Merry Christmas

In about one week, it will be Christmas. I want to once again express my deepest appreciation to everyone for their unbounded kindness to me and to my family these past 10 months. I cannot believe that this battle has been going on this long.

When this all started, I had imagined that I'd be out of work for a few months for surgery and treatment. I didn't realize the time all of this would involve and how it would drag on and on for so long. My employer has been wonderful and has assured me that I will have my job when I am ready to return to work. That is so wonderful. The discouraging part is that I still don't have any idea when I will be able to return to work.

In the mean time, I am scheduled for my next chest CT scan on Monday, the 22nd of December and the next round of chemo starts on the 29th, the following Monday and another chemo session about three weeks after that. For now, that is the only concrete schedule I have.

Twice weekly I go in for blood work to monitor my white blood cell count and my platelets. Monday of this week, my platelets were 106,000. Yesterday they had dropped to 88,000. The normal range for adult platelets is supposed to be around 150,000 to 450,000 and most people hover somewhere in the middle.

My platelets have to be at least 120,000 to allow for the chemo therapy - to assure that I have enough to endure the chemo again. That is why I have to have so many blood tests.

Getting my blood drawn isn't such a big deal. I have this central line in my chest and so I go to the ER where I have worked in the past and they draw the blood samples directly from the central line so I don't have to get poked so much.

Everywhere I go with my "hair hat" I get interesting and questioning looks. One of the ER docs particularly likes it and if I wear another hat, he asks where my hair hat is. So, last week, I wore my hair hat when I went for one of my blood draws and stuck it on his head - here's a picture. He loved it. This is the same doc that was there the day I went in with my infection and ended up in the hospital on IV antibiotics for four days. He's a great guy and I always loved working with him and the other docs in the ER there at Timpanogos Regional Hospital.

It is also great to go to the ER for my blood work so that I can visit with the great nursing staff there and kind of keep in touch with all of the goings on of the place. I really miss being able to work and take care of patients. It has been such a big part of my life for so many years in so many ways.

So in the mean time, I would like to take this time at this wonderful Christmas season to thank everyone for their prayers and expressions of faith. I know that without these prayers, I would be much worse off - health wise and spiritual strength wise. I so appreciate your expressions of faith. I cherish these with all my heart and thank everyone of you for including me and my family in your prayers.

A very good PA friend sent me the following link to a wonderful internet presentation on Christ. I hope that you have the time to view it. Here is the link (you'll probably have to copy and paste it):

http://www.OneSolitaryLifeMovie.com

Recently, I was sent another absolutely wonderful link to another presentation on the life of Christ that is profound and available for purchase in book form and on a DVD, but you can view it here as well. Please enjoy! Here is the link (again, copy and paste):

http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

With every feeling I can generate, I express my faith and trust in my Savior. At this time of year, I so appreciate that I live in a country where I can express that faith without fear of prejudice, persecution or harassment. God bless everyone of you and may you have the very best of Christmas in your home and with your family and friends.

Jim & Patti Meeks

Slow Progress, But Progress

Slow as it may be, it is still progress. I am sitting in the infusion center today, receiving my second infusion of this round of chemo. For those of you keeping track, this makes my 8th infusion. I had two in March and April. Those were followed by 5 weeks of radiation therapy and then surgery on the primary tumor in July and then I had two more rounds of chemo infusion.

It was after those two infusions that additional cat scan studies showed that the chemo I was receiving was doing nothing for the cancer that has spread from the primary tumor under my right arm to my lungs. The decision was then made to switch to different chemo drugs as a trial.

What I have come to learn through all of this is that this is all a very slow process with time between treatments that is difficult to deal with. I am used to being busier. Although the chemo doesn’t leave me feeling very well or even capable of doing much between treatments, I’d much rather be at work and being productive – caring for my patients and providing for my family in the way I am accustomed to.

The new chemo drugs seem to be much less toxic mentally, but do leave me feeling quite sick for a week or so after I finish them. I’ve had problems with anemia and very low platelets, which put me at risk for bleeding and such.

Fortunately, the new drugs do seem to be working. As I reported previously, for the first time, it appears that there are no new lesions in my lungs and the previously noted lesions have reduced in size.

As I understand it, the radiologists have been measuring several of the larger lesions that are easy to identify on the CT studies. As time has gone forward, these have all increased in size from study to study and there had been a new crop of smaller lesions appearing throughout both of my lungs – too small to measure, but quite obvious on the images.

I have attached three imaged here to today’s posting. These are comparison views with an image from September on the left and an image from the most recent CT the first part of November on the right. Note the measured lesions on both images and see the difference in those measurements. There is some significant improvement.

Since these are 2 dimensional images representing 3 dimensional lesions, there is some formula that the oncologist here uses to estimate volume. I have long forgotten my geometry to be able to do that.

As we met with the oncology team yesterday, the oncologist (Dr. Lei Chen) was quite excited with the improvement in the CT scan findings. Because of the apparent success of this new treatment, she plans on two more infusion of which I have already had four – this will make a total of six with the new stuff and four of the old stuff. She informed us that this will be the maximum lifetime allowable of one of the drugs (doxirubicin) that has been used in both treatments.

I am scheduled for another CT scan on the 22nd and my next IV infusion on the 29th, 30th and 31st of this month. What a way to end the year. Three weeks later (or so), I will get the last infusion.

We were informed yesterday that the next step will be surgical removal of the residual lesions (the bigger ones) in my lungs. This will involve two surgeries, one for the left side, one for the right side. I don’t know in what order they will be done nor do I know exactly when they will be done. There has to be some time after the chemo, just like my last surgery, to allow things to settle down so that skin will heal and so forth. The idea behind this surgery is to reduce the overall “tumor burden” as much as possible.

Once again, I have to express my absolute thanks and appreciation to EVERYONE that has been with us throughout this process (slow as it is). Without the faith and prayers of all of you, we are sure that we would not be where we are in this – making progress!

God bless you all!

Jim & Patti