November 19, 2007

Evan's Break From Treatment

Dear Family & Friends,

It’s been a while – sorry for the long silence. Evan is hanging in there. It’s been four weeks since his last radiation treatment, and he’s been on a break from chemotherapy since then as well. We had hoped that he would be feeling a lot better by now, but the improvements have been fairly subtle.

The first two weeks after the end of radiation turned out to be the worst. He finally started experiencing the nausea that we’d been warned about (but thought we had avoided), and he was about as weak and tired and sore as he’s ever been. The last couple weeks have been a little better though. The nausea is gone now, and we’ve seen some mild improvements in his energy level. Also, his personality and sense of humor has started to come back lately. All good signs! The progress is slow, but we’re hoping it will continue even after he goes back on the chemo.

As for the blood clot concerns, they remain a constant issue but not a major threat. The cancer’s effect on the blood makes it difficult for the blood thinners to keep things stable, but he gets it checked every week (or twice a week when it starts doing crazy things) and the doctors adjust the Coumadin accordingly. It’s been a little annoying to deal with, but it’s probably a walk in the park compared to what people with diabetes have to go through, so I’m sure we’ll get used to it.

All in all, the break from treatment has been good. We’ve enjoyed having fewer doctor appointments, fewer medications to take, and Evan has been able to get out a little more too. Last weekend, Evan felt well enough to spend the better part of two whole days with his mom and siblings as we celebrated an early Thanksgiving. It was the first time Evan and his brothers and sisters had been all together in several years. Monte, and his family, came up from Arizona, and his sister, Joy, came out from North Carolina. Alan and Jan were already here in Utah. We had a great time, and really enjoyed seeing everybody.

This week we’re looking forward to our big trip to Southern California. We leave on Wednesday and won’t be back until Friday of the next week. It should be just what the doctor ordered, for all of us. We’re planning to have lots of fun and come back ready to face the next phase of treatment.

The other big event for this week is that Evan has his next MRI tomorrow (Tuesday). It will give us the first look at the tumor since he started treatment. If the images are clear, it should give us the first indications of how effective the radiation has been. The doctors have warned us that there is a possibility that the images won’t be clear since the radiation causes a lot of swelling around the tumor, and sometimes it takes more than four weeks for the inflammation to subside. But we’re crossing our fingers for clear pictures and good news! I’ll be sure to send out a quick e-mail tomorrow night and share the results with you before we leave town.

We hope this letter finds you all doing well, and we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!!! Thanks for all your prayers!

Love,
Margot