A Reason For Hope

Wow!  Sorry for the long span between posts.

Most of my posts are pretty positive.  Sometimes I wonder if readers think I have a Pollyanna attitude…or that maybe things aren’t quite as rosy as I portray them.  In fact, at times I almost feel guilty when I feel so good and I know others undergoing stressful medical issues are not so fortunate.  Another clue is when we have visitors (often friends from Alaska) who make a trip to Arizona partially to see how I “really” am.  

Well, I’m going to do it again.  I’ll begin with a rosy picture of the last few weeks, then I will tie it into our reason for hope.  

The Latest:

The last three Immunotherapy treatments have been side affect free!  The treatment day itself, however, has not been 100% smooth.  Each time there’s been an obstacle to overcome, either nausea during the drip or a bout with the rigors.  The good news is when something occurs the nurses know what to do.  On the last treatment I experienced a short round of the rigors, which is really just uncontrolled shivers.  They paused the treatment, gave me some fluids and a little Demerol and resumed the treatment without further complications.  After that, no other side affects. 

I told Diane that I can handle a rough day twice a month if I can feel this good the rest of the time.  Diane and I realize that, aside from two trips a month to Houston, our lives are pretty much back to normal.  We are playing Pickleball around 2-3 times a week and I’ve resumed my softball.  One of my goals following the surgery in mid-July was to be ready to play in the Senior Winter World Championships in Phoenix in November.  Around mid-October it wasn’t looking great.  I wasn’t really gaining much weight and running was difficult.  But, the few weeks leading up to Worlds I noticed a great deal of progress.  My muscles were feeling stronger and I gained at least 10 pounds back.  By the time the tournament came around I was strong enough to play 11 games in 5 days.  Our teams finished in the middle of the pack but I give God the glory for the ability to join the team and make a significant contribution.  I even batted .620 for one of the tournaments!

Here’s me at a recreational tournament October 28th playing “Left Out”

Here‘s me going 4 for 4 at Winter Worlds November 17th!

Thanksgiving Update:

We had big plans for Thanksgiving.  God had other plans.  

Rachel and Joel were planning to drive to the Dallas area to have Thanksgiving with his family who lives near my sister Melissa.  My treatment was on November 21st.  So, we decided to not fly back to Phoenix and opted to have Thanksgiving with Melissa and her husband, Garn.  We even convinced Mom Willie to fly to Dallas so we could all be together.  We also originally planned to stay the week after Thanksgiving and then return to Houston for the December 5th treatment.  As luck would have it Diane had second thoughts about staying that long and we adjusted our flight to return to Phoenix on the 26th.

Well, Rachel arrived in Texas at Joel’s father’s house and promptly tested positive for Covid!  We never even got to see her before she returned to Denver.  We did have a nice Thanksgiving dinner with our small family.  Melissa has a dubious track record with cooking turkeys but managed to pull off a perfect meal.   On Friday, we had planned to have lunch with Joel and his Dad but they tested for Covid on the way to the restaurant and his Dad, Rich tested positive.  Then later we learned that Rich’s mother tested positive.  Everybody is fine now but that’s a lot of disruption.  

We did experience a once in a lifetime weather phenomenon on Thanksgiving eve.  We all went to bed around 11:00 pm.  Before any of us were actually asleep a frightening explosion shook the house and we jumped out of bed.  It rumbled and lasted so long I thought a neighbors house exploded.  It was actually a bolt of lightning and immediate thunder.  Garn’s lightning app indicated a lightning strike 0.0 miles away!

We went outside and looked up and down the street and saw no activity and no houses on fire.  We talked about the event for a few minutes and then all returned to bed.  A minute later we heard the sirens and before we knew it the street was lined with 5-6 fire trucks and the chief’s vehicle backed into our driveway.  The house across the street was certain the lightning had hit their house as tiles fell off the fireplace and pictures fell off the wall.

One of the fire vehicles was a boom truck so after an inside inspection they sent guys up in the boom to inspect the roof for damage.  The conclusion was that it didn’t actually strike the house but may have hit a brand new 5G tower directly behind the house.

In terms of Earth’s power I rank that experience right up there with a flash flood, an avalanche, a tornado, a hurricane, a volcano, or any number of things one might never encounter.  It was amazingly powerful.  

The Flower Mound, Texas fire department hard at work!

The Reason:

Last blog I discussed Faith over Fear.  Without faith hope is also difficult.  Our faith is in God but if you have hope you must have faith in something to have true hope.  Faith in doctors, faith in luck…faith in something you trust to help you stay strong.

If you’ve followed this blog since the beginning in April you may remember my first blog “The Battle Begins”.  There I suggested NOT searching online for information about Mesothelioma because much of the data was based on results from the late 90s or early 2000.  Back then very little was known about this disease.  

Take a minute and look at this graph from fundraising document from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation which is responsible for most mesothelioma medical progress in the last 22 years.  As recent as 1999, Mesothelioma patients were told to get their affairs in order because nothing could be done to fight their cancer.  The first chemotherapy was approved in 2004.  And it took 16 years before the first Immunotherapy treatment was approved in 2020.  My treatment at MD Anderson in Houston has me in the tall column with the experimental new Immunotherapy drug Vudalimab. 

We truly believe we are on the cutting edge of progress with this clinical trial at MD Anderson

This is information I want you to know.  Your prayers are important and your concern for Diane and I is heartwarming.  We are grateful for your love and support and want you to feel the Hope that we have.  Our Hope is fueled by our faith and executed by the best medical team on the planet.  Have Hope.  Thank you.