Josh and Ethan at Disneyland!


Josh sent me another update this morning. Below is what he wrote! Please pray that God will lead him to make the right decisions!

The Texas surgeons office called my Tucson Oncologist and setup a surgical appointment for the 12th. Now the problem is that I'm supposed to start my next round of treatment in California that day. My thoughts right now are if Angel Flights hasn't had any pilots pickup my flights for that trip, then I may cancel and go ahead to Texas for the appointment. If Angel Flights has a pilot lined up, then I won't cancel. If the doctor agrees to operate, then not doing this next treatment will allow me to have the surgery sooner since I won't have to wait for my counts to recover. I'd kind of like to have the doctor look at my CT scans before I fly out there in case there is something obvious that would make him not want to operate, but at the same time, I'd like to see him face to face so he can see the swelling and I can explain to him in my own words how badly I want the surgery. Another wrench has been thrown into my decision on surgery though. My wife told me the other day that she doesn't want me to do the surgery. She doesn't think it's the right choice but hasn't said anything since I was so for it. I still feel deep down that this is the right thing to pursue.

As far as my new drugs go. I stopped taking the Lyrica to see if that would help with the drowsiness. I still have random bouts of drowsiness and some nausea/vomiting, but the pain is still under control, so I'll continue on without the Lyrica. I started taking the Ritalin again today so we'll see if that helps. I also started taking Milk of Magnesia twice a day. That has really got my colostomy moving. With taking just the Senokot-S I was changing my bag 2 times a day if I was lucky. Since I started the Milk of Magnesia, I seem to change it about 5 times a day. I'm having much less cramping. However my appetite has gone down. I'm still eating OK, but I don't feel like eating as much as I was.