Up and Down the Cancer Roller Coaster Some More...

(From Stephanie:)Today Mark had radiation again; he's feeling a lot of pain and says he's hot but also is covered by a blanket and trying to rest. He is getting 2-4 hours a day of activity and the rest of the time he sticks close to home and sleeps or wanders the apartment. He looks so good that people (myself included) forget how hard it is for him to get through the days.

As the photo shows, we packed up most of Mark's belongings and I took them to the Enbassy to mail home. He had to get rid of about everything to move here in the first place, so I was more than happy to be able to help him keep some things that mean something to him. The folks there at the post office were very nice and helpful; it wasn't entirely easy to lug 7 boxes around, but we got it done! I am hoping that this will help Mom and Mark have an easy move back to Texas in a month. Ideally, Mark would be able to mail more and could just step onto the plane with a carry on and not worry about anything else, but the Thai mail is crazy expensive... I think the hardest part of this is just that he loves Bangkok and hates to leave - he knows he has to, but he's not sure he will be back. It's been a great place for him to receive such good care. Anyway, we're all feeling good that we got the boxes mailed, but also melancholy at the thought of a move where there are so many unknowns; another adventure, perhaps?

A funny story from today: We'd stopped at the hospital and while Mark was in radiation, I stopped by to chat with Dr. Theera and thank him for the great care. I made sure he had this blog address. Then, a little while later, Mark met up with me and said he'd stoped to say hi to Dr T and ask him how he (Mark) was doing, and Dr T answered "I don't know, I haven't had a chance to check your blog for the latest"! Funny, but now Mark has a great idea to have patients blog their symptoms and progress and have docs check it before visits so patients don't have to repeat things to docs so often. Hmmm....

Click that little green "comments" link below here to leave us a note- I would LOVE to see who is checking the blog out! Stephanie

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

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