I last posted an update on 8/21. This was just before my 4th treatment. I have now had my 4th, 5th and 6th treatments. My 6th treatment was today 8/21. So I am now halfway through my program of 12 treatments. Whoo Hooo!!!! I continue to be fortunate with potential side effects. I still have not had nausea or any vomiting. Food still tastes normal. My appetite is good, and I can still eat any food I want. No problem with meat & potatoes, seafood, Mexican, Chinese, etc. No problem with fatigue. I continue to have tingling in my fingertips thought it seemed milder after the 5th treatment. We shall see how it is after the 6th. I have finally noticed a second side effect. I have noticed gobs of hair in my comb when I have to comb my hair first thing in the morning and after showers to get tangles out. So I "might" be losing my hair. I have decided that if the top goes bald, I will cut the rest off to match. I will wear my chrome dome with pride. If I need a cap, I have plenty of VT caps. And then there is my Santa hat. Goes perfectly with my gray hair and the gray beard I have going until the doctor says I am cancer free. I shave when I am told I am cancer free.

Now for some really good news, I had my petscan just before the 4th treatment. It was too bad that it could not be done before the 1st treatment. Still 3 isn't too bad. The day before my 5tth treatment, my Oncologist Dr. Zhao told me that the petscan came back good. It was clean. It showed no signs of cancer. Unfortunately, he also told me that the cancer can be too small to be detected in a petscan. So we will continue my full course of treatment. I asked one of my nurses if there are other tests to verify if I am cancer free. She mentioned something called CEA. She said they like the number to be below 4. My CEA number was 9.5. Apparently that is considered low.

Bottom line right now is that I may be leading in this fight. Things are looking positive. Just don't want to get too sure of myself. I am my own focus police. I will push on through my last 6 treatments. I want to crush this disease.

I also want to crush ECU. VT 56 ECU 17

Continue to appreciate the prayers and good thoughts. They mean a lot to me.

GO HOKIES. SLAY THE PIRATES. GOBBLE GOBBLE > ARGHHH.

maddogbob