Enjoy Life

This weekend I will get a chance to meet up with some good friends and play in the sand at Cannon Beach.  We will be there with a lot of other people competing in the 50th annual Sandcastle Contest.  Although there will be judges we will just be aiming to have a good time and hopefully please the crowd.  My friend Mike has gotten us together for this event as he has on many previous occasions.  This year will be his third competition since his lung cancer diagnosis, the guy doesn't let much slow him down.  The past couple weeks however his health has taken a bit of a turn as his current drug regiment is no longer working for him (sadly I can relate).  He will be starting up a new regiment and I really hope it works for him.  What I do know is that he will be enjoying his toes in the sand directing us to create his latest sandy masterpiece.  We will slave for 6 hours moving tons of sand and whittling it down into sculpture.  The final work will be gazed upon for a couple hours at best as the tide comes in to wash it all away.  Nothing but change is forever.

Summertime?!

Well it is June now and usually that means we have another month before summertime rolls in.  I feel like this Spring has been pretty warm and dry, no complaints here.  I just finished up the first cycle of the new treatment and thus far have had little to no side effects.  In fact it has made me realize how bad some of the other drugs were making me feel.  This is my "off" week and I head back up to Seattle next week to start round 2.  We will do some more scans at the end of that cycle and have a good idea if this is working or not.
We did get some good news last week though, my LD (Lactate dehydrogenase) levels have plummeted since starting this new treatment.  LD can be used as a measure of cell turnover and a high level can mean that you have rapidly dividing (and dying) cancerous cells in your body.  In Fall of 2012 my LD levels were nearly 3 times the normal level.  They returned to normal after my surgery up until last August.  When the cancer returned the LD levels were on the rise and were not slowed by the Docetaxal.  However with just two doses of the trial drug my LD has dropped significantly.  Really hoping this means that the cancer is being affected.  We will know for sure in about 4 weeks.  Until then I plan to be enjoying the lovely weather.