Hi all,

Thought sharing a few updates would be helpful. Spring is springing into summer pretty quickly and our spring flowers & herbs are planted and new, small, mighty and bright. It's fun to watch them grow ever so subtly each day.  He had an infusion Monday which makes this week especially hard.  He's been doing the new schedule of having a chemo infusion every other week instead of two weeks of back to back infusions followed by an off week. This is his 3rd time on this every other week schedule and he has felt some better in his off week so that's been good. We did just see his tumor maker is slightly elevated outside the normal range this week (it's been in the normal range for several months) so he called yesterday to go ahead and schedule a CT scan (hopefully to get it in before we travel) instead of waiting until after Hawaii. More for peace of mind. I'll remind us all that they look for tumor marker trends going up or down over time. One elevated marker isn't necessarily cause for concern but we'll hope to have the CT scan sooner than later to make sure.

He's been able to mow, trim bushes, ride his bike/workout each morning (of course!), and even did a lap at a nearby mountain bike trail a couple weeks ago that went well.  His side effects continue to be extreme fatigue, regular nausea now, some neuropathy pain in his big toes, some GI irregularity, and ongoing chemo malaise but his goatee has come back in nicely. Overall, he feels crappy but when I drafted this yesterday, I had just heard him rise after a rest and was sitting outside to get some sunshine.  

I've been working pretty consistently from home with an occasional visit to campus. Yes, Indiana University is one of the campuses protesting significantly and it's final exam week with commencement activities scheduled for the end of this week/weekend. I'll head to campus later this week to try to support a safe graduate student commencement on Friday afternoon.

We are scheduled to see Dr. Dan Zhao, an MD/PHD medical oncologist at MD Anderson in Houston, TX on August 2 to talk about his diagnosis and her thoughts on his treatment.  This would be the official "2nd opinion" we've been talking about getting. Her CV is impressive as are her patient reviews, so we'll look forward to that. We'll get to see our friends from our New Zealand trip, Franz and Claire who live in Houston. We'll be there for 3-5 days from the date of the first appointment as MD Anderson will run their own tests. We're not yet sure what those will include but we'll be ready. 

Before that though, we're headed to Maui, Hawaii in less than two weeks for some rest & relaxation thanks again to friends we made in New Zealand who have a home there. We have absolutely no structure to this trip but have talked with them about all the things to do, eat, see and beaches to make our way to. We'll find some hiking and I hope, snorkeling as well. I would expect snorkeling to be a bit less physically intense than it was in the wild waters of the Pacific Ocean swimming with the dusky dolphins off the coast of New Zealand, but we'll see. 

We both continue to see therapists to sort through it all. The pups are good, Jackson just passed a level 1 obedience class with flying colors and Juney and Freddy are working on learning the same lessons I learned with Jackson.  We take all 3 to daycare twice a week (a new experience for Juney and Jackson, but they LOVE IT). Keith and Alison went to see a favorite band, Dresden Dolls in Nashville a few weeks ago, I took Mom to visit my brother and family in Lynchburg, Virginia just before Easter, Keith saw Herbie Hancock with our friend, Scott and we just keep living and being grateful for it all.  Keep sending your love, light, prayers, and energy. And we're sending ours to our friends fighting their own cancer battles.