Greetings dear friends and family from Edisto Island, SC! Hope all is well with you and yours. Remains hot and humid here in the south with 25+ days of temps in the low-to-mid 90s and plenty of humidity. We continuously remind ourselves that this is our "new February" weather ... but at least we don't have to shovel it!
A VERY GOOD MRI SCAN and CHEMO ROUND 22 COMPLETE ... thankfully a recent MRI scan of my head revealed my cancer has NOT spread to my brain. Praise the good Lord! Martha had noticed (as did I) I was having occasional difficulty getting the some words out of my mouth ... a bit of "garbled speech". We discussed this with my oncologist who immediately ordered an MRI of my head to see if the cancer had spread to my brain.
Thankfully the MRI results were negative for cancer as well as negative for evidence of stroke, just revealing some
"age related" shrinkage of a few blood vessels. No cause for concern and no additional cancer treatment (i.e. radiation) intervention required. I received chemo round 22 on Wednesday (July 18th) as scheduled with just the usual side effects (fatigue, flushing, bout of hiccups, and some nausea). Chemo is admittedly getting "very old" now but we've vowed to keep up the hard fight.
EDISTO BEACH TURTLE PATROL ... Martha has officially joined the turtle patrol with me! While we try to patrol our section of the beach together (Monday and Thursday mornings at 6:30 am!), some days it's just too difficult for me, especially the Thursday morning after Wednesday's chemo treatment. So Martha patrols along with an experienced turtle patroller. We're both learning a ton and a few of Edisto Beach's marked nests are beginning to "boil" as it's called (mass hatching with the little guys scurrying as fast as they possibly can from their
nest to the ocean to begin their long journey). Hatching normally occurs at night when there are fewer hungry predators (and curious tourists) to confront, increasing the baby Loggerhead's chance of survival.
RETURNING TO NEW YORK NEXT WEEK ... we're looking forward to our planned trip "north" next week (July 24th - 31st). We've decided to fly instead of drive since (standby) flights out of Charlotte, NC (about 3 hours from here) look "doable". We'll be celebrating at my Friendship Central School Class of '67's 45th reunion (next Friday evening) with many classmates at the Angelica Hotel (should be a real "hoot", I've found a few old Super 8 movie clips of class parties at my parents former cottage at Cuba Lake, had them converted to electronic files and merged them onto a DVD ... very entertaining!), celebrating Aaron and Stefanie's recent marriage with our upstate NY family and friends on Sunday July 29th at Derek, Carrie and Jack's house in Pittsford, and simply "celebrating life" visiting dear family and friends we haven't seen in a while. Looking forward to seeing many of you next week!
Once again we send our best ... and may God continue to bless you and yours.
Dan
A VERY GOOD MRI SCAN and CHEMO ROUND 22 COMPLETE ... thankfully a recent MRI scan of my head revealed my cancer has NOT spread to my brain. Praise the good Lord! Martha had noticed (as did I) I was having occasional difficulty getting the some words out of my mouth ... a bit of "garbled speech". We discussed this with my oncologist who immediately ordered an MRI of my head to see if the cancer had spread to my brain.
Thankfully the MRI results were negative for cancer as well as negative for evidence of stroke, just revealing some
"age related" shrinkage of a few blood vessels. No cause for concern and no additional cancer treatment (i.e. radiation) intervention required. I received chemo round 22 on Wednesday (July 18th) as scheduled with just the usual side effects (fatigue, flushing, bout of hiccups, and some nausea). Chemo is admittedly getting "very old" now but we've vowed to keep up the hard fight.
EDISTO BEACH TURTLE PATROL ... Martha has officially joined the turtle patrol with me! While we try to patrol our section of the beach together (Monday and Thursday mornings at 6:30 am!), some days it's just too difficult for me, especially the Thursday morning after Wednesday's chemo treatment. So Martha patrols along with an experienced turtle patroller. We're both learning a ton and a few of Edisto Beach's marked nests are beginning to "boil" as it's called (mass hatching with the little guys scurrying as fast as they possibly can from their
nest to the ocean to begin their long journey). Hatching normally occurs at night when there are fewer hungry predators (and curious tourists) to confront, increasing the baby Loggerhead's chance of survival.
RETURNING TO NEW YORK NEXT WEEK ... we're looking forward to our planned trip "north" next week (July 24th - 31st). We've decided to fly instead of drive since (standby) flights out of Charlotte, NC (about 3 hours from here) look "doable". We'll be celebrating at my Friendship Central School Class of '67's 45th reunion (next Friday evening) with many classmates at the Angelica Hotel (should be a real "hoot", I've found a few old Super 8 movie clips of class parties at my parents former cottage at Cuba Lake, had them converted to electronic files and merged them onto a DVD ... very entertaining!), celebrating Aaron and Stefanie's recent marriage with our upstate NY family and friends on Sunday July 29th at Derek, Carrie and Jack's house in Pittsford, and simply "celebrating life" visiting dear family and friends we haven't seen in a while. Looking forward to seeing many of you next week!
Once again we send our best ... and may God continue to bless you and yours.
Dan