Hi Everyone!

Here's a note to brief you on the details of my treatment right now. I appreciate how so many of you have asked me to fill them in. On the other hand, I know not everyone is interested in ALL of the particulars, so I’m going to write a couple of short sections. Feel free to read or pass over each of them.

Treatment Details: After all of the constant doctor visits, I’m now in the midst of radiation on Monday through Friday at Northwestern Memorial. The overall medicine schedule goes like this:
9:00AM or so Simple workout at least twice a week
10:30AM Anti-seizure medication and laxative
11:30AM Mon and Thursday leave for acupuncture, return home for my ride to treatment by 2:45
2:15PM Food Fast
2:45PM Anti-nausea pill
3:15PM Chemotherapy pills
4:15PM Radiation treatment, 25 minutes
5:30PM or so Light snack to help settle my stomach
6:00PM to 8:00PM or so a long nap. I generally tend to have a slightly upset stomach and fatigue after the radiation so it really is necessary to sleep a bit.

Schedule: It’s kind of hard to comprehend, but this schedule practically takes up my whole day when you include all of the driving that needs to be done. Just the radiation with the driving every day takes three to four hours. Sheesh! If only I could drive it myself that would be nice but I’m not allowed to drive for awhile. I find it hard to see all the time stress on Michele because all of this takes hours out of her and Josephine’s day too. I never dreamed someone going through something like this would have their family so time stressed. It's hard to comprehend.

The Future: The good news is that I only need to get the radiation through next week and I will be done for life because my limit will be full. Radiation in your body does not decrease and all of what I’ve received will be with me forever hopefully working effectively on the cancer. I’ve been told by my Doctor that the six to eight weeks after the last treatment are the toughest as my body attempts to adjust to the maximum dosage I can have without guaranteed damage. The basic story is that I’ll be very tired and will sleep constantly. Hopefully I will recover soon and my life will get back to normal. The big hope is that in three months I will have another MRI exam and it will show that the cancer is no longer duplicating within my body. If that is the case I will receive further chemo and MRI exams every three months for at least two years. After that they will be confident and scale back on the number of quarterly exams.
So there we have the basics! Please pray that my body will do much better than even the Doctors would hope for and that I will recover quickly from my radiation and that I will suffer no long term effects from it. Of course, please also pray for my complete healing from the cancer.

Thank you again to everyone for supporting me so much. I really appreciate you and loved seeing so many wonderful people (who didn't have previous engagements) at my graduation party.

Scott