Chromogranin A

Here are the latest results on Craig's tumor marker, Chromogranin A. The date where the chart starts on the left lower corner is 9-1-2009. This was taken the day of his second chemoembolization. He had his first treatment on 7-8-09. After that second treatment his numbers shot up to over 500,000, then jumped up and down for the next almost year. On Aug. 12, 2010 he started the Sutent chemo pill. That's where the chart stays down around the 5,000 level and has since 8-31-10. It's just so amazing to see what a difference the right kind of treatment makes. It was obvious to us by the way Craig felt that the chemoembolizations were awful and not a bearable method of treatment. They were literally weakening him to the point if he had another one in 2009 when the doctors wanted him to, he could have died. Now, with the correct treatment, a brand new drug that was first approved for kidney cancer and has just recently been approved for pancreatic cancer, the results are amazing. The tumors aren't necessarily dying, we're hoping they are, but they are stable. He'll have another scan in November and we'll see the state of the tumors but for now we are very happy with the effects of Sutent.

Summer Catch-Up

Craig built a stable in our backyard...it's a barrier between the two sheds to create privacy between us and the neighbor. Our new neighbors built a deck at the back of their lot and it was right by where we hang out by the pool. Being the jack-of-all-trades he is, Craig took it upon himself to create a covered area so we can store stuff behind the pool house during the winter too. You can always depend on Craig to create storage for stuff rather than getting rid of it. He's such a great handy man!

Scout loves it when everyone's out at the pool...more people to throw the ball for him. Here he is placing 3 tennis balls on the floating island hoping someone will throw a ball to him.

Ellie & Lexi McDermott and Maddie and Chase tried to do a

4 man tower. They almost made it all the way up!