Sorry it's taken so long to update, it's been really crazy and I was having a hard time finding the right words. I'm not very good at this!

Josh is home from the hospital. The Dr.'s are saying that right now the most important thing they can do is manage his pain. They sent him home with a pain pump and hospice is coming to the house to take care of that and anything else he needs. His blood count is still really low and his calcium levels are high. In 2 weeks they will re-assess what's going on and Josh can decide if he wants to do the next round of chemo or not. Mom has taken off from work to be with him and Dad is still home with a bad back! Please pray that God will give Josh a miracle! Please pray that we can keep him comfortable! Pleas pray for God to give our whole family strength!

In the hospital again

Just wanted to let everyone know that Josh was admitted into the hospital last night. He had a blood clot in his colostomy and they told him to come up and get checked out. His blood count was low so they admitted him and gave him a blood transfusion. When Mom called this morning he told her they were most likely going to keep him in but he didn't say anything else. Mom is on her way up Tuscon now, so I will update this again when we find out anything more! Please keep him and our family in your prayers!

New Chemo

Just wanted to let everyone know that Josh started a new chemo last Thursday. He went to the Cancer Center in Tucson on Thurs. and Friday last week for two treatments and then this week on Mon. Tues, and today. After this I think he waits 3 weeks and does it over again. He's been really tired! Please pray that this treatment will work and that he will get some relief from the pain!

He's out of the hospital!

Mom brought Josh home from the hospital this evening. One order said he needed to stay on a liquid diet but then they told him he could eat whatever he could tolerate! Who knows! I don't know a lot of the details but one of the new things is that he will go back to Tucson on Thursday for a new type of chemo. Thankfully he gets to do it at the Cancer Center and doesn't have to go to the hospital. As of right now he will stop the treatments in CA. Sorry this is so short and doesn't have much info. I will update it when I have more. Thank you for all your prayers while he was in the hospital. Please continue to pray that he will be able to eat, that he will get some relief from the pain, and that they will find something that will work to shrink the tumors!

The scan has been read by the Dr. now and there is no blockage! Thank goodness! They gave him a patch for the pain and so far it's working. He's been able to eat a little bit and has had "output". They're going to keep him overnight to make sure everything is working! Please continue to pray!

Mom and Dad went to Tucson this morning to be with Josh.

Mom just called and said that they're waiting for the official reading of the scan, but the surgical team just came by and said that they don't see a blockage. They think it might be constipation from all the pain meds. They're trying to get him a patch for pain relief. Right now they're not letting him eat or drink anything just in case. Josh is hoping that while he's there they will go ahead and scope him just to make sure and that may help push stuff out. They are also talking about starting him on another type of intense chemo, but they can't really decide on that until they make sure that there isn't a blockage.

I will post more as soon as I hear anything so check back occasionally. Please continue to pray that everything will be ok.

Below is what I copied from Josh's website. He wrote this after his treatment last week. He went to Tucson today for a Dr.'s appt. and got admitted to the hospital this evening. They're afraid he's got a bowel obstruction/blockage. They were supposed to do a CAT Scan and and MRI but for some reason it didn't get done tonight. I guess he's supposed to get it tomorrow, but for now they're keeping him in the hospital. Please pray that if it is a blockage that it will be easy for them to fix it w/o surgery! Please pray for some pain relief and that he'll get to come home very soon! He hates being in the hospital! Also please pray that they'll know which treatment to do make things better and keep the tumors from growing.

They went ahead and gave me another treatment. I have to meet with my Tucson doc to see if we're going to continue with this or not. I'm thinking that I'll stop this treatment and do another high dose chemo regimen like the one I was on before. I think it's another 5 days in the hospital for each treatment and again every 3 weeks. If I can get through 1-2 of those treatments, it may get me to a better state and then I can go back to the ET743 and maintain it until we can find something else. At this point, I think we really just have to find something to reduce the mass to get me comfortable again. I'm getting worse and on top of the pain and not sleeping, it's getting really hard to eat. I've lost some more weight and can't really eat many solid foods. I've been eating a lot of soups and pudding. I'm dying for some Taco Bell Chalupas, but last time I did that I was up ALL night in pain.