Ten days to go

Good morning to everyone. Once again, I feel such wonderful appreciation to everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers. Ten days from now, on July 9th, I will return to the Huntsman Cancer Hospital for surgery.

As I mentioned in my last posting on this blog, the plan is to remove the tumor that started this whole mess. Everything will be done to get as much of the tumor as possible without destroying nerves and blood supply. Any remaining or suspected residual tumor will be treated with lasers - kind of like burning a wart I guess. The only other option was to remove my entire right arm. The surgeon didn't feel that such a drastic measure was necessary and that it would be much harder to recover from as well as put my life at much greater risk. With the radiation treatments and planned surgery, he feels confident in a good outcome. Of course, it all depends on what he finds when he gets in there.

Surgery will be followed by more chemotherapy in an attempt to treat the cancer that has spread to my lungs. When that will start or how often, etc. is yet to be determined. A time for surgery hasn't been set, only the date. The hospital will call us sometime on the 8th and tell us when to report to the hospital on the 9th. Until then, we won't know any more than we do now.

In my last posting, I mentioned that Patti and I were headed to San Antonio, Texas for a week. We had a wonderful time. Our friends, the Elkins were so wonderful to us. They generously provided the plane tickets, a place to stay, transportation, wonderful food and excellent company. It was great to relax and be away from all the concerns here at home. We were able to do some sight seeing and since this was Patti's first time to Texas, we had a great time seeing things like the Alamo, the San Antonio River Walk, Tower of the Americas, museums and Patti's favorite, the King Ranch.

Here are some pictures:


The picture above is of San Antonio, Texas from the Tower of the America's.


The tower was built in 1964 as part of the World's Fair.




Also, here is a picture of Richard and Casey Elkins, our dear fiends. Can you believe that Richard and I were missionary companions 31 years ago? Yeah, I know it is hard to imagine us in white shirts and ties on bikes roaming around Texas. We actually served together in Harlingen, Texas, way South of San Antonio, but we were in the Texas San Antonio Mission. Our mission president was Vaughn J. Featherstone. Imagine!!



What I need to do now is find a picture of us when we were companions. Now that will be interesting and I think I know right where to find one. I'll post it later today, so check back!

All our love, Jim & Patti.

Oh yeah, can you see? My hair has started to grow back. Yippee!