Full dose

Craig jumped up to the full dose of Sutent last Wed. Aug. 18. It's been almost a week and he is tolerating it pretty well. He spends a little more time in the bathroom but that's been his norm since cancer. We will see Dr. Jones next week and do some blood work and see about a scan. Hopefully he won't see more symptoms as it builds up in his system. Now as I'm writing this he tells me the oxycodone isn't giving him as much relief from the pain as it usually does. He is being more active than he was so his body gets more tired as the day wears on (and he is 55, aren't all of us feeling a little more tired as the day wears on!). Thanks for thinking of us.

2/3 dose

Well, he's up to 2/3 dose by last Thursday, August 12 and it didn't make much difference. In fact, I think it's giving him renewed energy. He's pulled out the dead bushes in front of the house with the help of a truck, chain and his good friend, Jason Thomas...eaten at Cafe Rio and Cheesecake Factory...chipped out the tile in the basement (with Jason's help again) for new carpeting...all since taking the chemo pill! He wasn't wanting to do much of that stuff, manual labor or eating out over the past year and a half. If it wasn't Cowboy Grub's roast beef sandwich smothered in gravy, he wasn't interested in going anywhere else. He's thinking of going to the full dose this week sometime. We are just so thankful that this pill hasn't been too rough on him. Hopefully it's doing what it's supposed to which is keeping tumors from growing.

Maddie is 17!

It's true, she's seventeen today! What a woman! Hard at work on her Hello Day assembly video for the first day of school next week. She has been filming for weeks and is now editing for hours and hours. We celebrated at Cheesecake Factory and then some friends came over for cake and an outdoor movie. We had a surprise visit from the McDermott cousins. It was a great day for Maddie. We gave her a trip to San Francisco in October over UEA - just Maddie and mom! Love this girl lots! We're so proud of her!

Backed Against A Wall

Last Wednesday, Dr. Jones called, after reading the last CT scan taken at IMC when Craig broke his rib. She wasn't her usual light and cheery self but wanted to talk to both of us. She said the tumors have once again grown, especially the pancreas tumor which had not increased in size since the diagnosis. This is just from two months ago and Craig has been feeling so good. We talked about options and the words that stayed with us are "you don't have a lot of liver left". She said you need to take the chemo pill now. Craig felt "backed against a wall" and knew it was time to try the pill. He said he'd start on Sunday (today). The last thing she said was "don't drink any grapefruit juice". You would think that wouldn't be a problem for most people but for Craig that is his favorite drink...seriously! The sour, yellow, yucky stuff you buy in frozen cans...he loves it! Everything else is too sweet for him. We had already read that he would have to stop his grapefruit juice habit and I swear that was one of the things holding him back from starting the chemo pill. Now that he didn't have an option he willingly took himself off of it by Saturday and today when I came home from church he took his first Sutent at 12:30 pm. We sat there looking at each other and nothing immediately happened. Within about 20 minutes he started to feel a little upset in his stomach. Nothing drastic but just an unsettled feeling that he has many days. That was about it for the day, no drastic changes, no need for anti-nausea medicine so that was good. This is just 1/3 of the full dose he took today so he'll slowly build up to the full dose if he can over the next few weeks.

We had a Doutré family party tonight and he was able to go to that. His sister Greta-Ann and her daughter Caylie are in town so it was wonderful to see them and spend time together for the first time in a few years. Greta-Ann is the amazing bionic woman with her new leg which she actually stood and walked on. Here is a picture of her standing all by herself...totally great to see her progress. We love them both and wish they lived closer so we could help them out more.