HE IS COMING HOME!

The doctor said the MRI scans show no signs of any remaining cancer. He will start a maintenance treatment of chemo medication one week in every month for the next year at least.

He and is Mom are driving back to her parent's house tonight and to the airport tomorrow. If all goes well, they should be back in Alaska 11:07 PM Thursday. Woo Hoo!!

All clear from the eye doctor

Today, he saw the eye doctor. The doctor saw nothing unusual, and expects the additional 'wateryness' of the one eye to go away over time.

He is out playing Frisbee golf again. Tomorrow is his can-I-go-home-now doctor appointment.

MRI today

He had an MRI today, and we will get the results Wednesday. If all is clear, he will be turned loose to fly home on Thursday.

A fun day

Today he played Ultimate Frisbee again, helped with a crawfish boil for the college church group (I hear he didn't eat any), and watched a movie with friends at the apartment. Tomorrow he has designs on playing volleyball.

Now that he can be active again, he appears to be making up for lost time.

Can anyone recommend a doctor?

We need to find Tony a good primary care physician immediately when he is back in Alaska. We have never really had a primary doctor, but instead kind of floated around. Now we need to get established with one who will know what is going on if we have any problems this summer.

Do any of you have a recommendation for one?

If you do, you can post a reply here or email me at ncollins@mtaonline.net

Thanks for your help.

He is playing hard now

He played Ultimate Frisbee yesterday, and thought he would be sore today, but he must not be too sore...he is going to play again today. For those who may not know, Ultimate Frisbee is sort of like Soccer, but with a Frisbee, and you can't run with it. There is lots of non-stop running, and it is lots of fun. He can do it now that he is allowed to run.

His medication has settled out to where it should be (according to blood tests), but a bit toward the high side. Once he is settled back in Alaska, we have instructions to reduce it a little bit to get it more toward the middle of the range.

Good news from the oncologist

He saw the radiation doctor today. The doctor said his CAT scan from the other day shows no signs of cancer, and he doesn't see any reason that Tony can't come home on the 30th. He still has an MRI on Monday to be reviewed on Wednesday, but so far so good.

He still has an appointment with the eye doctor on Tuesday because his left eye is watery. The oncologist doesn't think it is related to the treatments, but he can't rule it out either. We are hoping he got something in it, or rubbed it wrong, or something else easy to get rid of.

Preparing to leave

He is giving the devotional tonight at RFC and taking cookies that his Grandma made.

He and his Mom are packing up the apartment in preparation for leaving next week. Some of the less-used stuff has already been sent back to his Grandparents in Oklahoma.

He has an appointment next week with an eye doctor. He thinks his left eye isn't as good as it used to be, and that is one possible side effect of the radiation treatments. Next week is also when he has appointments to see how effective the treatments were.

Your continued prayers would be appreciated.

He went bowling tonight

Yesterday, he played with the band at the Red and White scrimmage football game which is a recruiting tool for new students. Apparently it is a huge event where the football team scrimmages, and lots of fans and prospective students show up. It is even televised.

At the event, he met an incoming freshman flute player who is also a member of the church. That makes three flutes in the band that are from church.

After church tonight, he went bowling with friends.

All seems to be well.

Bicycle riding

He went for a bicycle ride yesterday, but it was a short one because his brakes were rubbing too much to go far. He needs his wheels trued. He also went to a devotional last night.

He might be in foul mood because his computer won't boot up. It is in the shop getting looked at.

Nothing else really new on the health front. He seems a little tired, but keeps on going.

Still busy, but napping.

He played flute for the university 'Conducting' class this morning, then took a nap. Now he is playing Frisbee golf on a pretty day.

He cooked out today

He was running around with a friend today, and cooked out for the college devotional tonight. He is still yawning which seems to indicate some fatigue, but he isn't letting it stop much. He does find that a short nap is helpful.

Nothing new

He is tired, and playing video games. They hope to talk to the doctor today about this weekend's event, but haven't been able to yet.

It is just a medication adjustment

The CAT scan shows everything to be okay. Blood tests show he needed a medication adjustment. Today was the last of the steroids, and as the steriods ramped down, they needed to crank up the other medication.

Sorry for the scare.

He is on the way to the Hospital now

His arm went numb, so his friend Louis is taking him to the hospital ER. His Mom will meet him there. We aren't sure what this means, but it wasn't expected.

Prayers please!

He is doing homework

His maternal grandparents visited today. Plans for Frisbee golf got rained out, but he is working on his correspondence class.

He has plane tickets to come home on April 30th following his last doctor checkup on the 29th. It is a bit of a gamble booking the tickets now, but the doctor expects he will be well enough by then.

He is tired, but having fun

His concert on Sunday was a fun affair. He and another student were the running-gag for the concert. Between the individual performances, he played hide and seek around the auditorium hiding from the seeker. They played on their flutes during the 'chase' things like nyah nyah nyah nyah NYAH nyah, round-the-mulberry-bush, etc.

He is definitely feeling tired now, but doesn't want to admit it. He yawns a lot when sitting around, but he did go play Frisbee golf on a fairly cold day today.

Playing flute tonight

Besides worship, he is also playing in a flute choir concert tonight, and putting together the program for it.

We may be seeing the effects of his ramping down off the steroids. He slept through his alarm today, and he isn't fidgeting when he sits still like he was.

He is camping today

The college group at church, Razorbacks for Christ or RFC, are camping overnight near Fayetteville. The doctor cleared him to go since they aren't far from town.

He didn't ride his bike today, but he practiced his flute for Sunday's performance, and reserved the music hall for the group practice on Saturday.

The doctor believes that any tiredness he might have will be gone by the end of April. That is earlier than I had thought it would be.

His first day after treatments

He celebrated by getting the hottest lunch possible at A Taste of Thai. Truly spicy-hot food has been taboo during the treatments.

He is going camping with the RFC this weekend and is greatly looking forward to that. No bike riding today...it is raining.

Treatments are DONE!

His last radiation treatment was today. The last chemo pill is tonight. Tomorrow he drops from 1/2 a steroid pill twice a day to 1/2 once a day. Then 1/2 on the 7th, 9th, and 11th. Then no more. He has gained quite a bit of weight due to an increased appetite and reduced activity. Once the steroids are gone, his appetite should drop to normal. He plans to restart more activity tomorrow with a bicycle ride.

Today he is enrolling for the Fall semester, and practicing flute for the April Fools concert (being held on Sunday the 5th oddly enough) put on by the university music department.