I thought I would give an update on how things are going, it's been a while since my last post. My chemo treatments were delayed due to an infection I've struggled with the past few weeks. Also, my platelets were too low. For three weeks, everyday I've had to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics. We seemed to be making progress fighting the infection when I developed a blockage in my small intestine. Talk about pain! For two days, everything I ate (and believe me, I eat a lot) sat in my stomach. My stomach became inflamed causing severe pain. Joe called my doctor, he had me come in right away. Needless to say, while waiting for the doctor to come into the exam room, I threw up and threw up and threw up in the garbage can. I've never thrown up as much I did then. The good news is, instantly, the pain was gone. The doctor came in after I was done throwing up and asked where my pain was. I pointed to the garbage can and said "in there". He said it's not uncommon for this to happen after the type of surgery I had. I had two or three more episodes of eating, pain, throwing up. For a couple days my diet was liquid only, and small portions at that. This is a challenge for me, because if I can't eat, I'm pretty miserable. Finally, food passed threw and I was able to eat normal portions again. And my platelets returned to normal.

I had my fifth chemo treatment last week. The side effects weren't as intense as previous treatments. I refused to be layed up the usual four to five days I'm usual down. I had a 8 hour mandatory meeting at work the following Monday, which I'm proud to say I made it through the whole meeting. Tuesday night, severe stomach pain returned. We ended up going to the emergency room spending most the night there. We got home at four in the morning. Joe had to be in Salt Lake by 6:30am with a full day visiting suppliers. He got home about 5pm, totally exhausted.

My sixth, and LAST treatment is scheduled for the 30th. I hesitate to announce that for fear of jinxing it. I am looking forward to building up my strength and feel like my old self again, physically and emotionally. The last few weeks have taken a toll on me emotionally. I think because of the delays in treatment stretching it out further than we expected. There are certain kinds of pain others don't see. I'm not talking about the physical pain, I'm talking about the "dead-dog-tired-of-it-all" pain. Many believe the most difficult aspect of cancer is the physical pain. Wrong, wrong, wrong! I recently had someone say to me, "boy, you sure look good, you must be feeling good." Really? Just because I look good on the outside doesn't mean I feel the same on the inside. And just because you can't "see" the pain doesn't mean that it's not there.

I thank all of you who continue to pray for me and my family. We feel those prayers and have seen them work many times. Fighting cancer has been the second hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But I was not alone and I am truly blessed. I am forever changed because of the tender mercies of prayer. It has given me the strength to fight.