the University of Texas-U of Arkansas Game
Yesterday Mark and I went to the Texas-Arkansas game. Kickoff was at 2:30. We were excited to have a parking pass and parked close to the stadium. The day was real hot and we were in the lower section of the upper deck at the stadium. We had a great view. I had packed a large baggie with ice cubes and two washcloths. The ice melted and we put the cold wet cloths on our necks. We had bandannas, sunscreen, hats, a fan and cold drinks. Before the game and at half time, we went across the street to the Alumni Center where there was shade, dark rooms with big screen TVs, food and drink. It was great fun. Mark having cancer and many many days in the recent past when he could not get out of bed or the condo in Bangkok because of low white counts, low red counts, nausea, vomiting, no energy, and other complications has driven the point home that it is important to have fun when you can.
Mom's purse springs a leak - Mark noticed that my purse was seriously dripping water by the time we got to the Alumni Center. The zip lock did not hold on that baggie with melted ice mentioned above. A few things got wet including a zillion business cards which are now separated and drying out on the kitchen counters. A minor casualty of our fun day.

2008-09-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

Addendum Thursday night 9/25 - Mark returned from Houston and reported:
1. No biopsy. He was prepared for the biopsy. The IV was running and the anesthetist ready when the doc decided not to do the biopsy. The mass is small and the doc decided to wait and see what happens. If Mark is in more pain or pees red or the mass grows, the biopsy can be on again.
2. The pain clinic staff was happy with Mark's gradual self imposed reduction in pain med over the past year or so. He has cut his pain med to a fourth of what it was in the past.
3. All motels/hotels in Houston on 290 or 620 seem to be full. Repair crews staying at these places. Mark and James were lucky to find a room. Our usual motel one half block from Reliant Stadium and a few blocks from the VA was full but the guys were assigned a suite because we are steady customers there.
4. There was damage by the hurricane in areas of Houston and 20% of Houston does not have electricity now.

Message 9/24 Mark is in Houston and will have a kidney biopsy in the morning - For a long time Mark has had a mass on his left kidney. A biopsy about three years ago found it to be non malignant. The biopsy is being repeated at the Veterans' Hospital in Houston tomorrow morning at 8 am. There is some thought that the tumor on the kidney will be removed. When? We don't know. Mark had to cancel being filmed for the role of playboy/boyfriend tonight and tomorrow night due to the biopsy which he had hoped to reschedule but was unsuccessful at doing this. Mark called from the motel in Houston tonight and he was in good spirits. Mark's step father James is a good sport and drove Mark to Houston while Mark's Mom is taking care of the mentally ill in Austin. Pray for Mark getting good news from his biopsy tomorrow morning.

2008-09-10T04:42:00.000-07:00

Mark has returned to Austin, Texas and Shooting has Resumed on the Film
Mark is home after a trip to Reno and California with his friend Alan. I have yet to get a report on his trip or the filming as I am in Downham, England visiting Mark's sister Stephanie and won't return home until late Sunday. Awaiting pictures from Mark of his trip.
Upcoming renal biopsy
Mark's appointment with a renal surgeon at the VA on the 10th of Sept. was cancelled. The doctors now want to biopsy his left kidney rather than proceding with surgery. Mark has a report that he had a renal biopsy in Thailand and it was negative. One problem is that he does not recall that biopsy and it was two years or so ago and no one at the hospital talked about it. We just found the report in his files when we got copies of all his files.

Mark's Mom and Sister Stephanie in England

Mom at the Sandringham Estate of Queen Elizabeth (click on any picture to enlarge it)

We went to the Queen's estate called Sandringham last weekend. This is a fabulous estate. I greatly enjoyed touring the house and the museum. The royal family spends Christmas each year at Sandringham and the place is full of history. Not only do royals live in historic places. Stephanie is living in a historic house in Downham Market. Her house is called The Old School. It was a school for the poor in the 1800's then a hospital in WWI and later a Montesorri School and finally it was restored to a gorgeous home.

Sign on Stephanie's house

I am not going far from Downham Market yet i am going to some interesting places including Cambridge. Last evening I was visiting the large University of Cambridge Hospital.

2008-08-25T05:15:00.000-07:00

Mark starts his role in a new film by Jerry Barrett
Last night began the shooting for a new film called Ten Little Santas. Mark is in the background thinking about his lines. In spite of going through the symptoms that come from cutting his pain medicine in half so he can have more energy, he looked great and did a great job. He got to be shot and die three times in three takes of one scene last night. Everyone did a great job. The filming last night was on an estate outside a mansion; the perfect place to shoot the film.
Cutting Pain Medicine in Half - Withdrawal from pain medicine is not for sissies.
After a couple of years of serious pain medicine for cancer of the esophagus with mets to bone, liver, possibly kidney, it takes a lot of determination to stick it out through the symptoms of withdrawal. Should I write more about this? Anyone interested? Mark is my role model and hero in regard to doing what needs to be done even when the going gets tough. Remember the phrase "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
Mark Will Get a Urology Consult Sept. 10 - Mark's new doctor has a thought to have the tumor on Mark's kidney surgically removed to reduce some of his pain. Mark heads to Reno on Wednesday for some fishing with Allen before considering surgery. His flight is at 7 and my (mom;s) flight is one hour earlier. I am headed to England to visit Mark's sister for her birthday.

2008-08-20T19:06:00.001-07:00

Results of Cat Scan - The doc at the Veteran's Hospital in Houston reported no change in liver tumors which is good. They are still there but unchanged. The chest looked good (remember Mark had a chest wall tumor that was radiated). Left kidney has a cyst or tumor and it is to be evaluated for possible surgery but that will probably not happen until 1. Mark completes a trip to Reno to see his former co-worker Alan and they go camping and fishing in California 2. He finishes being in another movie in which he gets to play the boyfriend. Right now Mark has just cut his pain medication in half after cutting it in half last year. Less pain medication and he does not sleep as much and he has more energy. The trade off is break through pain and withdrawal symptoms. During the period he was tapering off he was hallucinatory and miserable. I won't go into this as he is sensitive about it, but someday I will put it in the book to be written because it might help someone else or interest people.

Aren't the olymphics great? Mark's sister and mother were in China a few years ago and mom was in Bejing about 6 months ago and got an olymphic t-shirt and spent the Chinese money left from the previous trip...the money was now worth more.
Mark's sister Stephanie and Mom (with short hair) at Tinniman Square

Mark gets a trip as described above and his mom gets two trips - August 27 to September 14 I will be in England visiting Mark's sister Stephanie who is having a birthday September 1st. I will be flying American on air miles. The second trip is to Peoria Illinois and it is from Sept 29 until October 5th. The purpose of this trip is to evaluate a nursing school for the National League of Nursing plus personal business which is driving down to Jacksonville to visit family and friends.

Stephanie and fellow teachers on the Great Wall of China

2008-08-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

Mark to be in another movie and his sister is in Istanbul, Turkey right now getting laser eye surgery

It is a small world Mark's sister, Stephanie, notified me early this week that she was on her way to Istanbul, Turkey to have surgery on her eyes. I e-mailed Murat Numan, a former University of Texas law school student who lives in Istanbul. We mentored Murat when he was in Austin. He e-mailed back from Argentina where he is on vacation. He is headed back to Istanbul tomorrow. He informed me that his Aunt is a part time doc in the small hospital where Stephanie will have surgery and he knows the places she will be staying in the week she is there.
Friend Jerry is making another film called Ten Little Santas and Mark will have a good part in it. I will be one of the producers again. The premier showing of the last film Mark was in is this Sunday and then we will have copies of the movie to share.

Mark and I went boating last Friday on Lake Austin with friend Mark and his friend Mark so it was three Marks and Mom. We swam and pretended like we were kids again. It was great fun.

This Saturday Mark gets his cat scan. We learned he was not to see the doctor to learn the results until September 2. We are trying to get an earlier appointment.

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2008-07-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

Mark in the USA again and recently attended his 30th Class Reunion

Mark came back to Austin, Texas after about 9 months in Thailand. He was devastated by the death of his good friend and caregiver Jin. He and I (Mark's mom) think about Jin every day. It is so sad to lose someone so vivacious and young and after such a valiant fight to hang onto life. Such a strange twist of fate that Mark, with his cancer battle, has managed to outlive his prognosis by more than three years while several friends have died. Mark and I are doing our best to stay alive and to have as many adventures as possible.

Last week we went to Jacksonville, Illinois for four days. Jacksonville is famous for being the home of the Ferris wheel, built by the Eli Bridge Company. Jacksonville has two liberal arts colleges (Illinois College and MacMurray College), a school for the blind and a school for the deaf. It used to have a state hospital for the mentally ill but that closed and the buildings were all demolished. The grounds of the old state hospital became a park with a working Ferris wheel, operated by the local Rotary club.

Jacksonville is also where Mark graduated from high school. Mark visited with a lot of his classmates and relived wild and crazy times from high school. We visited with Uncle Bob and Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Eileen and with our cousins. Uncle Bob was on a submarine in the China Sea in WWII and we love to talk with him about his adventures and about family stuff.
Two Navy Vets: Uncle Bob Kehl and his nephew Mark Richardson

I got a body glow massage, had a motorcycle ride, and ate catfish at a restaurant near the Illinois River. Being such a small world, I met Josh who works at the new Super Walmart in Jacksonville when I took Sierra, a young cousin, shopping. Josh is the son of my nephew Ronnie's wife; Ronnie and his wife live in Denver. If you get to the Walmart in Jacksonville, say hello to Josh in the deli section.

Mark and I flew into and out of St Louis and drove to Jacksonville. We grazed our way there and back eating at interesting places we don't have in Texas. It was a great adventure and I believe it helped Mark begin to recover some from the shock of Jin's death.

Next Step in Cancer Battle - Mark has an appointment for an MRI August 9 at the VA in Houston. This will help determine if he is still in remission or not. Life is uncertain. Have all the adventures you can and do lots of good deeds.

Proving the uncertainty of life - a few months ago we stumbled onto The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. Like Mark, Randy had been given "three months, max" to live. Randy gave the lecture of a lifetime to an audience at Carnegie-Mellon, an awe-inspiring, feel-great, appreciate what you have and keep your humor lecture. It is INCREDIBLE, and if you haven't seen it, check it out at http://www.thelastlecture.com/ . Today in the news I see that Randy Pausch has died; his death is also a loss for all of us, but the inspriation he gave to us immeasurable.

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2008-06-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

Mark and Jin at the Tiger Zoo Chonburi Thailand 2007 feeding an adolescent live tiger in a hat she crocheted herself.

Jin (Kun Yuwanit Tipkunok)

July 1976 - June 2008
32 years of life

Our family is mourning the death of Mark's longtime friend and caregiver, Miss Jin (Kun Yuwanit Tipkunok). She will be terribly missed - her beautiful smile, her upbeat style, her unwaivering love for Mark. Jin both saw and brought a lot of beauty into many peoples' lives including ours. Others couldn't help but see that beauty through the sparkle that seemed ever present in Jin's eyes. Jin has too many wonderful qualities to begin to list, but we will always be grateful for the time she spent with Mark and with us, at his sickest times when he was getting chemotherapy and radiation and when he was too sick to go far from home or hospital, and at his best times such as time at Jomtien beach or the Pattaya water park or the Tiger Zoo in Chonburi. Jin worked at the Tiger Zoo in Chonburi some years ago and people there remembered her and chatted with her each time she returned. She visited the zoo in recent years with Mark several times and with Mark and I and Mark and Stephanie. Ironically she died in this city after a prolonged battle with pneumonia and heart attacks .

Jin enjoyed the widest range of experiences in life- it was a pleasure eating with her at an excellent restaurant or eating our favorite noodle soup at a stand on the street. She loved the trip to Chang Mai to see the King's International Floral Show (Royal Flora Ratchaphruck 2006), where Mark nearly fainted among the thousands of beautiful orchids, as he was very sick, but tried his best to go anyway to share the adventure with Jin. She loved the Christmas season spent on Koh Tau with Mark, his sister Stephanie and myself; especially the beautiful Christmas supper on the beach and we loved her enthusiasm at every new adventure she shared with us. She shared her village with us in trips we took there, near Korat, Thailand.

Jin always believed and seemed proud that I (Mark's mother) loved her and would tell people even in her last days: "Mom loves me." I would call or e-mail and tell her this and when she was in ICU and fighting for her life Mark would relay this message to her. I would tell her as often as I could...and yet I am left with the feeling I didn't have enough time with her. I didn't do enough with her or for her even though we had a million adventures. Mark feels this too; it is really that we did not have enough time with her and so we are left feeling we were unable to do enough for her. Her death is a great loss to Mark.

Jin had so many skills. She had the ability to make a feast for a half dozen people or a hundred people out of what would look to us like not nearly enough ingredients. It was fun to go to the market with her and to cook with her. It was fun to ride on the back of her motor bike through the city of Bangkok. It was fun to celebrate Thai holidays and customs with her. Every minute with Jin was treasured in life and now that she is gone, the treasure of time with her seems even more valuable. Jin was a fun person to be around, with every experience seeming wondrous as you experienced it with her, but more than that she was a friend to all and family to a lucky few.

2008-06-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

Another scuba trip: another amazing adventure for a man with cancer. Which one is Mark?
Just talked to Mark on the telephone. He reported he was on a bus going back to Chonburi, Thailand from the coast where he had gone scuba diving once more; this seems like a miracle when I recall how sick he has been with cancer and cancer treatments. Another minor miracle seems to be my telephone conversations once or twice a day with Mark. We talk via Yahoo Messinger; my computer to his cell phone at a cost of 5 cents a minute.

If you are new to the blog, read the posts below and you can see that Mark has been going to the hospital in Chonburi three times a day to visit his friend and former caregiver Jin who has clung to life by a thread and the help of a ventilator and lots of medical and nursing care as well as Mark's great decisions about care and his knowledge of respiratory therapy. Mark got a day off to go scuba diving with Alan a former co-worker from the Reno area and a great friend. How did Mark get a day off? Arri (pronounced R-eee) the manager of the Angel's Guest House came from Pattaya with Alan and kindly stayed with Jin while the guys went scuba diving. Mark needed this break from his commitment to make sure Jin makes it through this health crisis. Arri deserves a huge thank-you and I will soon try to post her picture too.

2008-05-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

Jin January 2006 when Mark was getting chemo and radiation

Addendum 6/5/08 to note below: Mark is still staying in Chonburi which is half way between Bangkok and Pattaya. This is the city where the tiger zoo is located. The zoo has many live tigers and you can pet an adolescent tiger while it sucks on a baby bottle. These young tigers are a challenge to hold and as soon as the bottle is finished you want the zoo keeper to be taking the young tiger away. This is the zoo where the tiger moms will nurse the baby pigs in tiger suits and the momma pigs nurse baby tigers. Mark is spending his days taking care of Jin in intensive care. Yes Jin is still in intensive care. Mark may delay his June 17 trip home but will come soon after that as he has to get a checkup at the veteran's hospital in Houston, Texas.

Mark's Friend and Caregiver for a long time is in the hospital - Jin (Yuwanit) cared for Mark when he was at his sickest. Now Mark is caring for her. Jin had a cold which progressed into pneumonia. She saw a doctor who comes to see patients at a nearby pharmacy. He prescribed an antibiotic. She got worse and Mark took her to a government hospital and she got a different antibiotic. Within a couple of days, she suddenly got very short of breath and ashen and looked near death's door. Mark took her to Bangkok Hospital in Pattaya where she was admitted to ICU. She spent a few days in ICU and then on the regular floor. Jin has been moved to a government hospital in Chonburi which is about one half way between Pattaya and Bangkok. This hospital has a pulmonologist. Had Mark left Jin at the first hospital anymore days, the cost of care would be astronomical at this point. Jin is on a ventilator (5/24/08) She could use a lot of prayers. Mark was riding a motorbike back to the guest house to sleep but since Jin was moved to Chonburi, he is staying in an inexpensive hotel in Chonburi. One friend told Jin it was lucky she had Mark looking after her or otherwise she would be dead. Perhaps it is good Karma.
While Mark has cancer of the liver metastasized from esophageal cancer, he has lived long enough to care for his caregiver. Who would have thought it three years ago when he first called home and said he had been given three months or less to live. He has good karma too and is building karma with more with good deeds and thoughts everyday.
The Thailand Border With Cambodia. Click on picture above to enlarge it.

Before Jin got so sick, Mark recently went on a one day trip to Cambodia to get his visa renewed. Mark described being lucky that the visa run van he went in was not full so he could be comfortable. When he was very sick and getting chemo and radiation, Bumrungrad hospital staff went to the embassy and made arrangements for Mark's visa to be extended when it was expiring. Now he leaves the country and comes back and he gets 30 more days. He can physically do this now. He could not when he was the sickest.

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2008-05-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

Update on Mark - Mark was so excited about receiving 20 plus cards for his birthday.He is making a list of people who send cards and will try to thank people personally.

Spiderbite - Mark has been worried about a spider bite under his arm. The bite resulted in a red area hanging down that was huge, went down ever so gradually and then was the size of a roll of dimes for like forever. Just as he was ready to go on the bus from Pattaya to Bangkok to see a specialist, it started going down again. Here is a picture of a really big spider outside my room when Mark, Jin, and I (Mark's mom) went to South Thailand to the beach.
It is raining everyday in Thailand. It is the rainy season. Mark's friend and former co-worker Alan will be in Thailand in late May for another adventure; this time to Koh Chang. Mark has himself on a strict budget so he can go to Koh Chang. He will be back in Austin June 17 thanks to air miles.

It isn't always about Mark - Mark is blessed with many prayers and he is doing well for now. There are many people today who have more difficulties than Mark and have a need for our prayers.

Mark's sister Stephanie relayed this request today from Mary Leonhart in Germany. Jen, who we ask you keep in your thoughts, is a peer of Stephanie's

Please keep Jen S in your prayers today. She is an outstanding German teacher at the middle school here, who found love late in life, married two years ago, and is scheduled to have labor induced today. At 4:30 this morning, her husband died; they think it was a massive coronary.Jen has been so happy with her husband and excited about baby Dane. She needs us to lift her up in prayer! I cannot even imagine having your greatest sadness and your greatest joy happen in one day.

Update: Jen gave birth to a healthy 9 lb. baby boy.

2008-04-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

Mark Sings Karaoke at his early birthday party last week. People singing are from left to right: George Richardson (Brit who has liver cancer too), Mark, ?, Bob from Canada and Jerry Barrett filmmaker from Austin who is building a house overlooking the Kathmandu Valley. Mark and Jerry shared an early birthday celebration with mutual friends in Jomtien Beach, Pattaya, Thailand.

I talked to Mark on his birthday (4-20) and he reported he has had several birthday parties and cakes over the past week. He was awakened the morning of his birthday by friends from Bangkok singing happy birthday and bringing a cake before having to return home in the city. Mark reports he has added some weight on to provide some excess stores in case he gets an exacerbation of cancer.

The Thai New Year Songkran is also currently being celebrated and Mark reports he has done his part to help celebrate. Songkran means crowds of people laughing and shooting water at anyone coming near and putting powder on people's faces. Click on picture below to enlarge it. This scene from Songkran is on the beach road, Jomtien Beach, where Mark stays.

Mark is receiving a number of birthday cards from people around the world ; his response "Amazing! Getting these birthday cards and messages is exciting!" It is not too late to send a card. See the next blog for the address. Mark is enjoying every card and every day; the fact that he has fought esophageal gastric adenocarcinoma, with metastasis to the liver, is pushed to the back of his mind, but creeps up to the front of his thoughts periodically causing him to reflect on an uncertain future.

All of us have uncertain futures, however it seems like those who have the diagnosis of cancer looming over them find time to worry a bit more about how long they will have to enjoy life and when the pain will go away or when it will return as well as when energy or nausea or appetite will return or go away. Staying positive and getting support from friends, family, and strangers is just as important as medicine. To all of you who are sending cards to Mark whether you know him or not or providing support to Mark in any way or to anyone who has cancer or illness of any kind or need for help, may you be truly blessed with riches of the heart. I wish the same riches for those fighting cancer or any illness.

12,994 people from 81 countries have viewed the blog. Scroll down on right hand side of this blog and down the page to see the numbers and the flag board of countries represented by people who have clicked on the blog link.

2008-03-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

Mark and his friend Jin went to a wedding up in the Thai city of Korat this weekend. Mark is 100% better than he was three or even one or two years ago. At that time, he could not stand to ride in a car for very long and there were a lot of days with lack of appetite and nausea and pain. He is not without problems, but you will see as you read/scan the blog how much better he is.

Send a birthday message in the mail to Mark ! April 20th, Mark celebrates his 4th birthday since his diagnosis of cancer and being told he had three months or less to live. In Feb. 2005 Mark did not know if he would live to celebrate his birthday in April, but thanks to doctors, nurses, and staff at Bumrungrad Hospital and the VA in Houston, support and prayers from friends and strangers, he is soon to celebrate his 4th bonus birthday. You can mail a homemade card include pictures of you, your dog or cat, or kids or the kid's art work. The address is: Angel's Guest House Jomtien Beach Road 131/23-24 Moo 12, Nongprue, Banglamung, Chonburi Thailand 20150. The cost to mail a letter or regular card from the US to Thailand is 90 cents postage. You can buy a 90 cent stamp at the Post Office counter or put the equivalent of 90 Cents in stamps on the envelope.
It doesn't matter if Mark has met you or not. Mail a birthday message as he seems to perk up when he knows people care what happens to him.

Mark's Mom just got back from a trip into Mexico to see the Monarch butterflies in the sanctuary near Anganguero, Mexico. The trip also included a tour of Lake Pazquarro and Janitzio Island and visits to several colonial cities of Mexico.

2008-02-22T04:38:00.001-08:00

Good News from Dr. Theera and Cat Scan
I just talked to Mark by phone. He was on a bus returning from his appointment with Dr. T.in Bangkok. Mark relayed that everything on the CAT scan looked good enough that he won't have to have chemo right now apparently. There are a couple of spots to watch with a repeat CAT Scan in three months together with a Pet Scan if possible financially in Thailand or at the VA in the USA if possible to get a VA doc in our area to order it. These tests are being done at the same time as a standard in some cancer centers. I will add an explanation later. Dr. T. reportedly said he is going to write Mark's case up in a Medical Journal. Do you suppose that, along with the medical treatment, it was all those prayers, cards, letter's, children's drawings, kool-aide, licorice, and other kinds of support that everyone, old friends and new, provided Mark that kept the cancer under control? He wants to thank everyone for anything and everything they did for him as he felt very much that people cared what happened to him and this was very important to him.
PET Scans in Thailand Are New
Having a PET scan in Thailand is new in the last year. Patients used to have to go to Hongkong or Shanghai to get a PET Scan. The king's sister has cancer and she facilitated the purchase of the equipment for PET scans which I think are done at some hospital in Bangkok.
The Bus From Bangkok to Jomtien Beach, Pattaya, Thailand We used to take the taxi from Bangkok to Pattaya which is about a two and a half hour ride in good traffic and it only costs 1200 baht which is 36 dollars but now Mark is riding the bus which is about $3.50 to keep the budget in control. When he was getting radiation and chemo he was too sick to ride the bus and even a one hour car ride was more than he could stand, so riding the bus may be another symbol of progress in the cancer battle.
Picture Above Mark's friend Jin (4th from left) cooked a meal for Mark and Stephanie and some guests at the guest house. Mark is 3rd from left. Click on picture to enlarge it. So far we count Mark lucky that he did not have the Ivor Lewis surgery on his esophagus (removal of part or most of the esophagus and bringing the stomach up and reattaching it). This surgery has been a standard if esophageal cancer has no metastasis. The surgery brings many eating problems to overcome but provides a sense of security that the cancer was cut out . With stage 4 metastasis the standard is not to do the surgery. Without the surgery and only chemo and radiation, Mark's esophageal tumor seems to be gone and mark was able to eat a good portion of steak, salad and cream brulee when his sister Stephanie treated him to supper this week. She has returned to England.

2008-02-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

Scuba Dive Gives Mark New Confidence When Mark was diagnosed with cancer and told he had three months or less to live, he sold or gave away nearly every possession he had including his scuba gear. For two years he was very sick with cancer, side effects of radiation and chemo, and believed he would never do many things again including scuba diving. When he got a chest wall tumor that was eventually radiated , he feared for some time that he had cancer invading critical chest structures and possibly the cancer would invade a major vessel and kill him. Every chest pain fueled his fear. Some days he needed a lot of reassurance that he did not need to go to the emergency room because of symptoms that worried him. When I would tell him that I was sure he did not need to go to the ER, he would say: "Mom it will be your fault if I die because you wouldn't take me to the ER ." I would respond: "I'll take the responsibility" and reassure him that he was o.k. Thank God he did not up and die and blame mom from the great beyond. He has survived to go scuba diving with his friend Alan in some islands not too far from Pattaya, Thailand. He called yesterday to tell me how excited he was to have successfully made a dive. Every step toward a normal life in spite of cancer is to be celebrated.

Go Cart Track - Another adventure was driving go carts. See picture (Mark on the left). Click on any picture to enlarge it.

Mark goes to get his CAT scan on the 18th. His sister Stephanie who lives and works in England has scheduled her check up at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok on the same day. Mark and his sister will hang out together for a few days before Mark gets his CAT scan report after which she will head back to England.

Passed an anniversary date: Three years have passed since on Feb 6, 2005 Mark left a message on my answering machine: "Mom I have a bit of bad news. Please call me." I thought maybe he had been in an accident or needed bail money. The thought never crossed my mind that he would soon tell me he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

2008-02-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

Mark reports he is doing alright in Thailand. He asked me to let people know or remind them that he is living very frugally. "My beach room rent is 300 a month, food is cheap and I am traveling on air miles earned when I was traveling as a respiratory therapist to patients from the Saipan hospital being transported to the USA and other places, as well as miles from my trip home when I was so sick, Mom was afraid we could not pay the bill if I went into the hospital." Remember that health care for foreigners in Thailand is cash as you go. The Thai citizens have a type of universal health care that is very little expense to them, for example a doctor visit is 30 baht or the equivalent of one dollar.

Picture of entrance to modern Bumrungrad Hospital - Joint Commission International accredited

Mark will go to Bumrungrad Hospital for a CAT scan in mid February and get the results on Feb. 21. The hospital gave us an estimated cost in writing when we scheduled the scan. The estimate is now 1,200 dollars. We used to pay 500 or so but health care costs are rising everywhere. Why are we going to pay this? It was a big debate, but we would like to know how Mark compares now to the Cat scan he had last about a year ago at Bumrungrad Hospital. I would like him to get a Pet scan but we can not afford one in Thailand and the VA in Houston always says CAT scan. Not even sure they have a PET scan. It will be stressful for Mark up until the results are in and hopefully he will not be more worried when he gets the results. At present we are trying to figure out what to do, if anything, about his liver tumors. Google something called SIR-spheres and you will find that an Australian drug company is making radioactive beads smaller than the diameter of a hair. These are being used in metastatic tumors including liver tumors with success. The process is an outpatient one but the price is said to be very high. Maybe it will go down?

Mark's former co-worker and friend Alan is headed for Thailand - Alan arrives in Thailand Feb. 4 or 5. Watch this site for more adventures when Alan arrives.

A picture from 2005 when Mark was sick from chemo and had no appetite and we went to Amsterdam to resurrect his appetite. Mark was very sick and sure he was dying soon. I was worried he was losing weight and was so sick.. When we left I was not sure he would make it back alive from that trip. He had lost his hair and it looks thin and very light here. Mom had short hair then...now very long and straightened permanently. Picture coming soon

2008-01-12T19:47:00.001-08:00

Mark staying in Thailand for awhile because he is thriving here and looking very healthy and he was looking very sick when last in Austin. Mom will return to Austin January 15.
We went to see Mark's doctors at the cancer center in Bumrungrad Hospital last week. They had not seen Mark for about a year since we had brought him home for treatment at the VA in Houston to get a financial break from the cost of treatment on a cash as you go basis at Bumrungrad. Dr. Theera asked Mark to get a CAT scan to compare with earlier scans. The price of a CAT scan at Bumrungrad has gone up to nearly a thousand dollars. Dr. Theera wants Mark to resume chemotherapy which we don't think we can afford again here in Thailand. We paid cash for chemo and radiation and many other medical bills for over two years from Feb. 05- Jan 07 and it was quite an ordeal, but we credit Dr.Theera Umsawadee (Oncologist) and Dr. Dr. Sunantha Srisubut-Ploysongsang (radiation specialist) with saving Mark's life and giving him a gift of time to live.
We are back from a week's vacation in Krabi in the south of Thailand. This is the area where the Tsunami was so now there are signs showing the evacation route in case of another big wave. There was a Thai airlines special promotion to go to Krabi and we lucked out and got it. We took a public ferry to Koh Phi Phi which is a neat island and saw many islands that are famous like the James Bond Island and Chicken Island. Mark has an affinity for snakes. One dropped out of the tree on Aonang Beach and scared everyone. Mark picked it up and put it in the jungle. Was it poisonous? No one knows, but Mark claimed he was not going to let the snake bite him and that it seemed like a nice little snake. There are lots of wild monkeys in the trees and clifts between Aonang Beach and the 5 star hotel on the other side of the clifts. They are gentle and take fruit nicely out of your hands. They also love to drink water from water bottles.

We had some nice side trips around Krabi and Aonang Beach. Mr. Bill who owned the guest house we stayed in on Aonang Beach, took us in his truck to a fish research facility that is part of the King of Thailand's work to improve fishing and agriculture for the people. Mr. Bill took us to some National Parks including one with an area of hot springs and we had some wonderful time in the hot water.
I took a side trip to Malaysia to get my visa to Thailand extended to cover my stay. Mark claimed I would get kidnapped and/or in some monsoon and the van would fall off the road in Malaysia but I managed to get there and back safely.
We are again staying a half block from the beach in Pattaya at the guest house of Mr. George Richardson from England and his Thai wife Angel. Yesterday Mr. George showed me his liver x-rays and he has tumors in both lobes of his liver just like Mark. He was treated at the Royal Marsden Hosp. in London by professor Cunningham for colon cancer and then turned loose with his liver tumors without further treatment. George just got out of the hospital after being treated for Dengue fever. The mosquitoes carrying Dengue are here in Thailand and we hope not to be bitten by any of them.
Friend Jerry Barrett, who directed the movie Mark had a role in and which is mentioned in earlier blogs, has had a mild stroke and come from India to Bangkok to Bumrungrad Hospital for outpatient check-ups and treatment. Jerry was on a trip to India to film the Budha Gaya ceremonies. Mark and I were earlier planning to go with Jerry and his wife Christine but they decided it was too dangerous for Mark and I and Jerry cancelled Mark's and my accompanying him and his wife Christine on the trip from Katmandu to India. Jerry tells us that it was a very hard trip and then he had a mild stroke and had to abort the trip anyway.
Someone wrote to say they had heard this blog is a hoax. How crazy is that? Mark wishes he didn't have cancer. I wish he did not have cancer but he does. We are thankful for the gift of each day that he has.

2007-12-25T03:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to all of you.

Christmas Day Lunch at Jomtien Beach Mark and I had a lovely Christmas day. We watched some exciting TV movie then we went to Lunch at a restaurant just three doors down from our beach guest house. Complimentary glass of champaign, turkey, roasted potatoes, gravy, carrots, broccoli, and brussel sprouts, dressing and some kind of sausage wrapped in bacon, and a special English pudding. Minced pie was available but we were full and needed to stop before the pie. We received boxed gifts of small christmas towels from the owner of the restaurant, who is an English Barrister. Other people from our guest house were there too.

After lunch Mark and I went to the beach for awhile and stayed until the sun went down.

2007-12-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

Mark doing construction work Even though he still has cancer, Mark is doing all he can. Yesterday and today he worked a full day with Mr. George Richardson, who along with his wife Angel, owns the guest house where we are staying in Jomtien Beach Pattaya Thailand. It is one half block from the beach.

George has purchased the house next door and is remodeling it for a guest house, restaurant, and Kareoke bar. Yesterday Mark and George used a winch system to move a large pile of eucaleptus boards from the ground to the third floor roof. Today they are building some sort of shade wall on the third floor. For you guys, they have a power saw, a compressor, and power nail gun going full blast. Notice the tall condominium in the background. We are one half block from the beach. Mom will head to the beach this afternoon late and will stay to get somemore sunset pictures like this one taken yesterday, only better.

10,453 visitors to the blog from 77 countries now.

2007-12-13T19:19:00.000-08:00

Group Trip to the Angkor Wat Ruins, Siem Reap, Cambodia - Our host and hostess Mr George Richardson and wife Angel organized a trip for guests to go to Seim Reap to see the ruins of many ancient Hindu and Budhist temples. These sites were in the running for one of the top 7 wonders of the world. Last time Mark and I (mom) visited Siem Reap, we flew in and had our own car and driver and tour guide. This time our group traveled 3 hours in a van to the border of Thailand and Cambodia, arranged a tour including transportation, hotel, food, driver, guide and then walked accross the border to a bus which took 5 hours to go 125 km as the road was so very bad. Riding on the bus was like riding the mechanical bull at Billy Bob's although the bus had more moves and you had to hold on tighter to avoid being thrown off your seat.
Immediately on crossing the border, the poor people of the country are highly visible. All our luggage was hand pushed accross the border in a wooden cart by a man. There were wooden carts everywhere pushed by manpower. Trucks were seriously overloaded with recycled metal or handwoven baskets. Eventually we got to our hotel the Angkor Hotel which is beautiful with hand carved wood everywhere, a wonderful dining hall, and a pool. We spent Wednesday touring ruins, eating fantastic Cambodian food, and seeing a show about the history of Cambodia in song and dance. On Thursday we went by van to take a boat on the 100 mile long Tonle Sap lake. This is the lake that connects with the Mekong River. You can go on this lake to Phenom Phen. There are floating villages on the lake. 70% of the people who live on the lake are Vietnamese. One interesting sight among many was a small girl on a boat with her mother. The girl who was about 3 years old had her baby doll and she had a large live snake around her neck. At one point some small child about five years old jumped off a passing boat onto our boat to sell us water, beer, or soda.

We arrived Tuesday and left Thursday to return to Jomtiem Beach, Pattaya, Thailand.

Note: there have now been over 10,000 visitors from 77 countries to this blog. Thank-you for visiting and telling friends.

2007-12-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

Mark and Mom are in Thailand - Mark's mom left Austin, Texas on Sunday December 2. When she and friend Suzie arrived at the airport at 5:20 am, there was a long line and after an hour in line, mom learned that the plane was delayed four hours and this meant no connections could be made and she was told to go home and come back the next day. It was tempting to go home, but reservations had been made and plans were to leave Bangkok for the beach town of Pattaya on Tueday at noon to attend the birthday party of Mr. George Richardson Tuesday evening. Bangkok is half way around the world from Austin and there is 12 hours difference in time. Bangkok is 12 hours ahead of Austin. Mom and Suzie started to go home, then Mom tried calling the 800 number of the airlines and got an agent to schedule 4 flights with two tight connections (1 hour for one and 41 minutes the other). Back in the line for another hour to get the boarding passes. Mom made the first tight connection in Denver, but not the second one in San Francisco. Missed it by 5 minutes as the plane was 30 minutes late due to de-icing the wings in Denver. Back in line for another hour with a patient lady agent who tried all kinds of things to get mom to Bangkok including going to Korea first, but finally a simple solution; another flight to LA, a bus to international and out at 10:30 pm on Monday on Thai airlines. So five flight legs and mom finally made it to Bangkok at 6:30 am Tuesday with only one bag missing.

Mark and Jin met mom at the airport and headed to the house close to Soi 76 and Sukhumvit,the one where the large python climbs over the wall and slithers through the yard where we will later play croquet. An hour after we arrived at the house and Mark and Mom had gone to the Bank of Bangkok on motorcycle taxi's and back, we packed, ate lunch, and waited for Jerry to come in the van from where he was staying down by soi 23. By noon we were headed for Jomtien Beach Pattaya. We stopped at the tiger zoo on the way down. We checked into Angel's guest house in Jomtien Beach. By 7 we were at a birthday party for Mr. George Richardson our host at the guest house.

George's birthday party Tuesday- In the afternoon we were at the site of the birthday party watching the preparations. A truck drove up with big chunks of ice and two men started with saws and chisels working on the ice. Later we saw the finished products which was two swan ice sculptures. Happy birthday signs were hung along with many ballons. There were many floral displays with orchids and roses and mums and fruit. In the evening at the party there was kareoke, dancing, and many different dishes and drinks served. George was very happy and so was his wife Angel who threw the party for him.

The King's Birthday December 5- The left over food last night went to the poor or somewhere. Tonight Angel cooked a bar-b-que with all fresh dishes including whole fish in foil, huge shrimp on the grill, bar-b-que chicken, stir fry vegetables, soups and much more. Angel has a heart of gold or Jai Dee which means good heart in Thai.

We took a trip down the coast through costal villages and toured a Botanical Garden. We also went to what we call a temple but would technically be called a Wat It's name is Anek Kusala Sala (Viharasien).

Mr. George took us to a Budhist temple overlooking the bay of Pattaya. Near the temple on a hill above the city there is like a small park with a large statue of the son of Rama Five. This son was sent from Thailand to Dartmouth Sailing School. He returned and took charge of the Thai Navy turning it into one of the best in Asia. People who sail bring small replicas of boats here and have a blessing for their boat. Part of this ceremony is to shoot off firecrackers. There is a sign banning all fireworks except firecrackers.

Friday December 7 - Today is a lazy day. This morning early our hostess Angel went to the beach one block away and bought fresh fish, shrimp, and crabs out of boats that had come in from fishing. We took our daily walk along the beach and our other activities have been to drink iced tea, eat wonderful homemade light chicken soup, and nap.

"The happiest people are those who have harvested their time in others. The unhappiest people are those who wonder how the world is going to make them happy."~John C. Maxwell, Entrepreneur, Author and Leadership expert

2007-11-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

Miss Betty the Mom is headed to Bangkok Dec. 2 on air miles earned in the past two years - Lots to do before leaving -James had knee surgery today and he is doing fine. The nurse gave him written instructions which said he had to have a responsible adult with him at all times for 24 hours after surgery. The mental health center where mom works canceled all therapy groups for the day as mom was the only nurse and therapist scheduled today. James rates his pain at a 0.01 this morning.

Thanksgiving 2007 - Mark had Thanksgiving in Bangkok 12 hours ahead of us in Austin Texas. Mark's sister Stephanie was in her home which is a restored school house in a village called Downham Market in England. She cooked and served turkey and trimmings to fellow DODs people and other friends six hours ahead of us. We spent Thanksgiving in New Braunfels Texas with James' brother and sister-in-law, family and friends and were extremely thankful to be able to enjoy this fellowship and food as there are people are special to us who are spending the holiday in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital or preparing to go into the hospital and there are people crossing our paths who have almost nothing in a material way.

A friend Richard fell somehow and ended up in Intensive Care and his wife Betty is at his side as much as she is allowed.

Thomas, young son of Mom's former editor at Austin Family Magazine Lisa Molina and her husband Gary, went five years without a sign of his leukemia and just before Thanksgiving his parents learned his leukemia is back and he goes into the hospital again and may need bone marrow transplant. Even though Thomas and Mark are both battling cancer, albeit different types of cancer, I am so thankful they are with us and still in the fight.

Mom was touched this week by a man who had lost nearly everything he had and had no food in his house and no money. Some sources of help were found for him and he has a glimmer of hope to keep him going. Had no help been found, that Thanksgiving dinner might have been hard to enjoy.

Let's not think about what we don't have, but what real treasures we have in our lives.

2007-11-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

Large python comes over the fence of the compound in Bangkok - Mark sent an e-mail saying "the people next door woke me up early because they saw a python coming over our wall into our yard. They said it was 10-12 inches around and about 20ft long. We think it was headed to our other neighbor's house to try to eat a chicken or a goat. I asked them if they have seen snakes around before and they said " O yes, usually cobras" I will try to attatch a picture of me in front of the house. It is on about 100 st. or about 80 blocks from where we used to live at sukhumvit and Asoke (21st). Also found a new all you can eat bar-b-q place. Very clean with big shrimp for 79 b (about $3) all u can eat. Feeling pretty good, sleeping alot and just hanging around the house mostly. I am looking everywhere for dill pickles, no luck. do they have a powder or something you mix with vinegar to make your own? I will look on the internet for a recipe. I have to take a motercycle taxi to the mall to use the internet, but it is cheap. 10baht for the taxi and 10baht for 30min internet. OK enough for now miss u and hope to see u soon love Mark "
I will try to get Mark to get a picture of the python or at least the chickens and the goats next door.
8471 visitors to the blog as of today. Heading for 10,000 by Mark's birthday in April.
Cancer keeps us prisoners Lisa and Gary Molina's child Thomas was thought to have his leukemia under control after 5 years of no sign of it; however it is back. He heads to the hospital this Friday for further evaluation. If you like, you can send money or food to help out. I will give you a contat person
Mom is headed to Bangkok on Dec.2 using airmiles economy seat so mom could be sitting in the middle of a big row of non English speaking people doing self-flagellation. During most of one unforgettable trip some nervous looking Asian lady was beating herself harshly about the legs and arms. Not sure if it was to toughen herself or to keep herself awake or what....maybe some ritual.

2007-11-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

After a year in Texas, Mark returned safely to Bangkok. "Why is Mark back in Bangkok?" people ask. The answer is complex and yet perhaps simple too. Mark feels safe, comfortable, and relaxed in Thailand. I am searching for another word to describe his feeling there which he has described for me. Perhaps the word is respected. People in Thailand are wonderfully respectful. In the states people grill Mark (or mom) with question after question usually beginning with "Why didn't you do this" or "Why don't you do something else" or a "You should or you shouldn't" do something. The Thai person is not aggressive or invasive, tending to respect other people's decisions for themselves. Mark's plan is to eat chicken soup for breakfast, walk on the beach and meditate daily. Mark is off on another adventure and this is the first news about that stay. Mark is living right now in the guest cottage of a lovely home in Bangkok and he claims his work is to mow the grass periodically. He has access to a cook and driver and is pretty much the only non Thai in the neighborhood. The plan is to go to the beach in a few days and return to Bangkok to meet with friend Jerry Barrett who is leaving Austin on Nov. 20 for Bangkok. Taxi cost from the city to the beach is about 30-35 dollars and it is about a 90 minute ride. More if you stop off at the Tiger Zoo on the way (see earlier blog on the tiger zoo in Thailand). The bus is just as comfortable and is 170 baht, about 4 dollars. Click on any picture to enlarge it.
Cancer Research you don't hear about: Role of enzyme IDO. There is a report of some interesting research findings written up in Today: The magazine of the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) Fall 07. Recent research has found that tumors escape detection by the immune system by use of IDO which is an enzyme also used by fetuses to avoid rejection. The tumor first recruits IDO which then activates a protective barrier of regulatory T cells referred to as Tregs and Tregs may recruit more IDO. According to the article, "The food and Drug Administration has approved early clinical trials of the IDO inhibitor 1M1 in coming months. The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute will begin phase 1 trials of 1M1 in patients with lung and other tumors while MCG is seeking approval for trials using 1M1 and chemo for breast cancer patients.
Another Cancer Research Report : Today many women with breast cancer called ductal cancer in situ are faced with decision to have total mastectomy or a lumpectomy and just wait and watch carefully. Scientist in a pilot study reported by Carolyn Colwell, looked at a collection of biomarkers including molecules p 16 and Ki 67 interacting to precdict invasive vs non invasive breast tumors. Only about 12-15 % of women diagnosed with ductal cancer in situ have tumors that will go on to be invasive.
Summary for first time visitors to the blog: If you logged on for the first time, here is a summary of events: Amost three years ago, Mark was working on Saipan and was suddenly diagnosed with cancer. Gven three months to live, he decided to go to Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok while he had the strength to get there. You can read the early blogs about his care and experiences (see archives to click in the right hand column) in the two years he was in Bangkok. After two years, we had spent a small fortune on care as Mark had no insurance since Saipan does not cobra insurance. Mark came back to the states to get care at the Veterans Administration in Houston, Texas and give us a break from paying cash for cancer care. Recently the VA doctor said that although he still had tumors in both lobes of his liver, the tumors were not larger comparing the last two CAT scans so they did not want to do any more chemo. Does he need chemo or not? If he goes to see his doctor in Thailand the answer will probably be yes, while at the VA it is no. Chemotherapy is very hard on a person and it is costly even if it is cheaper in Thailand, so Mark has faced and continues to face very hard decisions.
8403 people have viewed the blog since we put a counter on it. We were up to 72 countries when a few days ago someone from Bangledesh signed on and lit up the Bangledesh flag for the first time. We now have 73 country flags lit up. Send the blog link to people who have not seen it and to friends in other countries...Let's make the 10,000 mark on visitors by Mark's birthday in April.

2007-10-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

Mark loves the big U of Texas drum

Mark and Mom went to the football game today to see the University of Texas play Nebraska and the weather was great unlike the last time we went (read about it below). The game was exciting and the score was close., but our team came from behind and won 28-26. Before the game, Mark was feeling tired and begged Mom to get someone else to go with her, but he finally gave in and went. He had a great time teaching Mom the fine points of football and quizzing her on football. In addition, Mark fell in love with a young lady who sat behind us. She was a beautiful little toddler. He also had his picture taken with some other pretty young
ladies.

Mark cut his finger on the railing going down the steps at the stadium. It was a deep cut and it bled all over. He ended up having the EMTs treat it. Thanks Tom Riley and Zach Bevis for taking care of Mark's injury.
After the game there was a party at Jerry and Christine's house. They are the friends who are directing and producing the film that all of us had a part in. Mark was too tired to go to the party, but Mom went and friend Barry took Pinetop Perkins, the blues man who is in his 90's and who played with the Muddy Waters Band in the past. After Jerry's party Mark and Mom went home, but Pinetop and Barry were headed for another party and then downtown to a place where Pinetop sometimes plays and sings. Maybe when Mark and I get to be over 90 we can stay up later.
Addendum on Sunday October 28th. Yesterday's activities wore Mark out. When I got up at 7, Mark was standing up asleep leaned over the kitchen counter and said he must have been there about 3 hours. He is now asleep on the sofa; he was too exhausted to walk to bed.
On the 2nd of November Mark headed out Bangkok on his air miles and will stay awhile on the beach and will be perfecting his meditation. Mom and James left the airport shortly after Mark and headed out for Washington DC to meet Mark's sister, Stephanie. Stephanie got her trip to DC for being a teacher of the year...so we are all over the world for very little money as Mark is on air miles and Steph traveling compliments of her school district and we are on a Northwest coupon reduced fare.
November 3 We are praying Mark made it to Bangkok alright. We are now in Washington DC but we have no idea if Mark made it to Bangkok or not. It is sarey to us to send him off knowing that he vascilates from looking healthier than the rest of us to looking and being very sick. We will post the news when we learn that he arrived in Thailand ok.
8261 People have looked at the blog. See the blog counter somewhere down the right hand column. Also see the country maps telling where readers came from. Do you know anyone who has not seen the blog? Give them the link of http://www.thenextadventure.blogspot.com/ ; I hand it out to everyone I know, and most people I don't know.

Check this link for information about some research involving bubbles carrying drugs to fight cancer in mice

2007-10-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

October 18: Mark is home. Came in last night and looked good after his trip. He said that when he got off the plane in Austin it was the first time he had been warm in a week. He reported that he and Allen went to over twenty state parks in California. They also went over Donner Pass and saw a lot of snow.

Cancer Treatment Update: Amazing story about some woman cured of bile duct and liver cancer by a surgeon. Sounds too good to be true but maybe it is true. Check out the video at this link http://www.curedoflivercancer.com/ Mom also read about some liver cancer research which her fuzzy mind recalls was at the University of Utah. It involved sending bubbles of medicine though the body to the cancer site and popping the bubbles with radiation. That is a simplistic explanation. We've learned a lot about cancer treatment since these adventures began; just a couple years ago Cyberknife surgery was new to us and recently we saw an advertisement for it on a DC metro train.

Picture of Mark's sister, Stephanie, while we wait for Mark's pictures of the Elk in Sinkyone Wilderness (some people would probably rather see Stephanie and some would rather see the Elk so where are those Elk pictures, Mark?)

Stephanie is in England working in her new job with plans to move into her house there soon- she's looking forward to enjoying life in the village she has decided to move to. The photo is in honor of her selection as Japan District Teacher of the Year, and she'll be in Washington DC on November 2 for conferences. and so will Mom. Mark, James and Mom head for the airport very early on the 2nd. Mark goes out for Bangkok

Today is the day Mark and Stephanie's dad died 18 years ago; in honor, we'd ask that you tell someone today that you love them.

Continued Tales of Mark's Adventures with pictures to come

Mark called last night at midnight to report he is doing fine on his trip with friend Alan and Allan's dog, Bully. Continuing from the trip log below, the expedition stayed a night in the town of Fort Bragg planing to go out tuna fishing. there were not enough people interested in tuna fishing so the trip was cancelled. It was too cold to go diving for abalone. The fellows headed on for the Sinkyone Wilderness Area and camped out. Mark said Elk were everywhere and he took lots of pictures. Next they went through Mendacino and camped south of there. Monday (yesterday) was Alan's birthday so they left the motorhome quarters and stayed in a condo in the middle of wine country. Mark was tired so Alan had his birthday supper by himself and let Mark sleep, but as Mark says it was ok since they have been celebrating Alan's birthday all week. Today the guys will be in Bodega Bay and will cruise on back, stay at a casino hotel one night and Mark will fly back home on Wednesday to rest and plan the next adventure .

8134 people have visited the blog since Stephanie put the counter on and they come from 72 countries now.

2007-10-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

Link to the greatest lecture by the professor given three months to live? Scan down two more blogs.

Survive Cancer Your Way: Mine Suits Me Just Fine -
Ruth Penneybaker wrote this article which appeared in the Austin American Statesman Oct. 14, 07 Section G Insight page 3) Ruth describes the strong opinions people had about how she should handle herself and how she should fight cancer and even about being stalked by someone who thought she was "not perky enough to fight cancer. " Eventually she could say: "You know what, I no longer give a damn what they say." Another quote: No mater what 'they say', It's your disease, your life, your choice.

In contrast to the American tendency to offer opinions, advice, and what may seem like criticism about the way one is handling cancer treatment and life with cancer, Mark found when he was in Thailand for two years for cancer treatment, the Thai people were very gentle and respectful in what they said and did. Most of the time they seem to assume you know what is best for you.

Mark is right now in a motor home with friend Allen and a dog touring California.

What would you do if you had terminal cancer and had outlived your prognosis of three months to live by two and a half years, and were awake most of the night with severe pain and certain you would die before the morning?

Some of us might take a lot more pain medication, sleep night and day to blank out as much of the pain as possible, seek medical attention and stay in bed preparing to die. Not our Mark. After reassurance from Mom that he would not die before morning and the minimal effective pain management, he got some sleep and prepared for a flight to Reno, Nevada. Mom dropped him off at the Austin, Texas airport at 7 am for his 7:55 flight. Yes he was cutting it close but he made his flight.

Last night Mark called to report that he had lunch in Reno then went to Portolo California where he and Allen cleaned Alan's motor home, gassed it up, aired the tires, loaded up Allen's dog and hit the road through the American Valley in the middle of California, going by the Feather River and the smallest mountain range in the world (Sutter Butte) headed to Clear Lake where they will camp for the night and get in some fishing tomorrow and be in the Red Woods. Their eventual goal is a part of the California Coast and a state park that Mark has fond memories of and wants to see again. Mark sounded so happy on the phone. He is e-mailing pictures for the blog soon.

7992 people have visited the blog from 68 countries. Scroll down on the right hand side to see our counters and flag board.

2007-10-05T05:09:00.002-07:00

For the Greatest Lecture ever given. Last lecture of a Prof. given 3 months to live - scroll down.

Picture on right: Mark and Mom on football day
University of Texas vs Kansas State

Update on Mark - On Sat. (9-29) Mark and Mom were given tickets to the University of Texas football game by generous neighbors, Laurie and Ben and what a time we had. It was great fun, but a test of our survival skills. The sun was very hot, then it rained at half time and soaked us. There were long lines for food and drink. In the second half the sun came out, then our team lost, and we got soaked by heavy rain on the way to the car.We had fun reminiscing about our lives when we lived close to the University and were students. A famous band called the Butt Hole Surfers practiced in a house across the street. Some of the neighbors looked like they were out of the film "Slackers" which is a film about hippies and other characters in Austin in the '90s and others were characters in their own right.
We paid ten dollars to the Rotary Club (and glad to do it) to park during the game just a half a block from where we used to live .

Our seats were wonderful, They had backs and were 10 rows up from the playing field. The cost of tickets has escalated incredibly and the crowd has changed since the 1980's when Mark, his sister Stephanie and Mom were all students in college at the same time ( Mark and Mom graduated in Dec. 85 and Steph in Spring of 86) . We lived close to the football stadium and every student could afford to go to the game and could get tickets. Poor people could go to the grocery store and get an end zone ticket for $6. Not anymore. Sports is big business. Our newspaper is full of information on how much money football at UT brings in, what they spend it on, and how unlike some other big schools, so far UT has not contributed any of it to the education side of the university.

Mark has been in bed resting through the nights and much of the day since we returned from the football game. Mom has not had to stay up at night in philosophical discussions with Mark this week. Yesterday (Thurs) he said: I am better now and on the right path. His thinking is positive and he is watching what he eats and drinks and does. Maybe football helped him get on the right path?

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2007-09-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

If you could leave just one speech behind when you are gone, what would you want your everlasting words to be? Mark's sister, Stephanie, called us about a news piece she had seen on ABC Nightly News over the weekend. Randy Pausch, a professor who recently was given a "3 months to live" prognosis, delivered his "lecture of a lifetime" and ABC News has posted it to their website (click here to go to the page with the video). I watched it with Mark and we both felt that it is absolutely wonderful - Dr. Pausch delivers the lecture with humor and provides some powerful life lessons for all of us. Stephanie and I both left the link to this blog on the ABC website, and we hope you are passing it along, as well. Click on "comments" below this entry to leave your "last lessons" with us... or just to say hello.

Your thoughts and prayers did it again -Dr Eppner at the VA told Mark that his CAT SCAN was no worse than the last one and Chemo right now would be a mistake in his opinion. Mark had awakened me off and on for several nights basically worrying about what the doctor would say today. Last night he awoke me to talk him down which I did until he fell asleep. Once again we learn that Worry is almost as bad an enemy as cancer. Mark did a little irish jig like dance in the VA parking lot in joy over his good news. He has been told that only a small percentage of people with his diagnosis make it 5 years. He wants badly to be in that percentage in spite of pain and frequent total bottoming out on energy. The good moments and fun with friends and family are enough to sustain him.

7818 people from 67 countries have visited the blog. You are counted only the first time you visit so this is 7818 individuals. You are logged onto the map and shown each time you visit on the daily log. You can click on the map with yellow dots indicating where visitors have come from. After a scan you can click at the top under visitors in the last 24 hours and you will see the location of visitors. Last night we showed visitors from Trinidad and Tabago, the Netherlands, Japan, England and other places in Europe, Quatar, and various places in the USA. This morning some of those went off as their 24 hours were up and on came Serbia, Northern Marianas Islands and other places.

2007-09-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

Mark and his friend Alan who lives and works in Reno-Tahoe area
Kiril (star of Gun 4 Hire), his friend Ginger, and film director Jerry Barett (right)

Mark makes the most of the energy he has in spite of cancer:
Mark's friend Alan has been visiting Mark. He and Mark worked together as respiratory therapists in Reno. They shared many adventures such as frequent skiing and fishing trips in the Reno-Tahoe-California area along with other guys they worked with. Alan came to visit on Saturday. Our friend Jerry who is directing a film wrote in a part for Alan. The scene was shot at night. Alan walks by the hit man, they pass in front of a lamp. It is only a matter of time until Mark and Alan are discovered by Hollywood. Mark got tired during the filming since Alan's part was filmed several times from different camera perspectivies. We looked for Mark and he was asleep in the flowerbed.

7517 People from 66 countries have logged onto the blog - New flag - Bahamas When asked to get the word out about the blog, nephew Ronnie's wife Judy sent the link to a fellow who gave or sold them their dog. Have you given the link out? Put your story in the comments and I will pick the best ones to put in the blog itself.

Four Hollywood hopefuls out filming at night: Alan, Mark, Barry Nowlin, and Kiril

Thursday Sept 19 Alan is back in Reno at work. James is in New Braunfels a few days while his brother, Billy is in Methodist Hospital in San Antonio recovering from surgery on his cervical vertebrae. James' main task is to drive his brother and sister-in-law's grandson to school and pick him up and watch him. Mark and I are "batching it." Yesterday I worked at the mental health center from 9 am to 8 pm with an hour off from 4:30 to 5:30 to run home to check on things. Mark has been tired and complaining of no energy and is in more pain without anything much to focus on right now. After another busy day beginning at 4 am this morning I went grocery shopping at 9 pm. I had a strange urge to lie down in the grocery aisle and take a nap, but instead I came home with the groceries to watch a science fiction movie with Mark and make some stew.

Friday Sept 20 Previous footage of the night poker game for the film Gun 4 Hire shot at our house had to be reshot for various reasons. All the original cast of guys made it except for Arturo who was coming from the night ball game he was playing in and got involved in an accident on IH 35. This was the third actual reshooting and the fourth or so reschedule of it. Hopefully Arturo is ok and maybe Jerry can find a spot for him in the few scenes left to shoot.

Saturday September 21 We head to Houston tomorrow. Mark gets a CBC and hears the results of his CAT scan on Monday at the VA in Houston. Mark is up at 1 am in pain, but going back to bed to pray, meditate, and eat some red licorice.

2007-09-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

Mark and James visit the museum at Washington on the Brazos - Birthplace of Texas

Update section: Mark went to the movies with friend Bruce. They both enjoyed it. Mark returned home drained of energy, no color, sat on the sofa not moving, no expression, but he can't give up his small outings. Seeing friends, having an adventure, reading the blog and seeing that people have visited the blog are the glue that holds Mark together. When he has a good day, Mark says it is because people have prayed for him, visited him, or visited the blog. or are thinking of him. You are part of the glue holding him together. Last night Friday the 14th he went for a snack with friends Dave and Frank. He reported that a girl at Walgreens gave him the eye and that excited him and reved his engine. He was so happy that he can still be attractive to the opposite gender even though he has cancer. Tonight (sat. the 15th) his friend Allen comes from Reno for a visit.

Mark's Lucky Day -On Saturday (9-8-07) we left Austin for Houston. We arrived in Houston at the Veteran's Administration Hospital at 12:30 pm the exact minute we were due for Mark to drink the liquid 2 hours before the actual CAT Scan. We got an early check-in at the motel. Mark got a rest and was back for the CAT scan at 2:30 pm. The CAT scan technician called Mark within minutes and got into a vein with one stick which is very unusual; this was a vein Mark says he had not seen for years. He thinks all his recent days of pumping iron have helped strengthen his veins. We were told that last Sat. there was a five hour wait for a CAT Scan due to vets with head injuries coming into the emergency room. We were lucky that Mark got a CAT Scan this week instead of last week. Mark found two lucky pennies. He also believes that all of you were thinking of him and praying for him and that is why he had a lucky day.

Mark catches another armadillo or it catches him.

The only unlucky event was a trip to Goode and Co. Bar-b-que. The place was packed which means lots of people in Houston love this bar-b-que, but the ribs and brisket were terrible: no where near as good as Artz or the Iron Works or Rudy's in Austin. The bar-b-que sauce was like marinara sauce and the meat was tough. The only good thing was that there was a giant armadillo at Goode and Co. (See earlier blog with picture and story about Mark catching an armadillo.)

Sunday we headed back to Austin, driving a few extra miles to Washington on the Brazos State Park which has an excellent Texas history museum with amazing artifacts. Washington on the Brazos is the birthplace of Texas.

Bicyclist line the street in Chappel Hill (click to enlarge picture)
On the way to Washington on the Brazos, we saw what seemed like thousands of bicyclists at Chappel Hill, a beautiful little historic town. All over the countryside as well as in town, we saw bicyclists.

Will wonders never cease? When we got home, we saw someone from the small town of Chandlerville, Illinois, close to the Sangamon River, had been on the blog. Years ago we had a cabin on a bay off the river here. We had fun with kayaks and a home-made raft from styrofoam and wood and a five horse motor. My great-great grandfather and his descendants farmed here. My great Uncle managed a duck club near here that Al Capone frequented. My mother's first cousin was pastor of the Mount Olive Baptist Church near here for over fifty years. How exciting to find that someone from Chandlerville was on the blog...we don't know who it was. So far 7329 people from 65 countries have visited the blog.Mark thanks you for visiting his blog.

2007-08-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

Headed for Houston on Sat. Sept. 8 for Cat scan. Mark depressed for two days thinking about possible neg. results, slept around the clock and was getting depressed and dehydrated, but he snapped out of it today and is eating and drinking normally and up watching TV.

Mark's new glasses came in the mail and he is using the computer and reading again.
Mark is using his glasses mostly to see far away.. He is also having problems with his hearing which he blames on chemotherapy and radiation. He describes a tinnitus or ringing in the ears along with a super sensitivity to sound. Sound is greatly intensified for him. Have you or anyone you know with cancer experienced similar symptoms? (addendum: see the comment left by Ann who says she has the same symptoms which she believes are from taking Neurontin. She describes having a sound like crickets in her ears and some other interesting effects. Check the comments section)

We got a rental car ,a small Ford, because some thieves tried to steal our 97 Honda in the night in front of our house. They damaged the paint around the keyhole, popped the window out a ways on the driver's side and somehow managed to get into the locked car. They tried to hot wire it but were unsuccessful. Next they tore up the ignition then the steering column and finally left the car inoperable. It would not start so it had to be towed to the fix it shop. Mark took the rental car for a short errand and reported to James that its top end speed was 114 and he had spun it around and stopped on a dime and James believed him. I think Mark was trying to get a rise out of James. We live in a nice neighborhood but this is our third auto break-in right in front of our house. We may have to take to sleeping in the car to catch these varmints.

Mark has alternative transportation. In this picture he is going downhill at a pretty good speed.

Our work helping produce a movie and Mark playing a role is about over...Funny about someone trying to steal the car in light of Mark's sister, mom, and step-dads role in the film. We are filmed walking into the Taco Cabana restaurant while the hit man steals our 97 Honda from the parking lot. We had already filmed our car being stolen and only days later someone does try to steal it in real life. (addendum: James somehow got the rental car keys locked in the rental car with it running on Labor Day - had to have an emergency locksmith come.)

Mark has me up again tonight. He could not sleep and was waxing philosophical about his limited days and how he wanted to spend them, needing to do more volunteer work, and concerned his brain is not working well: he said he was not sure whether to blame it entirely on chemotherapy and radiation or the devil getting a hold of his mind and needing to go to church more. Mark has learned how to meditate better, so he meditated and went back to bed and guess who is still up.

Keep checking the blog and asking others to check it. We have a new flag lit up.
A visitor from Romania signed on. To date over 7200 people from 65 countries have visited the blog. We are shooting for 10,000 visitors.
check blogs in the archives on the right hand column to read about Mark's work in Saipan and his treatment in Bangkok.

2007-08-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

Mark lifting weights to get in shape for chemo -Cat scan scheduled Sept 8 . August 29 Mark saw Harry Potter at the I-Max Theater and loved it.

Mark's thought for the day: "Chemotherapy has made me a new man; a very poor one."

Managing pain and staying sharp is a balancing act. Mark cut back on his pain medicine so he can have the energy and be alert to do some things he wants to do and this means tolerating more pain. Mark was up and down all night tonight with liver pain and chest pain. He would watch TV a few minutes, try to read a few minutes, try to sleep in his bed for a few minutes, back downstairs and TV again. Mom stayed up with him and baked some banana-apricot-nut bread. Finally at 5:30 am Mark is back in bed and it looks like he might actually sleep this time. Those of you with cancer or taking care of people with cancer can probably identify with what Mark is experiencing. I met our neighbor "Bunny" out walking (Bunny is the brother of the famous Mr. Rooster Andrews) Bunny tells me that his wife has lung cancer and she talks about spurts of energy. Exhausted for some time and then spurts of energy.

The first time I encountered the up and down energy spurts and losses was one evening when I went to take my friend Audrey to her first cancer support group meeting. Her house was dark and she was lying in bed. She wanted to go. She got up and walked very slowly to the car, then said I just can't do this All the energy she had experienced when setting up her ride to the meeting was gone. She turned around and went back to bed.

Mark is thinking of taking some volunteer training this week end. He would be helping people learn how to work as volunteers with people who have cancer. Part of the work is around spirituality

Mark's long time friend Frank Sicuro (at the head of the table) plays the role of lawyer to the gang. Mark in right lower corner . Click on picture to enlarge it.

Mark and Mom are helping a producer friend shoot a movie here in Austin. Mark's movie scenes were finished...but then the producer decided Mark could have a couple more scenes. He is excited about this.

Mark's sister has arrived in England and has begun her new job. She is living temporarily on base in a room that requires walking up three flights of stairs. She was just in Austin a few days ago for an all too short but wonderful stay of six days. Her visit really perked Mark up. Stephanie and Mom took Mark to Houston to the VA and now he waits for an appointment for a CAT scan before he can get chemo again. Mark wants chemo. He worries that his tumors have grown. Mom reminds him that he has worried before and then the scan has shown the tumors shrinking. Worry does not help. In Houston Stephanie stopped by E-Z Optical to order contacts. She shows up there every year or two and the staff always remember her. Mark claimed he was too tired to go in and look at glasses. When Mom started taking 6 and 8 pair of frames at a time out to the car for Mark to look at, he gave up and went in and picked out a new pair of glasses.

Stephanie's birthday celebrated three weeks early

While Stephanie was in Austin, she, Mark, and Mom dressed up and went out to a nice place to eat to celebrate Stephanie's upcoming birthday (Sept. 1). She picked out Jeans and a shirt for Mark without knowing his size and they fit perfectly. Stephanie was in a scene for the movie while she was home.

Two new flags on the blog. Someone from Latvia and someone from Denmark have checked the blog. I think that is 64 countries; people from 64 countries have logged on. See below for a list of the countries.

2007-08-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

Sylvester Becker, the German Cowboy is ready to shoot a scene for the film Gun 4 Hire produced by Jerry Barrett (in orange shirt).

Mark got out of bed after 38 hours in bed feeling ill and no energy, eating nothing and drinking little, pulled himself together in about 6 hours and did two scenes in two locations for a 100 minute film which is now in the process of being shot in Austin and San Antonio . Mom and James made sure Mark was driven to the shoots, drank lots of cold water, and rested between shoots. Mark took Mom and James to eat at Cain and Ables, a University of Texas area student hangout that has delicious hamburgers and homemade potato chips. It was hard for Mark to hold up but he did it. He is now reading again. He is reading a book called "Latitudes." Reading is a sign he is feeling better.

The young man in the foreground plays the hit man. Mark, second from left will shoot the hit man (Kiril kane who came in from New York for the film) on this bridge. Later Mark plays a dying scene after being shot. The poker scenes for the film will be shot this Friday at our house. Stephanie comes from Japan on Friday and will be in a scene where the family car gets stolen by the hit man at the Tacco Cabana. A big scene needing lots of good looking folks will be on September 2 in a club downtown.

Before the poker scene is filmed, Mark teaches his friend Bruce to play poker as Bruce is the boss of the poker game and he does not know how to play or maybe he does after some lessons from Mark.

Our neighbor Laurie says; "I love living next to you because something interesting and exciting is always happening." The feeling is mutual.

Note: Addendum The poker scenes became a rehersal and will be shot for real on the 17th. The police line up scenes will be toward the end of the month. The night club scenes will be September 2nd and we need a crowd outside and a fair number of people inside. Let me know if you would like to be part of this film.

2007-07-29T07:12:00.001-07:00

Mark Smoked a brisket for 10 hours and it was excellent.
Some days Mark has no appetite and has trouble eating. He often does well when cooking for other people which leads to eating more himself.

"Self-Selective Diet Theory of Gaining Weight in Cancer Stuffed Feeling Syndrome"
Mark has often used the word "stuffed"after eating one bite of food. In non appetitie periods he eats more when he eats what he wants no matter what other people think he should eat,however sometimes the small bite of this and that works well for him.
Note: Cancer stuffed syndrome: a phrase coined by the author of this blog. Mark thinks mom should come up with a more technical term for this experience but the idea is that people use the words: "I'm stuffed."

Jim, a physicist, friend from Sunday School , described having this stuffed feeling when he was battling cancer and going through chemotherapy. He started me thinking about food strategies for the person with cancer who is not eating enough to maintain or gain weight. He said "Everything to eat in the restaurant or at home looked good to me, but after one bite, I felt stuffed." He went on to say that he discovered if he ate one small bite of a food then of another food and kept on with the small solitary bites of each food available, that he could collectively get enough food down during the day.

Let me know if you or someone you care for has experienced with this stuffed feeling in battling cancer and how you dealt with it. Not every one with Cancer and chemo or radiation experiences this problem.

People from 61 countries have now visited the blog with Paraguay and Egypt being the latest. See below for list of other countries and see flag board on right to see the flags of countries people have signed on from. Keep telling friends, family, and strangers about the blog. Mark feels that people care about him when he sees the numbers on the blog going up.

2007-07-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

Mark gives a lesson on chalking the sidewalk.

Marlin and his brother, Bryce, visited us this past week and helped to decorate the sidewalk with chalk. You will remember Marlin and Mark have been mentoring one another this summer. The day after their visit, Marlin's mom gave birth to a baby girl who is now named Monet (pronounced like the name of the French Renaissance painter ).

If you are new to this blog - The cast of characters are ordinary people leading extraordinary lives due to Mark's cancer, his quest for treatment, attempts to live life as fully as he can, and his love of adventure which is often "catching." We search for adventures that are easy on the pocketbook and energy; adventures that keep us enjoying our town Austin, Texas and the world. We look for opportunities to do good deeds, meet new people and things to put a smile on our face and yours. Thanks for dropping in and don't hesitate to contact us and tell us who you are.

People from 59 countries have visited the blog - The newest country to log on is Viet Nam. See flags of countries of visitors in the right hand column.

2007-07-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

Music at the Texas State History Museum every Friday in July: Picture Taken July 13 by Betty Richardson
Mark and some of Mom's friends

Mark served wine, soft drinks, gormet cheese, etc. to 20 of Mom's friends, some who have known Mark for years and some who have tasted his gormet cooking in the past. Mark is the cook you want cooking for you. Memorable meals come to mind like those he cooked when we sailed in the San Juan Islands and had fresh seafood; oysters we harvested and fresh crabs we trapped (see early bologs in archives found in the right column). Even sick he adds an extra punch to the party food offerings. While Mom prepared some finger sandwiches and James prepared nachos, Mark served guests cheeses from igourmet.com - a Malagon with Rosemary, a second cheese with mustard and ale and a fig/nut cake all produced in Spain; cheeses he ordered on line. A party really perks Mark up.

The Flying Balalaika Brothers Band from Russia played on the plaza in front of the Texas State History Museum. There is free music every friday night in July at the museum and that is where you may find Mark and James, and Mom. Some young fans (see picture)enjoyed the music. On July 20 Stingers ATX play and on July 27 it will be Ghandaia. Music Under the Stars also includes free admission to the special space exhibit and exhibits on the three floors of the museum.

Lady Bird Johnson laid in state at the LBJ Library on the University of Texas Campus. There were people coming and going but amazingly no line when we went about 8:00 pm. We managed to get into the library quickly. sign the remembrance book, and go upstairs to pay our respects and see the closed, draped coffin. Lady Bird's two daughters and their husbands stood to each side of the coffin. National and international dignitaries were in Austin for the services. Lady Bird's coffin was taken to the Johnson ranch cemetery. People lined up all along the route, even in rural highway sections, to see the cortege in passing.

2007-06-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

Past Rotary District Governor Clift and the ladies do back-up for Elvis, Elvis Sighted Again Standing next to Mom, Pretty Ladies and Elvis, and Pinetop Perkins the Blues Great (Click on any picture to enlarge it)

Mark was too ill to go to the Rotary Installation of Officers at Ralph and Penny Dellana's home and wouldn't you know it, Pinetop Perkins was a surprise guest and played the piano and Elvis sang. Past District Governor of Rotary Clift Price and the ladies gave the crowd a thrill with their back-up dance for Elvis.

Mark missed it all but he is now feeling much better and hopes to catch the next exciting sighting of Elvis or Pinetop. Mark is now taking pictures of wildlife, birds, deer and whatever he can sight off the deck, in the greenbelt behind the house. Will publish some of those pictures soon. He is thinking of doing some nature paintings in oils. Our neighbor accross the street is an artist and has offered to help Mark.

People have logged onto the blog from 58 countries now. Do you know that if you mouse over a flag, on the flag board in the right hand column on the blog, the name of the country of that flag will appear. The same is true of the circles below the flag board. The latest flags of counties where people logged on from are Haiti, Nigeria, Nepal and Iraq. People have logged on from: Austria, Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, China, Cote D'Ivoire, Czech republic, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, Hungary, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Guam, Haiti, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, India, Italy, Israel, Japan, So Korea, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Madagascar,Morocco, Myanmar, Northern Marianas Islands, Mexico, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Singapore, El Salvador, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Serbia, and So. Africa.

Thanks for telling friends and family to visit the blog - Please pass the URL out to anyone and everyone! We are working on getting 10,000 hits on it Where else can you get such exciting news as well as updates on Mark?

2007-06-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Pictures: Mark on Saturday at a viewing of friend Jerry's new film, Mark, Jerry, Dave, and Dorie (click on any picture to enlarge it)

Mark was feeling ill on Saturday, but he took a handsome picture. It was taken after a spaghetti diner with an excellent wine brought by Jerry followed by a showing of Jerry's cultural film about the pouring of a concrete roof on the three story house he and his wife are building in Pharping, Nepal overlooking the Kathmandu Valley. check this link to read about the film : a must see for engineers, architects, anthropologists,nuclear physicists, and curious minded people http://www.mojotoons.com/roof.html

Dave and Dorie came to the second or third running of the film this same night and brought a pie party (five different pies). Today (Monday) Mark has gotten his Mojo back and has downloaded songs onto an MP3 Player sent by his sister to challenge our technological skills.

Kitten in the neighborhood. A kitten appeared and hung around our neighborhood meowing like it was looking for its mother. One whole morning the kitty watched James work then neighbor Keith came home and took it into his spare bedroom so it would not be a snack for coyotes. This kitten may be the reincarnation of his recently deceased cat. Keith got very attached to the kitten but he could not keep it because he is moving. Our other neighbor Laurie found the kitty a good home with her friend Meghan and her children. They gave the kitty a flea bath and found out it is a boy. Later I learned the kitty's new name: "Tank." because the cat's new family predicts he will be a really big cat when he grows up.

2007-06-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

Steph (middle) and Houston teachers at the Great Wall of China.

Big News From Mark's Sister Stephanie Mom paid a dollar at the University Rotary Club of Austin meeting to share that Stephanie was named Department of Defense District Teacher of the Year. She has taught first year Japanese and Honors English at Kinnick High School on the Yokosuka Navy Base in Japan for several years. A couple of years ago, she selected a young student to work with. and created with him and other students, the successful school improvement program "CSIjuniors" which is now being duplicated in a number of DoDs schools. And as if District Teacher of the Year was not enough excitement.....
Today Stephanie called to say she has taken a new job Those of you who bet money she would never leave Japan, have lost your money. Stephanie will living and working about an hour from London. If I understood her correctly, she will be working on school improvement for England and three other countries (Belgim, Behrain, Netherlands) and will travel a good bit.

Stephanie started a love affair with Japan as a Rotary exchange student to Japan. She was sponsored by the Jacksonville, Ilinois Rotary Club. Stephanie continued this love affair with Japan later as a participant in the Japanese Embassy Teacher (JET) program, then with the Department of Defense.

A Little Chuckle

Stephanie is a little concerned about my mother's antique and rare furniture making another sea voyage. although the Japanese will pack it for shipping far better than the bizarre crew who came in Houston to pack it up for the sea voyage to Japan. We had a good laugh when we stopped to think about the fact that this furniture has seen far more of the world than mother. My mother had agoraphobia and in her later years refused to leave her house except to see doctors or go to the hospital. In her younger years a big trip for her was the annual trip to the Ozarks in Missouri to go fishing with Dad. My mother was the best cook when it came to fish or wild game. We miss her a lot, not only for her cooking, but she was one of a kind; a real character and so was Dad.

2007-06-09T22:27:00.001-07:00

Saturday June 9, 07 Mark and I went to the cancer center at the Houston veteran's hospital June 5th for his second day of chemo and learned the doctor only ordered one day of chemo instead of the three he has always had. Yesterday Mark insisted in meeting with the doctor alone. He could not remember the doctor saying anything about changing to one day chemo and in fact can not recall what the doctor said. He thinks the doctor said he could have some oral chemo pills, but he is not sure and does not know if that was after the one day of chemo or on June 25 when we go back to Houston for apparently another one day of chemo. After going to the VA in Houston I always think of the Apollo 13 message to mission control: "Houston, we have a problem."

2007-06-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Monday June 4, 2007 Mark is in Houston at the VA getting chemotherapy as this is being typed.After chemotherapy three days in a row we will go back to Austin, Tx. on Wednesday. His doctor Dr. Xu (pronounced Shoe) who is from China, reported that Mark's liver tumors have shrank slightly between the recent Cat Scan and the prior one. His kidney function is slightly improved. Dr.Xu suggested getting two rounds of chemo and then get another Cat Scan. Mark is somewhat exhausted and looked very depressed today after talking to Dr. Xu. He told the doctor he was doing great but the reality is that he has not been eating or sleeping well. He will probably bounce back again soon.He has seen Dr. Xu twice but this is his last visit with Dr. Xu because Dr is leaving for New York at the end of the month.

Mark's treatment at the VA is not free. Mark pays co-payments for medications, which is not a problem. Almost everyone in America pays co-payments for medication. The problem is that the VA Benefits department wants Mark to retroactively co-pay on all doctor visits and chemotherapy and procedures back to August 2006 based on 2005 income which was already long ago spent for treatment in Thailand. After diagnosis of cancer in early Feb 2005 Mark never worked again. Social Security Disability began April 2005. Co-workers on Saipan donated sick time Feb to June 05, money that paid for treatment at the hospital in Thailand. He spent it all on treatment and ran out of money. He has had no income except social security disability since mid 2005, but his co-payments for 2006-7 August to August are based on his income in 2005 and his health care costs. Mom sent an official letter from the hospital in Thailand stating Mark's cash payments in all of 2005. That did not satisfy the VA so Mom is now copying a pile of receipts for each and every service in 2005. Nothing is free, sometimes it is less free, and sometimes it is not even reasonable.

Mark is growing a beautiful garden in flower pots on our decks
Mark has been quite sick off and on during the last two weeks, but he is still faithfully watering and fertilizing his tomato plants which consist of regular sized tomato plants, one tomatillo plant and one cherry tomato plant. They are in great shape and we are harvesting some cherry tomatoes.

Mark helped James build a stairway from a porch to the deck today.

May 31, 2007
Mark was up and working around the house inside and out. Yesterday he was vomiting and had to postpone a visit to the eye doctor. He wants new glasses to help him read better and a check up since he had some major eye problem in Bangkok last year that had him temporarily blind and required some painful procedures and being grounded from flying and having to sit and lie a certain way. At first the docs thought his cancer had spread to the eye, but it turned out to be something different.
People from 53 countries have now seen the blog. See below for list of 52 or check the flag board on the right. The new country signed on is Cote D'Ivorie. Do you know someone in another country that you could ask to click onto the blog? Let's add some more flags for Mark.

Mark and Jerry Barrett discuss books and films and a possible part for Mark in Jerry's next film. They are at our neighbor's retirement party. The retiree Keith got several lovely retirement presents; he tried on a gift retirement hat. Click on any picture to make it bigger.

Saturday June 2, 2007
Tonight our British neighbor Keith, who became an American citizen sometime ago, had a retirement party He is taking early retirment from Hewlit Packard and had a big party. Mark helped him with just a few party details as did his friends Valorie, Rachel, Jessie, and others. It may have been the social event of the year. He sets a new standard for the neighborhood parties.

2007-05-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

Mark chases and catches an armadillo,brings it home, and shows it to neighbor Sierra and friend (Click on pictures to enlarge them)

Mark spotted four young armadillos on one of his walks around the block; walks he does to build up strength and endurance for his battle against cancer. After a wild chase and catching one which got away and had to be caught again, Mark brought an armadillo home, put it in a box, and showed it to Sierra and her friend. He wanted a picture of himself and the girls with the armadillo. When he attempted to take the armadillo out of the box, it got away again, which led to a chase down the hill in our yard and through an opening in the pool fence and through the garden and up the deck and down the deck and under the deck and finally another catch and pictures. Quite a show for a sick man. He claimed he was worn out after all this. Mark did take the armadillo back around the block to the hole in the side of the hill; a home he shares with the other three or so armadillos. It is never dull when Mark is around.
Story from the past: When Mark was in junior high school, I was driving him and his sister from town to our home in the country. On the edge of town he spotted a mink running in someone's yard. He yelled for me to stop the car. He jumped out and chased the mink and caught it by hand and put it in a paper sack in the car. Of course it got loose in the car. I was driving somewhat wildly expecting the mink to run across my body any minute and a state police trooper stopped us to see what the problem was. By this time Mark had caught the mink again and the trooper was amazed and let us go on. We put the mink in a cage. Mark caught a frog in our pond and fed it to the mink who ate the frog reducing it bones and all to the consistency of chewing gum. Minks have very sharp teeth. After a few weeks, Mark turned the mink loose in the country.
People from 52 countries have seen the blog - It was 51 for a long time and somehow Stephanie got someone from Panama to log on last night. People have logged on from: Austria, Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, China, Czech republic, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, India, Italy, Israel, Japan, So Korea, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Madagascar,Morocco, Myanmar, Northern Marianas Islands, Mexico, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Singapore, El Salvador, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Serbia, and So. Africa.
Addendum: May 20, 2007 A friend Dies - just this morning we got an e-mail that Mike Walter died. About two years ago, he went to Bumrungrad Hospital for a heart problem and surgery. which had to be delayed because the doctors routinely run cancer markers and check for cancer at Bumrungrad. They found Mike's cancer which had been overlooked in the states. He was treated in the same Bumrungrad Cancer Center in Bangkok Thailand that Mark was treated in. Mark, Mom. and Stephanie spent time with Mike and his wife Sam. After many treatments Mike and Sam came back to the states. In order for Mike to get affordable treatment in the states, he and Sam had to divorce, but she still took care of him. Mike was blessed with Sam's good care and further blessed with a quiet death at a time he was actually feeling better and visiting his sister. He was greatly loved by family and friends and even those who knew him a short time.
MOM's Column in Austin Family (newsmagazine) Don't forget to read mom's articles in Austin Family. See link on right hand side under links. click on the words Austin Family to go to a picture of the cover of the newsmagazine. Click on Family Matters.You will be asked to sign up as a user or give your e-mail address but there is no cost. Mom has writen a monthly column in this paper for over 15 years. Another way to see Austin Family is to click on this link http://www.austinfamily.com/

Mark's niece Alyssa plays soccer (Alyssa on the right -click on picture to enlarge it)
Soccer has caught on in the USA and lots of young people play soccer these days. Alyssa is 7 years old and plays on the Bearcats team in San Antonio where she lives with brother Nathan and mom Linzey. Mr. Mark did not go to this game, but when he heard from mom that the family went out to a restaurant where you get all the snow crab claws you want, he decided he might go the next time. Mark is very fond of crab meat; not only the snowcrab claws but other kinds of crabs too (and lobsters and oysters too).

Mark stayed home from the game on San Antonio because he does not like to ride in the car that far and because the air conditioner repairman was expected. Mark took care of having our air conditioner repaired. It was not working for 24 hours or so. After not sleeping for a few days, Mark slept nearly the entire 24 hours the air conditioner was out. I thought about the times Mark and I volunteered with MEDICO in Honduras and Nicaragua in the Moskito Coast and slept through heat and rain awakening in sweat or lying in a puddle and bathing in lakes and rivers and even one trip drinking river water with government supplied chlorine drops added. A few days without air conditioning is not so bad when you think of people all over the world living in places as hot as or hotter than Austin Texas and not having air conditioning.

Cancer is a strange thing and so too are the effects of chemotherapy. One or the other of these along with the pain medication and regulating it seems to affect the heat regulating system of the body. Mark is sometimes chilled when it is scorching hot and hot when the house air conditioner is set to frostbite conditions. He sometimes can't sleep for days and then hibernates for days.

Marlin had a birthday. He is now 7 years old like Alyssa in story above. See story of Marlin below.

Mom's "girl friends" and Mark
Mom invited some women friends to come for an evening meal and a trip to the ballet. Mark helped James prepare the food, waited on everyone, and had his picture taken with Mom's friends. After the ballet, some of the women came back to talk to Mark. Quoting Mark: "Mom, I like your girl friends." Mark thrives on being social and having friends over, even mom's friends and their grown children, who are now his friends too.

Mark has taken over the kitchen ensuring that it is sparkling clean at all times. He waters and cares for all the plants. He has fed the squirrels each day and now we have a multitude of squirrels calling on us every day. Our trees and decks are often full of squirrels playing and looking for food. Our neighbor Keith had to have his kitty, Miss Ginger Fluffy, put to sleep. Mark visited Keith and offered his condolences.

Saturday May 12 was very busy. We picked up Marlin age 6 (almost 7) whom we are mentoring and took him to Dan's restaurant for pancakes. He was such a gentleman opening the doors for everyone. We bought toys for his little brother at a church fund raiser, made cookies, and went to a children's play, and went swimming. He showed Mark how good he is at putting puzzles together. Marlin volunteered to help Mark wash the car, water the plants, clean the pool. Mark was impressed with how good a kid Marlin is. "Yes, Marlin we do like you!"

Mark and neighbor on our porch having a wake for Keith''s cat (click on picture to enlarge it)

After we took Marlin home, we had a memorial service (wake) for neighbor Keith's cat. His 15 year old cat stopped eating and nothing the vet did would cause her to rally so Keith's veterinarian gave Keith's cat a transfer to the Eternal Care Unit (Heaven). Several neighbors attended the wake and several people spoke about Miss Ginger Fluffy and how she will be missed. Some neighbors competed in a quest to find Keith a new cat (one or more of their cats) but Keith is still grieving for his Miss Fluffy.

2007-05-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-04-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mark's report on the week in Jomtien Beach, Thailand: the week after his birthday - Mark e-mailed about an elegant opening of a new condo complex in Pattaya. Mark attended with Jin, Angel and George. Every one dressed up in evening attire for this soirée. The food included roast pig. When he feels well Mark loves to look his best and attend these kinds of events so he can mingle and act like a real person and forget he has cancer.
Mark reported that "the girls" (alluding to three girls) dug up about a gallon of the small coquina on the beach and are using these small shell contents to make a soup for dinner. Mark said he is getting brown from being on the beach morning and evening. Should I remind him of the dangers of skin cancer? Probably not, he already has cancer and this is his vacation from cancer treatment; a time to have fun and relax.
Mark will spend about 25 plus hours in the air flying back to Austin arriving this Thursday. Sunday he heads for the VA hospital in Houston.

April 20th Mark celebrated his 47 th birthday; the third birthday since docs gave him three months or less to live .Mark has made a lot of friends in Jomtien beach, Thailand and has just had his birthday party there complete with dancers and fire twirling and Thai food. Wish we all could have been there.
Amazing Coincidences - Mark is staying in a bungalow owned by an Englishman George Richardson (same last name as Mark) and his Thai wife Angel. George is also a survivor of stomach cancer and loves to sail. Mark loves to sail.
Mark is taking a month break from cancer treatment: a break from chemo killing good cells as well as cancerous ones; a break from chemo leaking into his arm tissues causing pain, redness, and heat as well as great concern about loss and use of what was formerly a good vein or veins and fear of loss of tissue. This is a break from pain and riding hours in our old car to Houston to get chemo only to be sent home because of the white blood count being too low and having to return the following week; a break from doctors and staff who are unpredictably either very kind or the exact opposite and from staff who convey a wish to be understanding and those who are not the least bit understanding; a break from the VA system which is a Godsend or a source of frustration depending on the personality or whim of who waits on you or what the rule is or might be that applies to your situation; a break from thinking about what to do next or different in the battle against cancer and how to pay for anything new or different; a break from being nauseated most of the time and weak from chemo. He is enjoying this break immensely.
What is Mark doing and what should he be doing?Mark is relaxing and meditating, visiting the temple, cutting back on pain medication, eating three meals a day, walking on the beach enjoying a calm view of the ocean that he loves surrounded by people who are gentle and a nation of people who tend to be very accepting and kind. Ever think about how judgemental many Americans have become? Nearly everyone of us spends time thinking about what other people should or should not be doing which raises the question: Should we be doing this? Having said this, I invite you to call on your good judgement and feel free to comment or send an e-mail of suggestions for Mark about what you think he needs to do at this time...two years after cancer diagnosis with medicare recently kicking in as his only insurance along with access to the VA system.

Mark's Mom went to Waterloo Records 25th Anniversary party - What a party on the parking lot with lots and lots of bands playing for about 8 hours. Things like this happen in Austin Texas, self proclaimed "Music Capital of the World". Mom and James are cleaning house and partying while Mark is on vacation.

Do you know that Mark's Mom writes a column in a parenting news magazine each month? Yes, Mom has written a column in a parenting magazine every month for the last 15 years. The column (department) to click on is Family Matters. You can read the magazine online at http://www.austinfamily.com/ In the May issue Mom discusses the phenomenon of Helicopter Parents which is a term coined in the early '90s for parents who hover closely over children in college and now is used in a broader sense and includes for parents of younger children who tend to over manage their children's lives and activities. There is an interesting article in USA Today about Helicopter parents hovering over children in the work place; parents who try to negotiate better salaries and circumstances for their child by calling the grown child's boss or human resource director.

People from 51 Countries Have Visited This Blog - Look at the flag board on the right side of the blog. When you touch one of the flags with your cursor it will tell you the country of that flag and in some cases it will bring up a map. Flashing flags are new additions to the board. Visitors have come from: Austria, Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, China, Czech republic, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, India, Italy, Israel, Japan, So Korea, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Madagascar,Morocco, Myanmar, Northern Marianas Islands, Mexico, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Singapore, El Salvador, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Serbia, and So. Africa. Thank-you all for visiting the blog and inviting friends from other countries to visit the blog. Mark takes these flags as a sign of support from around the world and this is part of what keeps Mark going when cancer gets tough.

Belinda - We met a young English lady in the waiting room at Bumrungrad Hospital two years ago. She lives on the island of Koh Samui and has a Thai Husband and a darling little boy Bertie. She had never smoked and had no bad habits at all, but she had cancer of the throat. She came back and forth from Koh Samui to Bumrungrad for treatment. At one point she went to Hong Kong to get a pet scan which shows cancerous areas in red. The red color is because of the high metabolism and heat of the cancer. Her husband and Bertie went along and they went to the Disney Park in Hong Kong. She was found to be cancer free at that time. Recently she wrote and cancer is back with her. She has a positive attitude and is returning to treatment. Pray for Belinda and her family. She is a mighty warrier in the cancer battle....but needs all the help and support she can get. Cancer is all around us and the world is full of brave people like Belinda and Mark who are battling cancer.

2007-04-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Where is everyone?
Mark moved to a bungalow at angel's guest resort on Jomtien beach at a fraction of the hotel cost and has the use of a motorcycle. Mark is taking a vacation from cancer treatment which is like his work. Mark has worked very hard at battling cancer enduring more and complaining less than most of us would for over two years, but now he is on a break from it with his plan to make it a fun but low budget vacation . He reports the hour or so ride to the beach at Pattaya from Bangkok at a bargain of 1200 baht or about 34 dollars. Mark says he got 35 baht to the dollar in the Bangkok ATM and ate at a 99 baht ($3) all you can eat bar-b-que buffet.

Stephanie and Ron Clark, award winning teacher and key note speaker at Educator's conference. Phil in the background

Mark's sister Stephanie was in Chicago with Mom for four days where a lot of fun was had. Stephanie attended and presented at an Educator's conference which had 1200 attendees from every state, Europe and Asia. Jackie, who used to teach with Stephanie in Japan but is now a school librarian in a small town in Indiana, drove several hours with her husband and two year old adopted daughter Qi from China to spend a few hours with Stephanie and Mom.

There was too much excitement when Mom had her wallet stollen on the magnificent mile. Stephanie and Phil, a teacher/administrator from Yokosuka where Steph teaches, and Mom had an exciting cab ride to the police station in Chicago to file a crime report.
Stephanie is now in Japan getting ready to head for Bangkok to get her triple "Rs", Rest, Relaxation and Routine check-ups at Bumrungrad Hospital over Spring break from teaching. Mom is in Austin holding down the fort and writing her monthly column for Austin Parent. The next month's column is on Helicopter Parents. Have you heard of this phenomenon?

Stories from the past- When Mark was three to four, mom taught him how to swim in a parent-preschoolers class. By five he was on a swim team. At 16 he had his scuba certification and had his life guard certificate. Before Mark left for Thailand he was telling about when he was in the Navy and stationed at Great Lakes Naval Base how happy he was when the Navy found out he had been a life guard and assigned him life guard duty because had he not gotten this cushy job he would have been out working in the cold and snow with his buddies.

Cowboy James told a story about when he was a teenager and decided to wash his pet goat in the bath tub so it would look nice in an anual parade in his hometown of Olton Texas. He said his mother was not very happy about this goat bathing in the bathtub and his father did not like it much either when the goat walked on top of the family car and tried to eat the tires.

2007-03-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

Stephanie (Mark's sister) is in Austin for two days. She lives and works in Yokosuka, Japan. A big excitement for Steph and Mom was seeing Sandra Bullock and her husband Jesse James and their son Jessie Jr. in the airport waiting for luggage. The next excitement was heading for Artz Rib House for baby back ribs and music. Art visited with us. He guessed that Sandra Bullock was in Austin for new Quentin Tarrantino film opening. Breakfast at Dan's Hamburgers on Lamar and a look at the tile wall being created by Jean Graham and the people of two Austin neighborhoods were the next adventures. Steph is squeezing in a lot of Austin things to do in a short time before heading to Chicago to present at an educator's conference.

Steph and Mark put a special homemade dry rub on a beef brisket and slow smoked it. Steph values this time with Mark, not knowing if he will survive cancer for two more days, two years, or twenty.

Steph's childhood friend, Kathy Lacey, from high school came up from the Woodlands in Houston and brought her mom, Norma, from Jacksonville, Illinois to eat brisket with us.

Betty, Kathy, Stephanie, Mark, and Norma

Dave,Dorie, and Mark: friends who came for bar-b-que and a visit (Dave's birthday is April 17 and Mark's is April 20

)

March 23, 2007
Tell (Mark's Mom) Betty Lou

HAPPY BIRTHDAY tomorrow or anytime in the next two weeks. She celebrates for a long time!!! And pass the address for this blog on to everyone you know; Mom loves to see the number counter and flag board change...!
(Stephanie, logged in as Mom)

Mom got a birthday cake surprise after a meeting of the staff from all shifts at the drug study clinic (CCRI) where she works part time. Even the subjects got cake (except for those in one study where the diet is tightly regulated). Bright and early on the 24th, 5 year old neighbor Jack was at the door with a great birthday card he had made. The birthday afternoon was spent at the Bob Bullock Museum volunteering to help children make a cartouche i.e. write their names in Egyptian hierglyphics, within an oval, using stamp pads with caracters for the letters.

Mark is resting for his trip to Thailand and he will be there for his birthday April 20th (3rd birthday since he was given 3 months to live. His arm where chemo medicine apparently leaked out into the tissues is much better. Pray that Mark is able to get to Thailand and back safely one more time. Mark got a hair cut after James threatened to mow it with a lawn mower and warned Mark that birds were going to nest in it any day.

Friend Frank reports he is recovering from surgery for similar esophogeal gastric tumor as Mark's - after chemo, radiation, then surgery removing part of his stomach and esophagus and some lymph nodes with anastamosis of the stomach and eophagus. This is a common approach to treating esophageal gastric tumors in major cancer treatment centers today. Frank says it takes a surprisingly long time to regain strength from the surgery, but that he is doing very well now. Mark had the chemo and radiation but not the surgery. Had Mark had insurance, he probably would have gotten surgery too.

Durrel (husband of Pam who taught with Stephanie in Japan) died of cancer at his home in Cloudcroft just days after leaving Houston where the medical centers could do no more for him. While teaching in Japan, Pam had gotten a dream assignment in Italy and she and her husband had moved there. Then Durrel was diagnosed with cancer in January of this year, returned to the states, was in Houston about a month, to Cloudcroft for days, then gone to a final resting place. Durrel will be missed; we were fortunate to have known him.
Keep praying for a cancer vaccine, preventative, and cure.

2007-03-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

Another Trip to VA, Mr Really Nice Guy and Mr. Fussy, and the answer to whether Mark will go to Bangkok one more time or not, and the latest buzz in cancer research.
The Accommodations and Trip to VA to Get Chemo and Cat Scan
Mark and I went to Houston for his chemo the week before last and returned home without chemo because Mark's WBC's were too low. On Sunday, the guys had to drive down to Houston again and they shared a room in the courtesy quarters at the VA Hospital on the 4th floor. Two double rooms share a bathroom and Mark reports that he and James were locked out of the bathroom from 4 pm until 10 pm. Mark reports a fight breaking out on the floor which James did not even hear. They could only get this VA room for one night due to heavy demand so they went to the only motel that seemed to have vacant rooms for Monday and Tuesday nights. Houston Rodeo people still have all the rooms booked. The guys report that the ceiling in their rooms was falling in and a car had run into one room and it was left caved in, and the motel did not really have internet except one computer in the lobby which was used by neighbors and nearby schoolchildren and seldom available to guests of the motel, but otherwise it was ok. James went with Mark to Houston as Mom had a National League of Nursing assignment in Pine Bluff Arkansas from Monday until Thursday night.

Mark picked Mom up at the airport on Thursday looking like he was going to surf a wave in Hawaii. He has been boating on Lake Austin with his friend David the last three evenings. They boat down to the Hula Hut and get a bite to eat. What a life! Mark has gotten in all the boating he could as he anticipates being really sick from chemotherapy three days after chemo. Mark is trying to squeeze in all the fun and enjoyment in life that he can and not let cancer treatment consume all the time he has left. He plans to go to Bangkok for one more trip April 3 to May 3. He talked Dr. Breene, his doctor this week, into thinking it was ok: a small sabbatical from chemotherapy.
Mr. Fussy and Mr Nice Guy
There is somewhat of a pattern in which anywhere from one day to three days after chemo until several days before time for chemo again, Mark gradually becomes Mr. Fussy, until he is not happy with anyone or anything, slumped over, depressed, sick, dying, irritable, and worse. Several days before time for chemo again he gradually becomes Mr Really Nice Guy so thoughtful and full of energy, washing and cleaning up the car, cooking, cleaning the house, doing fun things, and positive about everything. Chemo is very crazy making.
Kris Brown's Father who has cancer and is at Sloan Kettering
Kris' father is doing better. He was accumulating fluid in his chest and having to have it drained. Some innovative doc in the ER found a way to fix the problem. ...so no more fluid accumulation. Thanks to Kris I learned that the big thing at Sloan Kettering and many other places seems to be immunotherapy. That is the buzz in research today. Check immunotherapy for adenocarcinoma (type Mark has) .Note: if you click on the words "immunotherapy for adenocarcinoma" above you will go to an interesting article on the latest research.

2007-03-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

Mark (center Right) and Allen his friend center left: the two guys with hook em horns signs: the UT sign representing the horns of the Longhorn steer. UT vs A&M mens basketball

Busy Week

Mark and mom returned from the VA hospital in Houston on Tuesday night. Mark's friend Allen from Reno arrived on Wed around 4 p.m.My boss Dr. Brown had given me 2 tickets for the University of Texas vs Texas A and M men's basketball game. I had promised to take our own Aggie James (A and M grad X3) to the game for his birthday. Through a stroke of luck and possibly devine intervention, co-worker Leon gave me his tickets for Mark and Allen (both big UT fans). It was the best game I'd ever seen going into double overtime before A and M got outscored by two points (James says Aggies don't loose..they just get out scored). The game was sold out and scalpers were buying tickets and not selling except in rare instances. I saw 2 tickets selling for $500 which was the going price.

Dr. Eppner would probably get upset with Mark and me if he knew Mark was at a sold out basketball game crowd with his low WBCs and impaired immunity. I do worry some myself, but mark is determined to live life to the fullest. I rationalize that the arena is probably not as dangerous as the hospital waiting room where sick people cough on you.

Mark was on a natural high after the game. Mark and Allen have been alternating sleep and boating on Lake Austin these past two days and Mom has been alternating working three part-time jobs and social and business secretary to Mark with some other fun too.

Not living too high. Least you mistakenly think we are living too high, I am still driving my 10 year old Honda, using my tea bag twice and the guys are staying at no frills places on the quest for a cat scan and chemo in Houston.
Mark and mom in Houston This Past Week

Mark's doctor at the VA in Houston this past Monday: Dr. Chaiyarat Walailuk
This past Sunday when we went to Houston, we were concerned that we couldn't find a hotel room to reserve for Tuesday night due to the Rodeo being at Reliant Stadium and rodeo folks having booked up all rooms anywhere near the Medical Complex. Our hotel is full of cowboys and cowgirls in boots and cowboy hats(jeans and shirts too) .

Click on newspaper to make it big enough to read

We feared we might be homeless under a bridge tomorrow night, but it turned out we won't need a room Tuesday night. Mark's white blood count was too low today to get chemo so we'll go home Tues. after his bone scan rather than Wed. Maybe some of Mark's depressed mood, extreme irritability, and exhaustion is explained by his very low white blood count. Mark's doctor today is from Thailand and knows the doctor who cared for Mark in Thailand. She says Dr. Theera is famous and she was one of his students at the University in Bangkok. She was very professional and yet caring. She and Dr. Eppner are concerned that Mark wants to go to Thailand for a couple of months. They (we) are concerned about his compromised immune system and the risks of traveling with ill passengers and the stress of the long trip. They do not want to be caring for Mark, then not caring for him, and then caring again; viewing this as fragmented care at best. Mom understands their position and on the other hand understands Mark's love of Thailand and people there and his love of adventure and feeling mortal after years of feeling invincible. Could the trip to Thailand be delayed some and possibly shortened to facilitate his treatment for cancer and hopefully keep him alive longer or should he hasten to lie on the beaches of Thailand in case he has only a very short time to live regardless of treatment? The decision is Mark's and it is a tough decision for him.
And It's Not All About Mark - Mark often says "It's not all about me" so I am careful to add important information about other people.

Kitty Worley - All around us people have cancer. Our friend Fred Worley's mother Kitty Worley died of pancreatic cancer. She died a month after diagnosis. Eighty-three years young, she had taught Spanish in the high school at College Station, Texas for 32 years; a ray of sunshine and enthusiasm always. Mom and Stephanie were lucky to meet her and work with her on medical mission trips to Mexico. There were so many people at her service that when we arrived 15 minutes early, the very large church parking lot was full and we had to park 5 blocks away to arrive just after the service began. People were hiking in from greater distances for some time after us with standing room only
Kris Brown's Father - I work part time as a nurse for Dr. Brown and his wife Kris at their drug research facility. Kris is always so kind to ask about Mark and to tell me her family prays for Mark each night. Yesterday Kris reminded me that her father has cancer and is being treated at Sloan Kettering. She has a second family member with cancer. I must ask Kris for more information. It isn't all about Mark. Some of it is about all of you and the struggles you have with your own health problems and those you care for too.
If you have cancer or someone you know has cancer and you would like people to think kind thoughts or pray for you or someone else, let me know and I will write a little something for you.
Bush Presidential Library-Bryan College Station
We went to the Bush Presidential Library while we were in Bryan College Station. Unlike the LBJ Library which is free on the University of Texas Campus, the Bush Library at Texas A and M University has an entrance fee of 5 dollars for seniors and a bit more for younger upward mobile types. I like the LBJ library best because I find it interesting and being free, I am motivated to take visitors to Austin there and I go there often.
It is about you too! Internet Hoax and How to Find Out if Something is a Hoax!
Yesterday a friend sent out a plea to all her friends including me: a plea from someone claiming to have a missing 13 year old daughter and wanting everyone to circulate the message and picture of the beautiful young girl to all our acquaintences. I posted it on the blog then discovered the e-mail address for the mother would not work. Daughter Stephanie went to www.snopes.com and found out this particular missing girl plea was a hoax so we took the plea and picture off this blog. You can use the www.snopes.com to find out about hoaxes that are circulating.
A tad of additional information on Mark - About a week ago, Mark, his friend Bruce, James, Marisela and her sister and brother, Tomas a pastor on the East side and his wife Connie and I all went to see Sharks: a 3-D IMAX. Wow! The fish and sharks swam out in the audience and it was educational and not scarey at all. After the movie Mark told me that he was going to Las Vegas and asked: "Mom could you take me to the airport to catch a 6 am flight?" So I did. He had been telling Bruce he wasn't going to Vegas because he was not feeling well, but gave in when he found a cheap ticket and hotel combination. He came back Sat. and arrived at the airport at 3:45 am. He may have spent most of this time in Vegas in bed, but it was a different bed.
Mark is itching to spend some time in Bangkok. He continues to ride the roller coaster of cancer; feels good for awhile, sick for awhile, fears he is dying any minute then acts like he feels he is immortal, too sick to go somewhere, anxious to get moving while he still feels good enough to travel, joking and showing his sense of humor, irritable and Mr. Fussy.
A strange side effect of chemo: Remember Mark's face getting beet red for a few days before he went to Vegas? His face peeled like a sunburn.

Last Saturday night Mark was feeling so bad he didn't go with James and Mom to hear Pinetop Perkins at Ms B's Restaurant on East 11th. A real upscale place. Pinetop came to support some young piano students from the East side who were playing tonight. He and the band from Antone's played after the young pianists. It was great!
See picture of the world famous blues piano player and community treasure Mr Pinetop Perkins, in his chartreuse Hat, and mom. Taken outside Ms B's

2007-02-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

February 15, 2007 - Ice Bats Hockey and Steak

Our friend Marisela, who is a whiz at knowing what's going on and how to get in when there aren't any tickets available, is taking Mark, James, and me (Mom) to see the Austin Ice Bats play tomorrow night. We are fortunate so many friends care about Mark and want to take him on adventures and fill his life with fun things. For those who may not know, that's Fang, the Ice Bats' mascot, pictured to the left.

Mark, always the gourmet cook, is cooking very good steak to build his blood up for next chemo and sticking close to home, except for short adventures with friends, although he would like to be working as a respiratory therapist or on a beach somewhere right now.

February 10, 2007 Chemo takes a toll, just as it has before:
Mark is not leaving the sofa or his bed today , except to periodically go on the deck outside. He has chest pain. His face was red as a beet for two days and he has been so hot he had the airconditioner on frostbite setting upstairs where he sleeps while the heat was on downstairs and I caught him outside barefoot and it was cold outside. He is a little down in mood at times and imagines the worst although it could be reality. He cheers up when one of his friends (Dave, Bruce, Frank) come by. Remember that chemotherapy attacks all the cells in the body and not just cancer cells. When drug research brings us a drug that directly attacks or enters just cancer cells and leaves the healthy cells alone that will be a day for real celebration.
Feb 18 - read this CancerCompass article... maybe they are onto something? http://www.cancercompass.com/cancer-news/1,12158,00.htm )

February 11, 07 Mark signed up for role in Jerry Barret's documentary: My friends Jerry and Christine had the first showing, at the Austin Alamo Drafthouse downtown, of a documentary they directed and produced. Mark is signed up for a role in the next film. His part could be filmed in Bangkok. Jerry and Christine are building a house in Shri Lankra and want to take a trip to Bangkok when Mark and Mom are there to show them around. Jerry is planning to film and show his films in lots of places in the world.

2007-02-06T04:46:00.000-08:00

Did you hear about Mark's Teddy Bear Pillows? Chemo in Houston again, Making Friends in VA waiting Room, What's Going On With Mark's Sister Stephanie and his Mom?

Mr. Mark's Teddy Bear Pillows
Mark's hair is falling out again because of chemotherapy. He asked Mom for clean pillow cases because his pillows were "looking like Teddy Bears."
Another whirlwind trip to Houston, and Day 1 of chemo yesterday went well. On day 1 only, he gets Carboplatin 563 mg in 250 of normal saline. Days 1 -3 he gets 5FU 1000 mg. and Leucovorin 648 mg. Looks like doses are based on square mm of body surface. Mark's nurse this week is Maria.

Day 1 of Chemo: New Friends Arlene and Bill
Yesterday in the VA hospital waiting room, I talked for 3 hours with Arlene and Bill whom I had just met. Bill is a Viet Nam vet who served in Germany, too. Bill and Arlene go to motorcycle rallies all over the country where she sells "Do-Rags" and purses with feathers and beads that she makes herself. Because of Bill's cancer they are giving up the rallies to go into the paintball business and sell logo items. They'll still sell Do-Rags and purses, so let me know if you need one and I'll put you in contact with Arlene. Bill makes smokers out of dishwashers and has educated me on how to do this and how to dress and cut up a deer and smoke deer meat so it tastes really good. Life in the waiting room is an ongoing education if you pay attention and make new friends.

Day 3 New Friends - We met a young couple and their beautiful little toddler in the VA hospital waiting room. Melissa and Greg live in Austin, too, and have been coming to the Houston VA oncology clinic for some time, but Greg learned on this day that he doesn't have to return to the clinic for 6 months as his cancer is in remission. Greg tells me that he researched treatment options when first diagnosed with cancer and decided that the Houston VA clinic was the best place for treatment for him, even though, unlike Mark, he has insurance and the VA collects it. Keep in mind that the VA is relatively free with just small co-payments if you don't have large enough income or some kind of health insurance to collect from. Many of the veterans do pay with health insurance or larger co-payments. Since Mark lost both his job/income and insurance when he was diagnosed, he pays only a small co-payment (and whatever it costs to get to Houston and to stay over during chemo).
Greg tells me he started a successful business while undergoing chemotherapy and he fathered a beautiful healthy child: two amazing feats. Like Mark, he has lived nearly 2 years after diagnosis and being told he had 6 months to live. See picture of Mark and Greg below.

Mark will celebrate his third birthday (05, 06, and 07) on April 20th after diagnosis of cancer two years ago in Feb. and he was so fearful he would not live to see the first one. It seems like it should be only two birthdays but it is three. Higher math challenges us all.

Mark's favorite and only sister, Stephanie, and Mom - Stephanie is coming from Yokosuka, Japan to Austin on March 28th to be with Mark for two days and then head to Chicago with her mom for the national school improvement conference for four days. Steph will attend and present at the conference - her topic is getting students involved in school improvement. Maybe I will share with her how to make a smoker out of a dishwasher.

Advances in Medicine and small town drivers in the big city-
Being a medical as well as a psychiatric nurse, advances in medicine interest me. James' Aunt Rowena is hopeful she might get a new artificial artery graft with a heparin coating on the surface to improve her circulation. She has peripheral artery disease (PAD) and her doctors have warned her that in time she might have to have an amputation due to clogged arteries and poor circulation. She has had stints and failed stints and has poor veins. She came from her small Texas panhandle town of Olton, so small it does not have a stop light, to stay with her neice in New Braunfels, near San Antonio. It's in San Antonio that a doctor does these artificial artery grafts with a new type of material. Some of her nieces and knephews visiting from the panhandle won't drive on the interstate in New Braunfels. Niece Nancy said an emphatic "NO!" when I asked her to take me somewhere involving about a mile of interstate highway (US 35). She told me in the town she comes from (Abernathy) two cars can park in the middle of the mainstreet and the drivers can chat with each other without disrupting trafic. If you can't picture this happening, there's a photo of Downtown Abernathy to the right of this paragraph.

Yesterday I read about this new procedure/new graft , mentioned above. It is called a Gore graft according to an article in the Texas Medical Center News in Houston. An artificial artery or piece of artery coated on the surface with heparin is implanted to improve circulation and prevent blood clots. This technique may be a Godsend for Aunt Rowena. In addition to doctors in San Antonio doing this technique, there is a vascular surgeon Dr. Alan Lumsden at DeBakey Heart Center in Houston who is using this new graft.

2007-01-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

January 29, 2007
We made a fast trip to the VA in Houston and back. I didn't realize how fast the car could accelerate from a dead stop to 80 until riding with Mark at the wheel. He has a sense of urgency to his life and tries to do lots of things fast as if running out of time and he could be. We just don't know how long he has. His sister asked me why I said on the blog that he was bored. "Didn't he just get back from a trip (see trip in blog below?" I explained to Stephanie that the person with cancer has a different perspective. Never knowing if he will get extremely sick or die in the next 20 minutes, 20 days or 20 weeks, Mark wants to cram in everything fun that he can. He feels better when he has some trip or event planned to look forward to. We were to stay in Houston until Wednesday late, but the chemotherapy was cancelled as Mark's white cell count was too low. His doctor this week was very easy to talk to (remember a different doctor each visit at the VA oncology unit). The doctor was Dr. Breene (spelling? It starts with a B and rhymes with Greene). On the way home Mark appologized for being cranky due to being in pain and expressed concern it was a wasted trip because he could not have chemo, but I encouraged him to think otherwise. Why was this trip not a waste of time? Mark learned his wbcs were down. He got a shot of neupogen to help bring them back up. He had a good talk with the doctor and with his favorite nurse Abraham Ferrer (see story and picture below about nurse Ferrer). We ate a lot of seafood again and I enjoyed the process and I suspect Mark did too the way he attacked those king crab claws and crawfish gumbo.

January 20, 2007
Mr. Mark Gets Time off from Chemo; Takes Solo Trip To Jackson Mississippi and to Antones in Austin to Hear Pinetop Perkins; a Music Legend

Jackson, Mississippi
Surprise of all surprises. Mark was scheduled for chemotherapy three weeks in a row at the VA hospital, but unexpectedly the plan changed and he was given two weeks off. Mark and Mom planned a trip to Jacksonville, Illinois to visit friends and relatives, flying into nearby Springfield; a weekend last minute special cheap fare.This plan was changed because an ice storm was expected in the midwest. Mom found Mark a bargain ticket to Jackson Mississippi to visit his friend Ken and Ken's brother Gary. The guys sat in rockers on Ken's cabin porch out in the country, visited Ken's mother, checked out the casino food, rode motorcycles, and fished. Austin got an ice storm too. Mom worked 26 hours straight at the drug study clinic because relief staff could not make it in. Mark stayed two extra days in Jackson because of the likelihood of cancelled flights or not being able to get home from the Austin airport due to road closures. Sleeping in airports would be too much for someone with cancer. Mom came home from the 26 hour work experience and slept 15 hours straight.
Mr. Mark is lucky so many people love and care about him and he wants to live every minute he can. Loving kindness makes all the difference in the world to Mark and to others who are seriously ill and those who care for them.

Pinetop Perkins - Mark and Mom got an invitation from Barry Nowlin Friday night to hear music legend Pinetop Perkins at Antones, a famous music club in Austin. . At age 93 Pinetop plays great piano and has a wonderful singing voice. Unfortunately mom had to work but Mark was able to go and enjoy Pinetop's presentation for a couple of hours. Thank-you Barry! Mom worked 3-11 and Mark beat her home. He was fast asleep in his bed when Mom came home. Mark requires lots of rest, but miracle of miracles he is getting out and about. Check out Pinetop's concert dates accross the USA at http://www.pinetopperkins.com/index.htm Did you know that Pinetop was the piano player for Muddy Waters Band for 12 years? In addition to being a blues man he plays boggie woogie which is something mom loves.

Mark is lucky to have people wanting to spent time with him and share special events with him and even luckier for being able to do this. Think back to a few weeks ago when he could not get out of bed long due to pain and had trouble riding in a car to Houston. Now he is up more, much less pain, and he is able to drive to Houston. Mark still has to pace himself. After the two hour visit to Antones, he did some major resting.

Addendum January 22
MEDICO
We are getting e-mails from folks who volunteered with MEDICO in remote areas of Honduras and Nicaragua at the same time Mark and Mom did in the past. We think about the astounding things our teams did in bringing medical, eye, and dental care to people in the Moskito Coast and other isolated areas and the wonderful adventures we had. Mark and Mom can't go to remote areas far removed from modern medicine now, but would love to hear from more MEDICO volunteers and maybe you would like to learn more about MEDICO http://www.medico.org/ or more about some of our adventures in remote areas of the world .
Addendum January 27, o7
Today Mark is bored and has been bored most of this week. He has energy to use and can't come up with anything to do other than work on the computer. He bought some new software and hardware for the computer and is playing with it. This morning he advised me that he needs something to look forward to and asked when was his mom getting around to planning a trip or something. We head to Houston tomorrow in preparation for three days of chemotherapy. This is not what he had in mind.
Instructions:
If you click on any picture on the blog it will enlarge and you can see the details; for example click on the picture of Mark and his nurse in the next blog and you can see their faces. There are links throughout the blog that you can click on such as MEDICO and that webpage will come up.

2007-01-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

Mr. Mark gets Chemotherapy at the VA, eats wonderful seafood, takes mom car shopping, and visits the Blanton Art Museum

Mark looks and says he feels the best he has for a real long time. He drove me to Houston, for his chemo appointments, partly because he likes to drive and felt good and partly because mom was tired having worked 12 hours, slept 4 and worked 5 more hours at the drug study clinic just before leaving on our Houston trip. We left Austin about 3 pm and had a pleasant drive on a warm sunny Sunday. During the drive, we talked about stopping and renting an RV and running away from home and chemo to tour the USA or go to the international airport in Houston and begin our around the world trip. It was tempting for Mark to skip chemo and avoid its awful side effects; however we stuck to our plans to go to the Veteran's Hospital Cancer Center on Monday. Mark's doctor for chemotherapy, under the supervision of Dr. Eppner, is Sira Hussan. She is very polite and wants to help. Mark's nurse today was Abraham Ferrer. His family comes from the Philippine islands and many of his family work as nurses in various health care facilities in the Houston area. Nurse Ferrer seems caring and does his best to understand Mark and others under his care.
Mark gets around and people remark on his hair. Mark had chemotherapy three days (Monday thru Wed). He pushed his IV stand around to socialize with other patients and their families and mom. One man who comes for chemo looked at Mark's thick head of hair and said: Your hair is going to fall out" and Mark replied that it had all fallen out already and even the hair under and on his arms fell out, but then it grew back in. This man said: " I hope mine grows back too." Mark hopes his does not fall out again.
We are a long way from understanding how the VA system works. We thought the clinic was only open on Monday and Friday, because those were the only options given to us for appointments before chemo started, but now we see clients for chemotherapy are here during the week and other patients too. The nurses and docs do seem to be close to some patients who have come here for awhile to get chemotherapy. We saw a warmer caring side of the nurses with patients receiving chemotherapy. Patient for chemo don't seem to wait as long as other patients, but everyone waits; some with early morning appointments wait all day thinking any minute they will be seen and finally in late afternoon they are seen. Most often, no amount of checking to see if one is forgotten elicits anything more than.."It won't be long."Hours and hours of waiting by patients and their families. I read that a researcher is studying the cost to patients and families who sit long hours in the waiting room.
Mark is enjoying his food. Two days in a row, Mark and I ate supper at the Baytown Seafood Market and Restaurant on South Main. The food is excellent. We've eaten gumbo, small lobster tails, fried oysters and shrimp. The price is good. The waitresses remembered us the second time we appeared. This is now my favorite restaurant in Houston. Mark's favorite in Austin is Austin's Pizza. He orders an Austin's pizza every two or three days. Even if he is nauseated and/or has no appetite, he somehow can eat Austin's Pizza. Maybe this pizza has some anti-cancer properties; could this be why Mark is feeling so good these days and feeling like he is in remission? Or is it support and prayers from all over the world; perhaps both pizza and prayers?

CARS Today after chemo, we looked in the hospital parking lot to find cars we liked and then went to several car dealerhsips where Mark and I test drove some new and used cars including his favorite one; the Toyota FJ with 4 wheel drive. We fear my 12 year old Honda will die on a trip to Houston or back. Mark used a good many arguments for mom buying a new car and we had a good bit of fun looking at cars.
Many nice things happened to Mark and me today and we feel the many prayers and nice thoughts people have for Mark and I are bringing us many blessings and we feel our burden lightened because of this. We feel not only blessed but supported and loved.

Plans change often without warning at the VA. We were given written instructions for Mark to have chemo three weeks in a row but just before we left the VA, we learned no chemo this coming week and we got a new schedule with two weeks off. We debate going on a small adventure.
Addendum 1/11/07 Today Mark and I went to the Blanton Museum of Art accross from the Bob Bullock Museum. For people all over the world contemplating a visit to Austin, the Blanton museum is free on Thursday. You only pay to park. The Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585) exhibit ends on Sunday. The Blanton owns 7 of Cambiaso's paintings, which is more than half of his paintings found in the USA. Many more of Cambiaso's paintings and his drawings are on loan and display now. Few of these paintings have been displayed outside of Italy. Cambiaso worked on the frescoes in the Escorial, an important monastery where much of Spain's Royalty has been entombed over centuries. Cambiasco died at Escorial in 1586. James I visited Escorial in the mid '80s and loved it. After this exhibit there are many more exhibits to come and the permanent collections are wonderful.Mark really enjoyed his trip to the Blanton.

2006-12-28T17:25:00.000-08:00

Pictures: 1. Keith Baker left (shaved his head) and Mark right (with full head of hair grown back after chemo), 2. Frank Sicuro left and Mark right 3. Robert Bone with tribal necklace

Christmas on December 27th We celebrated Christmas two days late or several days early if Jan 6th is the day the wisemen brought gifts and we follow suit. This particular celebration time was chosen because friends, neighbors, and family could not come help us celebrate until then. Mark enjoyed the festivities and helped with the menu, cooking, and eating. He got a Tur-duc-hen for the main course. This is a Louisiana thing which is a duck stuffed into a chicken stuffed into a turkey with dressing. There are turkey wings and legs and the breast looks like a regular turkey with nicely browned skin, but it is boneless and slices nicely. James selected ham to serve also. Charlotte and Kenneth Parkhill and children came from Chicago and Linzey and her daughter Alyssa came from San Antonio, Robert Boone came from France where he has been living and working for three years. Friend Suzie Maloney and our neighbor Keith Baker, who comes from Britain, had lunch with us and played the white elephant thing with some real valuable or interesting surprises in the packages. Charlotte's friends came by with their children so we had a yard full of children playing put put golf and croquet then a hot tub full of giggling kids. James taught the kids to play poker and staked them for 5% interest and they all got a lesson in interest as well as poker. Mark got James a Kinkey Friedman doll for Christmas among other things. He got mom some vibrating house slippers. Mark got some technology to play with. He is quite the techno wizard.
Mark's friends Frank, Bruce. and Dave came by which Mark enjoyed emensely. Dave had to go buy some vibrating house shoes like mom's. The Christmas festivities lasted from Wed. night to Friday morning and ended just about the time to begin the New Year's festivities.

Addendum on 1/1/07 Happy New Year from Mark, Mom, Steph, and James

Mark is sleeping in after going to a special upscale black and white dress New Year's eve party with his friend Dave and Dave's lady. It is a miracle that Mark was able to go to the dog races with Dave in the afternoon and a party at night...either that or just being so far out from the last chemotherapy treatment and lots of prayers and well wishes making him feel better. It is great that he can have a lot of fun adventures before going into chemo again this Friday. Mark told me yesterday to wish you all happy new year and to thank-you all for everything you do for him from prayers to cards to checking the blog and sharing the link with friends, to calls, visits, outings, and everything else. A great big thanks!

Sister Stephanie is in Japan grading papers from last semester and preparing for the new semester and another summer studying in England. She was sorely missed in Austin as she is a cheerful spirit and a darn good cook.

James is replastering and remodeling the kitchen to keep mom from throwing New Years parties. This afternoon....more football and eating black-eyed peas for luck.

Addendum 1/4/07 We are in Houston at the Best Western Reliant Stadium just off 620 South where we get a nice medical discount and free internet connection. Mark drove us down from Austin, but he will not drive back if he gets chemo. He will be too sick. We have had some rough trips down and back but this one down was the easiest. Mark told me last night that he would not complain no matter how bad if I would buy a new/used BMW. He is into BMWs.

2006-12-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

Early Christmas Present from the government and visitors cheer and energize Mr. Mark

Visiting Friends and activities - Mark's friend Allen that he worked with in Reno is visiting with him now. We picked Allen up at the airport on Sunday and he leaves Thursday and we will miss him when he is gone. Several respiratory therapists here in Austin have dropped by each night and Mark has gone on some short trips to show Allen the town. Mary Thiel and Sally Samford (my old boss and co-worker from Austin Community College) who have known Mark for years came by yesterday. Mark said he felt great and seems energized by his visitors. Dr. Fred Hanson is our host for the University of Texas V.S. University of Arkansas men's basketball game tonight. Mark will rest all day in order to have energy for the game.

Mr. Mark received his Medicare Card in the mail this week. Maybe this means that he can get an oncologist in Austin, Texas and maybe not. Mark has now survived two years of stage 4 cancer thanks to lots of prayers and kind acts by readers of this blog, the doctors and nurses at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, Jin who cared for Mark in Bangkok and lots of friends. Mark tells me everyday how much he appreciates what people have done and are doing to keep him going.

12/28 OOPS addition: Although the Medicare card came in the mail, the benefits don't start until March....guess he won't have an Austin oncologist until March.

MEDICARE
You may recall an earlier blog in which I (Mark's mom) wrote about the government rule that one has to wait two years after becoming disabled by cancer or other problems to be eligible for medicare. This is one of those Medicare donut holes that save government money and leave people without care. For those of you unfamiliar with Medicare, let me point out that physicians and hospitals have their usual charges and some accept Medicare assignment which means that they take whatever Medicare pays and charge the patient nothing more whereas some other physicians and health care facilities do not take assignment and the patient pays the difference between the charges and what Medicare pays. This amount can be substantial in some cases. Some doctors don't take new patients and some don't take Medicare patients at all. Do you know an Austin oncologist who takes Medicare?

Will Mr. Mark Get Fat living With Mom and Cowboy Cook James? James has been baking homemade pizza and cooking Mexican food. Mark has been cooking some true Texas Chilli all day. Texas Chilli has no beans. It is made with a good quality beef, tomatoes, and spices...lots of spices and hot peppers.

Our neighbor Laurie has brought us cookies and cakes as she likes to bake. Mark's favorite eating places are all within a mile radius except for Artz' Rib House which is in South Austin.; favorites include Chuy's, Rudy's bar-b-que, and Austin's Pizza.Today Mark said he may be getting fat on all this good Austin food He is 6 foot tall and at one time during chemo and radiation in Bangkok he weighed 140 pounds and his pants were 30 inch waist. He is now 200 pounds and heading toward a 36 inch waist. Mark thinks some extra pounds when he goes into chemo again in January will help him a lot.

2006-12-11T22:42:00.000-08:00

The Long Hall (Haul) at the VA to the Cancer Center
Mark was reflecting about the long hall one has to walk to get to the cancer center at the VA in Houston. This was our third trip to the VA after returning from Bangkok and Mark has not yet gotten treatment. He has seen different care providers each trip to the VA although Dr. Eppner is in charge of his case. The Houston VA cancer center seems to see oncology patients only on Monday and Friday. The receptionist limits Mark's appointment choices to these two days. This seems strange: a beautiful new cancer center which sees patients only two days a week giving out appointments ending at noon on those two days and appointments having nothing to do with when a person is seen so that morning appointments are seen as late into the afternoon as necessary. The doctor three weeks ago said he would try to get the radiology department to interpret Mark's recent CAT scan done in Bangkok instead of making him get a new one. I sent a fax to the doctor last week asking if this had been done or if Mark needed to come before his appointment today to get another CAT scan. No one knew what happened to the fax and today the CAT scan must be done before chemo and chemo can't be done today and Mark's next appointment is January 5th and maybe he will get chemo then. We were hoping to follow the October radiation, to the chest wall tumor, with chemotherapy and give it the one-two punch that knocked out the GE tumor early on but it isn't happening. Dr. Theera in Bangkok had just changed Mark's chemo and wanted it to be continued. Mom ticked the PA off today saying she could send Mark to Bangkok and back for chemo quicker than the VA could get to it (and this is true). If he was not so sick, mom would put Mark on a plane to Bangkok for his chemo, but due to the hard long flight and the cost in the long run especially in case of complications, this is not practical. Mom really did appreciate and thank the PA for getting the CAT scan scheduled today so a separate trip to Houston for a CAt Scan did not have to happen.

It was a very long day. Mark was at the VA at 6:50 am for lab which took awhile since there was already a waiting room full of veterans and long lines waiting for labs. One of the VA docs had asked Mark to participate in a study about hormone levels and cancer. He had refused. Before we got to the lab I was trying to talk him into doing it. He was agitated about this and said I could choose whether he got chemo or did the study. Using my best psychological techniques to probe into what this was all about, Mark said that saying "no" was one of the few things he could control and he has so little control over things in his life. He did decide to comply with the study and do chemo but as it turned out, we were five minutes late to the lab and missed the study doc who had just left and oncology would not do chemo today.

Mark was in oncology by 8:30 his appointment time and he was put in an exam room at 10:10 and sometime after 11 the PA came in to review his chart since she was seeing him for the first time. At 12 noon the PA said no chemo today as Mark must have a CAT scan at the Houston VA for a baseline. The one from Bangkok would not do. Mark was dehydrated and had to have an IV. The CAT scan was done sometime after 4 and we hit the road home at 5 pm in the height of rush hour bumper to bumper traffic. We offered to stay at a motel all night but Mark wanted to go home. By Giddings he was in so much pain (11 on a 1-10 scale), he was begging to stop at a motel in the middle of nowhere. We were back home in Austin by 10 pm. ...a very long day for a sick man.

Preparing to go to Houston at noon today Nov 11 (now 1:16 am)
Mr. Mark was up most of Saturday and is sleeping tonight. Mom worked Thursday night 3-11 and Friday night 11-7 so now Mom has days and nights turned around and is up and Mark is asleep. Earlier tonight Mark was so excited that his friend Alan from Reno area is coming to visit on December 17-21. Alan and Mark worked together as respiratory therapists in Reno at one time. Looking forward to seeing friends and thinking about past and future trips keeps Mark going. We were watching TV tonight and talking about Alan's visit when Mark brought up wanting to go to Australia to visit his friend Carl. He also talked about thinking today of our past trip to Cambodia and how amazing that was as well as our trip to the island of Tinian (see earlier blogs). He brought up his fears that he is getting worse. Sometimes when Mark has felt bad, the doctor has conveyed good news and sometimes when he feels really great the news is bad. In spite of fearing he is getting worse, his sense of humor prevails.
It is time to get some zzzz's (sleep) and head for Houston at noon Sunday to be at the VA lab at 6:45 am on Monday.