The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Hello All! I hope that this post finds everyone healthy and in good spirits. There is a lot to update everyone with, and as the title states, there is a little bit of everything this time.

I will start with the good. Barry had an appointment with his oncologist before round three of chemotherapy on Wednesday. Dr. Kang had some great news...Barry's bilirubin level has dropped below 3. If you remember from earlier postings, this level was at 17 at one point. The normal level is zero and a safe level is 2. He even said that he could no longer see lesions on the liver from the CT scan. We were thrilled to get this news. It also looked as though the cancer hadn't spread further on the scans either. Dr. Kang mentioned that without tumors to measure, it was difficult to definitely see anything with CT scans. But we will take whatever good news we can get. During chemo, Kay also said that it looks like his bone marrow is showing improvement as well.

We were all thrilled with this good news. When Barry's bilirubin levels were so high, they were forced to reduce one of the chemotherapy drugs that they were giving him because it requires the liver to metabolize the drug. They reduced it to 25% for the first 2 sessions. At this session they increased it another 25% and pending results from the next liver test, could increase to the full 100% if his bilirubin continues to improve. It appears that this increase and the simple fact that this is Barry's third session, he has really been worn down.

Along with the side effects of the chemo, his lungs have been filling with fluid. This was originally thought to have been pneumonia, but is most likely metastis (mets) causing the fluid to build in the lungs. He will be going for draining of the lungs later this week, most likely on Tuesday for the left lung. They only drain one lung at a time since there is a chance of lung collapse during the draining process. They will drain the second lung a few days later. It will be really nice for Barry to be able to take a deep breath again. His breathing is very labored and coughs when he lays down. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he goes through this process.

I also wanted to let everyone know that he has been spending every weekend working on his boat. He has been working on it with much of his family. Dad told me on Saturday that it sure has been a lot of work becuase of a silly dream. When I was maybe 10 or so years old, he told me that he would have a "Real" boat someday. He had a jet boat when I was about 14, this was not a "Real" boat because it wasn't big enough for the family. This boat that is his dream is big enough for the family. Although he gets tired working with us on the boat, he wouldn't have it any other way. We made some major steps the last 2 weekends which included a quick wax job and laying the floor. I can't tell you how much we love working with Dad on his dream!

I will update everyone later in the week. In the meantime, take a moment to bring your dream one step closer to reality...share it with someone you love!