A Stop to Chemotherapy

Sorry I am late on this. Phil saw the doctor on Wednesday. The doctor and Phil decided to stop the chemotherapy treatments. Three bad weeks and one good week between the 5FU was not good. Phil was drinking the new shakes that we got. The shakes provide about 2000 calories a day. However he did not eat for all those weeks again, and so his weight only stayed steady. No weight gain, but more importantly, one pound of weight loss. The blood work showed that he was less malnourished.

The plan now is to get going on his exercises again, to eat, to take the shakes, to get stronger and to gain weight. We are seeing the dietician again in October. We are also going to see the palliative care team at the hospital just to get connected. If he is doing well enough, then we will check in with physical therapy again for more exercises.

In December, he will get another CT scan and see if there is an appropriate experimental drug available. If there is one, we may start it.

We are hoping that the better nutrition and the exercises will make him stronger and help him fight the cancer better than the 5FU did.

He is eating much better the last week and still taking the shakes. Thanks for all your prayers.

Judy

Trip to Michigan

The last time Phil was getting treatment I came into the room and found him on the computer looking up information on Michigan. This was another trip we always talked about. He said he was thinking about going up there but that he was probably not going to make it to next summer. Which we are both thinking is true. We are going to give it another try though by stopping the chemo and seeing if he can eat again and get his strength back. We will talk to the doctor on September 24th.

Okay, I got off the subject. The weekend after chemo, Michael came up to Door County, and I asked Michael what he thought. I told him we could not do the trip alone, and it would be pretty cold up there soon. Michelle had just got back from vacation, but she was my next contact. I did not tell Phil right away. Michael said that he would check at work, and it would be tough to get away on such short notice. Michael decided on the 5th that he could go on the 14th. Then we had to see if Phil felt well enough to go. Phil asked about Michelle, and I called her. I knew if she said yes that he would pull himself together and go. She could not make plans that fast but she would consider it. A few days later Phil said yes. Then Michelle said yes, for her and Kyle, and we were off.

We left Manitowoc on the Ferry on Sunday afternoon. It was a stormy day and probably 1/4th of the people on the boat got sick. The Badger is a really big boat. Kyle enjoyed playing Bingo with the activities director. He won a sailor hat and a chance to get a free trip on the Badger. He was really excited. He liked the big boat. There was a movie theater and a museum and a quiet lounge. Two tv lounges but no Packer game. They could not get local channels on their satellite. They did however keep track of the score on the general sports network. Two restaurants were also on the boat and there was an upstairs area where people had radios on and we could listen to the Packers play. We did that. There was also a massage lady so I got a much needed massage. We left Ludington and drove to Mackinaw City where we spent the night.

Then the Monday morning we caught a boat for Mackinac Island. We got a carriage ride and lunch. (Kyle liked the horses.) It was a beautiful and sunny day as it always is when you travel with Phil. We drove up to see the locks at Sault Saint Marie. Watched two boats go through. We arrived just as the first boat was about to leave the lock. We did not know the schedule of the boats but we had Phil, and everything's goes right for him now. That night we drove to Charlevoix, MI.

The most important part of the trip was Beaver Island. The home of Phil's grandfather. Phil's great-grandfather, "Black" Pete McCauley, is one of the original settlers of the island. He and several others came from an island in Northern Ireland and settled on Beaver Island which is very much like Ireland in many ways. Everyone except Phil's great-aunt left the Island. (She married a Nackerman and had 5 grandchildren. One of her grandsons lives on the island next door to his grandmother's home, but he leaves the island for the winter after Labor Day. We expected to find no one on the Nackerman property.) When we got to the house of Phil's great-aunt, we found a car. Then we walked down the road to the water, where a lady was trimming a rose bush. It was Phil's second cousin who decided to come out for the day from the mainland. (Again, when you travel with Phil things just work out. God is watching over him.) We drove Phil down to the water, and he had a nice chat with his cousin about the family and the island.

We flew onto the Island on a 5 passenger plane. (Kyle loved the plane ride). Of course the skys were clear (we had phil) and we could see McCauley Bay from the sky. (The birth place of Phil's grandfather and the homestead of "Black Pete" McCauley. The actual home is gone).

After we landed, we drove to the McCauley Bay. Most roads on the island are not paved and many things are just the way they were over 100 years ago. Michael knocked on the door of the couple who own the land on McCauley Bay. They were very welcoming and told us to look around and spend as much time on the land as we wanted. We took rocks from the water on McCauley bay.

People on Beaver Island were very friendly. It was the off season and many things were closed. The lady at the airport on the island made a phone call to get the Beaver Island Historical Museum opened for the family of "Black Pete".

At the museum we found the birth records of Phil's grandfather and a photo and information on Black Pete. (You can see the picture if you go out to history of Beaver Island on the web.) The gentleman who opened it was very friendly and helpful. We also went to the cemetery and saw a stone wall dedicated to the founders of the Island. A rock in the shape of a fish was put in it for "Black Pete". We found many graves of the relatives who stayed on the island.

We saw the lighthouse monument to the citizens of Beaver Island who died at sea. One of Phil's great uncles names are on it. We just enjoyed the beauty of the island and the great weather. After our flight to the mainland we drove back to Ludington and the next day caught the boat to Manitowoc. The only thing I regret was not spending Tuesday night on the boat. It would have been better than waking up at 7 am to catch it. The boat ride home was sunny, with calm seas and warm weather. Kyle won a corndog playing bingo. Phil and I took a nap and watched a movie. Michael came in for the movie, and we all played games and sat on deck and enjoyed the weather.

The trip was wonderful. Although Phil got tired once when he walked on a short trail on Beaver Island, he said that he loved it. His favorite part was spending time with Michael, Michelle, Kyle and me. He really enjoyed having the kids learn about his family and could recall stories his grandfather told him about playing on the island as a kid.

We came home and are really missing our dogs. My sister and niece have them and are going to bring them up on Friday.

This has been a special 21 months since his diagnosis. It is hard to imagine that we did so much living in so little time. Keep the prayers coming.

Judy