Time flies!!

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost three months since my last post!! It's amazing how fast time goes by. So much has happened in the last three months I don't know where to begin.

In April, for spring break, Haylee and I traveled to Florida to visit my grandma. We spent a few days at grandmas, and then drove down to Miami for a few days. Our first stop was Lincoln Road in South Beach. It was nice to check out the shops and people watch. Next we headed over to Bayside Marketplace and took a boat tour to see Millionaire's Row. The view of the financial district from the harbor is gorgeous, and I honestly enjoyed that more than the mansions. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but we never stopped for Cuban food while in Miami. Oh well, next time!

April was also a time for prom dress and shoe shopping. Haylee was lucky enough to find a dress on her first shopping trip. She tried on the dress for size at the store, but ordered it on line since the ones in the store had snags and missing beads. Prom was on May 19, and everything went well. She had her hair done at 1:00, makeup at 2:30, and was ready for pictures by 5:00. Haylee looked stunning!

Haylee & Logan
Prom 2012

Now for an update on Dennis. Scans were on May 23, and his nurse oncologist appointment on the 24. Dennis remains stable. He will continue taking Votrient, and have labs done on July 5th. There was a mention of a 7-mm nodule on his left adrenal that is too small to characterize. Not too happy to hear about something new popping up, but we'll just have to keep an eye on it. 

And my final piece of news for today... On Memorial weekend I started to clean our boat. What a project!!!! The boat sat for a very long time, and had LOTS of moss growing on it. I'm happy to say I'm almost done scrubbing all 28 feet of our pontoon boat. If all goes well we should be on the water this weekend!

Good News!

Dennis remains stable! Back for labs in 6 weeks, and a CT scan in 3 months.

Life is good!

Honestly! We have enough to worry about!!!

I read an article today about counterfeit Avastin being distributed in the US. This is total BS!!

There are only 7 FDA approved Angiogenesis Inhibitor drugs for kidney cancer. Patients try the prescribed drug and have scans 2 or 3 months later to determine if the drug is effective. If there's shrinkage to the tumors, or they remain stable, the patient will continue on the drug. Once a drug stops working a new one will be prescribed, and the process starts all over again.

The last thing a cancer patient needs to worry about is whether their drug is a counterfeit, or not! How many people have taken this drug only to find out it didn't work? Was it because the drug was a counterfeit? I'm wondering how many people were affected by this since Avastin is used for other cancers, not just kidney cancer.

Tender Spot

Dennis commented the other day about a spot on his spine being tender. I believe it's the same spot he had radiation to over a year ago. Dennis has spots on his spine at T7, T8, and L2. It's been over a year since his MRI of the spine, and almost 2 years since his bone scan. At his next appointment, in March, I'll ask about a bone scan. At this time there are no other spots that are tender, or cause pain.

I'm very curious about the results of his next scan. Unfortunately, I believe the drug he's taking might not be working any longer, especially now, since the mention of the tender spot on his spine. We'll know for sure when we get the scan results on March 5th.

The teenage years...

Ugh!! Every conversation turns into an argument.

It's getting to the point where no conversation might be better than trying to have one...

MRI Results

Dennis had his MRI at 8:30 this morning, and received the results by phone around 11am.

Great news! Everything looks good!

One less thing to worry about.

Drug no longer working?

Dennis is taking Votrient, with one of the side effects being hair color change. I've noticed his hair is starting to grow back in as its original color.

Hmm... I wonder if the drug is no longer working?