October 9

Hi,

We just had lunch after being at the hospital all morning. Denny is napping, so I thought I'd let you know what's happening.

Our first stop today was a visit with Steve Howard, who is able to get a pretty good read on things just by looking at and talking to Den. He recognizes the side effects that the steroids are causing, but it's more-or-less a necessary evil in order to get the brain swelling down. He has ordered another brain scan for next Tuesday to assess that situation.

Next, we went to see Kevin Mortara, the oncologist. They did another complete blood panel there, and the good news is that the elevated liver enzymes appear to be self correcting. Those blood tests will also be repeated on Tuesday. If everything is okay, Denny will then resume his chemotherapy. The dose will be double the amount he took before, but he will take it for 5 days out of every 28 days.

Because the trip to Madison is temporarily postponed, the chemo really has to be started just to be sure that the tumor doesn't start growing again. Steve told us this morning that when the swelling has gone down enough to get a good look at the tumor, he will order an MRI to be done here so we won't have to wait even longer to find out if any or all of the treatments achieved what was hoped for.

October 14th was the date we were waiting for, praying that it would bring us the news that life just might have a chance at returning to our "old normal." Pushing that date back, and realizing that he won't feel any better than he does until the steroid dose can be reduced, is taking an emotional toll on Den. The steroids themselves can cause depression, so it's a vicious circle right now. While he understands it, that feeling of being bummed is difficult -- specially for a guy like Denny. All of this is just so foreign to him.

I'm hoping that visits from the kids and the grandkids will cheer him up -- it always does. (That and the batch of cookies I'm going to make for him.) Who else but Denny could be on all of these steroids, enjoying all kinds of desserts, and only gain two pounds in the last month?

Thanks for checking in and keeping Denny in your thoughts and prayers! Unless there's something to report, I probably won't write again until next Tuesday. No news is good news!

Carla