Results stable

It has been a long time since I've updated you. Thanks for all the expressions of concern in my absence.

I am taking a rather difficult treatment of a chemo protocol called FOLFIRI+Avastin. It is administered in fourteen day cycles. Typically, I'm pretty sick at the beginning but by the fifth day or so, I'm more functional. Nothing severe or dangerous - just makes me feel lousy, kind of like the flu with intestinal problems. Hard to believe I've endured 14 of these since February, when I started the current plan.

A week ago I went to MD Anderson for a round of testing and meetings with doctors. The good news was that the tumors (of which there are three, all around a couple centimeters) are all completely stable. This means the chemo is working to hold them back. I will continue this chemo plan indefinitely as long as my body can take it and the situation is stable. The doctors continue to marvel at how long this class of chemotherapy has been effective. We're way past six years now in a field where 1-2 yrs is considered quite successful.

I am enjoying the simple life. It is really surprising how wonderful life is when it is stripped of so many "good" things. Like work and accomplishments and accumulation of stuff. I've found that music (playing guitar, mostly) is a great therapeutic retreat when I feel the sickest. Much better for the soul than TV, I've discovered. You can check out some of my music on my youtube channel. (youtube.com/greghewlett). Unfortunately, reading has become a bit more difficult - hard to concentrate when I'm feeling crummy. I have many good friends surrounding me with support and my church has been a wonderful source of nourishment for me. I've been able to visit family in St Louis and NYC and hope to see my sister (Julie) in Denver soon. I'm on full medical leave from TI, as I am unable to work under the chemo.

I am growing in learning how to significantly reduce expectations on my body and live well with what I've got. Not much differently from what we all do, really.

Christine is still pursuing medical help at her parents home, so my friend Bill Burns has been staying with me at my home. He just turned forty, so if you talk with him, be sure to give him a hard time.

Update - no E.R.

The bleeding episode stopped as suddenly as it started. I no longer coughed any blood after waking up with the problem. The doctor on call said I did not need to be seen today and can wait until Tuesday when I'm scheduled to go in anyway for chemo to see my doctor about it.

Really weird day. I awoke in a panic coughing out fresh blood and wondering what in the world was happening to me. Now everything seems so normal again. Like nothing ever happened. One thing about this cancer thing - always something interesting going on.

Thanks for your support and for your notes of care and concern.

prayer request

Hi friends. I awoke coughing up fresh blood. Disconcerting to say the least. I've talked with the on-call oncologist and pulmonologist in Dallas. This could actually be a tumor vessel being exposed from effective chemo. That sounded like a good thing to me. Or some other things not so good. In any case, this could lead to day at ER, etc. I'm hoping it was a one time thing. Going to pick up a couple Rx they prescribed, incl anti-biotic to prevent/address any infection issues. If it stops, I don't have to go to the ER. I'll let you know how it goes.

Good news - tumors retreating

I received two simple pieces of news today from Dr. Eng.

First, the three tumors we are watching carefully all reduced measurably in size. Not sure the amount yet, as there is not yet an official radiology reading, but even I could tell they were a bit smaller.

Second, In February, they took blood for a sophisticated DNA test they have for chemo success prediction. Today I found out that the one remaining FDA-approved chemo drug for colon cancer that I have not taken, Erbitux, is likely to be effective for me in significantly slowing down progression of tumor growth. In other words, the last unused chemo weapon I have in my arsenal is loaded not with blanks, but with real ammo.

Tonight, I lay down a thankful man.

Hopefully, I will share more details of the week in a later post. The week was good all around. Just wanted you to get the results, as I know many of you are praying for me. Thanks.

I will continue with the current protocol - more heavy chemo this coming week.

Restaging Checkup

Hi friends.

I am in Houston for my checkup. I have been enduring three months of chemotherapy treatments in Dallas. The recipe is a 14-day cycle called FOLFIRI with Avastin.

This morning I went to the MD Anderson fatigue clinic and tomorrow are all the radiology tests. My fatigue level has gone from 4.5 last fall to 3.5 in March to 2.7 today. It's a somewhat subjective scale based on questionaires, but I do think things are improving in that area. Part of it is reduced expectations - I'm spending less active time in a quality manner instead of more active time in a spread-too-thin manner.

Thursday I meet with Dr. Eng, my quarterback oncologist. Hoping for some cancer-is-retreating news.

My very good friend from the past, Mike Ernst, decided to take a break from his pastoral duties in Northern California and flew to Dallas yesterday to accompany me for my trip to Houston. We are having a great time catching up.

Christine, with her doctor and parents, decided that she really needs some more proactive medical care and her parents are going to help her pursue that from their home. So Christine headed northeast to stay with them for a while. Our prayer is that she can get some real help in that area. I have not had the energy with my situation to drive the process of getting her specialized medical care. As for me, instead of staying alone, my friend Bill Burns has offered me a room and I am staying with him. He keeps an eye on me as I go through the treatments. I can also stay with Mom and Dad should I get so sick from this chemo that I need direct daily care, which so far, thankfully, I have not.

Lots of Cinco de Mayo celebration today here in Houston. Should find some good food and music tonight. Might as well enjoy life amidst the dark cloud that can surround weeks such as this.

Madness Time

It's that time! Join the third annual Greg's Place Bracket challenge.

You don't need to know much about basketball to join. Somebody last year picked teams based on how many people they knew from that school - and did pretty well.

I've got a half bottle of unused Xeloda chemotherapy worth $750 that I'll donate as the prize.

We're going to do it again on Yahoo! Sports Tournament Pick'em!

To join the Greg's Place group, follow this link.
Group ID#: 167535
Password: nomorecancer

Going to being heavy chemo

Dr. Eng and Dr. Hofstetter strongly recommended I go back on the strong chemotherapy that I took much of 2007. It's called FOLFIRI with Avastin. We need to shock this tumor activity back into submission.

I start Monday. It makes you feel very, very crummy. It is a fourteen day cycle I will repeat until May's reassessment. There are varying degrees of crumminess during the cycle.

I haven't really thought through how I'm going to tolerate this. My folks drove me back from our aborted Houston mission yesterday. I may need to call upon them to continue to care for me next week depending upon how sick this stuff will make me. Christine's parents have really helped out as they are currently caring for her. When you're our age, aren't we the ones that are supposed to be taking care of our parents? We're fortunate to have them.