Long overdue update...

I know that an update is long overdue and I apologize for waiting so long to do so. Even though the situation seems to be the same here at home, I know that many of you have wondered about how Eric is doing. Then, I kept putting it off waiting for another phone call from Cleveland. And, my last excuse is that I just run out of time and haven't made this my priority. Since not one of those excuses is good, I decided to make it a priority this evening.

4 weeks ago today was the long day of surgery and Eric is doing well. He still has pain with the incision but continues to make progress each day. We celebrated his birthday on September 25th. I surprised him by taking a vacation day and we left home for a few hours. I had no real expectations for the trip and was pleasantly surprised at how well the trip went. He even suggested a trip to Menards in Defiance and claimed that it felt wonderful to shop. I asked if he would have felt as good at Kohls and he immediately responded with "NO". After getting a couple of things that we needed to fix a few things at the house, we continued on to get burgers at Wendy's and then ate our lunch at Independence Dam. It was a beautiful day and we spent a wonderful day together celebrating his 46th birthday. Otherwise, Eric has a goal to walk several times a day. He isn't driving yet but that is soon to come as well.

As far as news from Cleveland Clinic, we called to agree to the clinical study. We were surprised to get a return call saying that they were going to review the pathology reports another time to ensure that the surgery had gotten all of the cancer cells. More than a week later, we got another call confirming the original report of the surgery and that they still want Eric to participate in the clnical study. We are again waiting for another call to find out when we can go back to Cleveland to sign all of the papers and have all of the baseline scans and tests run in preparation for the study. We are anticipating that it will be within the next few weeks. The nurse will then register Eric in the study and when that is complete, we will make the first trip to Cleveland to pick up the medications for the first 6 weeks of the study. After that, we return to Cleveland every 6 weeks to receive the next 6 weeks of medication and there is a schedule of lab tests and scans as the study continues. If Eric stays in the study, this will continue for 56 weeks. The medications are pills that he takes orally and the side effects should be minimal compared to the typical chemotheapy and radiation. These drugs are FDA approved but are not chemo. They have been treating kidney cancer with these drugs for a couple of years now and have had some success. We are hopeful that the study will pick the treatment for Eric that will lessen his chances for reoccurence. If at any time test or scans indicate a reason to know which medication he is taking, the clinic will ask for his profile to be "unblinded" so that he can be treated accordingly.

We again thank everyone for your continued prayers. Thank you for all of the cards and thanks to our church friends who prepared and delivered meals. Then there is everything else that several have done to help us out here at home and with the kids. I have been back to work full time for several weeks and Eric looks forward to getting back to Bard as soon as he feels well enough to do so.

Please continue to pray that Eric's pain is relieved more each day and that he can gain his strength back in order to get back to work and back to his "normal routine" soon. Although there are uncerainties about the 56 weeks of the clinical study, we are thankful for how far Eric is today and for how God's hand continues to work in our lives. Our hope remains in the healing power of our "Great Physician".

Until later... Eric and Gwen