Round #2: Bring it on

Cool 1960 bike

Today I start my second round of chemo.  Goodbye appetite :( …   I can't complain, I have had a good five days which was a blessing.  I felt well enough tonight to go on a date with JoLynne.  We have a very old tandem bicycle, a Schwinn that my father bought in 1960.  Anyway, it still works and it's cool and retro.  We rode down to Utah lake.  It was great.

On Tuesday we went to see the infectious disease doctor.  He hadn't seen me in about 2 weeks.  He looked at me, looked at the mass in the back of my mouth and then sat down and said, in his Russian accent, "Doctor Vogel, your tumors are visibly smaller."  That was music to my ears.  I have felt better, better swallowing, less pressure on the side of my head, when I drink fluid it no longer shoots out my nose.  That was pretty annoying, by the way.  I asked him, "I have only been on chemo, 20 days, is it possible that they could shrink so quickly?"  His answer was "Well they grew that quickly, why could they not shrink quickly as well?"  I like doctor visits like that one.  Having my cancer respond to chemotherapy is such an answer to so many prayers.

Sometimes good things come out of bad.  I have a dear brother who I had little contact with for quite a few years.  Maybe because of my cancer we have reconnected.  He is a good man and has always been a champion for the underdog.  He came to visit last Saturday with his wife.  It was wonderful.  At one point in the visit he looked at me and said "I have been praying that God would take the cancer from you and give it to me"  For him those aren't just words, he would really do it.  It makes me a little teary eyed thinking about it.  I told him, "I wouldn't give it to you."

Well, we will simply continue to pray for a miracle in whatever form God chooses to send it.  We have faith that a miracle will come.