{Catching Up}

I guess I should begin this post by apologizing for their being such a lapse in posts. I am truly sorry for I know you all depend on these updates to see how Adam is doing and he isn't in the position of doing it himself.

Without revealing too much, there is a lot that cancer brings with it that you just cannot prepare for until you are faced with it. It can be overwhelming, angering, terrifying and absolutely heartbreaking. But you deal with it in any way you can and hope that your children aren't going to need therapy to deal with all that is going on. It is even more difficult when you begin this process with a plan and instead realize there is just no planning with these things. It doesn't help that there isn't a support system at the hospital for the family of cancer patients (or better said - a wife who has a young child that can't be left with a babysitter for day-long periods) and it is hard attending Adams appointments when I am not a part of the process or conversations. But I am trying to do my best!

With that being said, Adam is doing great with his therapy. He originally started with the protein marker being well over 50,000 and as of January 9th, his numbers were just above 6,000. Our goal was to be between 600-700 after this last round and we found out that it is just over 200!! So the chemo is doing it's job and we are hoping after his last round in two weeks, we will move on to the next phase. He has had a much harder time with side effects after these last couple of rounds. The nausea, loss of appetite, overall tiredness and lack of energy have been much more pronounced and lasting much longer. We are just trying to maintain at this point because avoiding is somewhat impossible. We have met with a nutritionist who helped to better explain what he should and should not be eating and how to measure these amounts to make sure he is not exceeding anything on a daily basis.

We do not know what is going to happen after this last round besides the follow up CT scans and MRI. He is doing physical therapy for his left leg because of the swelling. They believe this is because the lymph nodes on that side are swollen due to treatment and need stimulation to keep the circulation going. The nerve medication has been increased to help him stay comfortable. We are hoping this means the nerve is repairing itself but we won't know for sure until we have those follow up scans. He is now completely, shiny bald but some little whiskers pop up every now and then. The catheter remains as the nerve / muscle functions have not yet returned but this will be looked into further after the treatments and when we know what is going on with the location of the tumor in his spine. Otherwise he is doing well and we are very appreciative of the kind words and support from you all. Thank you!