Jon's New Do

Jon Speaks

Our friends from Australia, Ray and Leonie Dennis, introduced me to Art Rome a few months ago. Art was a Navy Seal, in his early forties, healthy and hard-charging. Ray and Art worked together on developing optics for the Marine Snipers and Naval Special Warfare. Art and I were diagnosed with the same type and stage of cancer within a week of each other. Art died last Wednesday, January 24th.

Please join me in sending Art's family your purest thoughts and prayers

JN

I'm Now Married to a Bald Guy

It's official-Jon's hair fell out in clumps on Wednesday so he shaved his head. We are leaving for Safari Club in Reno this afternoon so I will post some pictures as soon as we return. He looks pretty good :)

No News Is Good News

This week is probably the most normal our lives have been since "the diagnosis" (thus my lack of blogging!). Jon has felt good all week and managed to get in four workouts. I went to a seminar, we had dinner with friends in Seattle, and went to a going away party for our friend David Lane, who left for Brazil on his 2 year LDS Mission. For the past few months it has been problematic to make any kinds of plans, never knowing what each day held. It felt good to have some sense of normalcy in our lives.

We are back at chemo today. Jon is just finishing up. His blood work was a little on the low side...white and red cells still within the normal limits but hemoglobin and hematocrit slightly low. It is to be expected with the chemo and our naturopath gave him some new blood tonics to raise his counts. We are still waiting on the results of the alkaline phosphotase test. CT scan will be in 8 more weeks.

This morning Jon began to notice he is losing his hair. If it continues he plans to shave his head...so does Levi and Mike Carpentar. They really all want to look like Ultimate Fighters!

This has been Jon's best week on record since his diagnosis. Chemo was Monday and he has felt good all week. Today (Thursday) he feels a little sleepy and lightheaded, but no headache, nausea, or fever.

We are both feeling extremely optimistic about the new course of treatment!

Another Record Day

Jon's alkaline phosphotase was 138 yesterday. (test for liver function, normal is 110, he was 195 when diagonsed)

I hear a rumor that he and Kelsey are going jeans shopping today!

JON'S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

Jon announced yesterday afternoon that on Sunday, January 14th he felt the best he has felt since his biopsy! He had a good work-out and ate like a horse.

He is back at chemo today where they have slowed down the Taxol a bit to prevent any more reactions. His white count is lower than his norm but still well within the acceptable range.

He started reading Muscle and Fitness again last night.

If he buys himself a pair of new jeans, we will be in business.

More Goose Hunting

The man is bound and determined to kill those geese! He's feeling better and left last night with Kelsey and Levi to goosehunt again. This time he is equipped with bendaryl, compazine, and ibuprofen (just in case!) All three were excited about their mini-adventure. Tomorrow is his next chemo and both Tonya and Kristi will accompany him. He will have a total of 8-12 sessions before the next CT scan, this will be the 3rd in the series. Keep sending him lots of positive thoughts and prayers! We are all visualizing the tumors shrinking with every chemotherapy.

One of Those Days....

It's been a difficult couple of days for Jon. Although he woke up Wednesday morning feeling great he was down for the count by noon (yes, he was goose hunting during all of this) When I returned home from work I found him huddled in bed, unable to even lift his head off the pillow, with a 100.4 temperature. After ibuprofen, adjustment, massage, and a call to the oncologist he was well enough to sit up and eat some homemade chicken soup. His temperature has normalized and his headache is mild, his eyes are severely bloodshot, glassy, and swollen. After monitoring him all day and several phone consults with SCWC we concluded that he had a severe allergic reaction to the Taxol. Remember when he declined the benadryl and steroid with his last chemo?? Don't think he'll choose that next time. I gave him two benadryl this afternoon and he is sleeping comfortably. We expect tomorrow to be a better day.

Levi, Kelsey, and Erika are all inner tubing down our hill in the snow! It is a beautiful night and I think I will join them (Staci and Liz-you should be here!!). We'll all rouse Jon for dinner when they're done. I am grateful I had an day off today and will ask the boys to keep an eye on him tomorrow.

Jon had a rough night last night. He went to Levi's for dinner and ended up falling asleep on the couch most of the night with a fever, headache, and fatigue. He finally managed to get up and drive home (motivated by his thoughts of white willow bark in the pantry that is a fever reducer). He thinks the reaction is the new chemo but I think its the flu since Staci and I have the same symptoms to a lesser degree. At any rate, he felt better this morning and was well enought to go goose hunting with Rex, Mike, and Eric. (Yes, we all know that they are calling for the winter's worst snow storm tonight!) Kelsey and I are hunkered down with homemade chicken soup and biscuits, expecting now school tomorrow!

Second Chemo

Jon seemed to have a flu over the weekend. He returned from hunting with a 101 temperature and spent most of Saturday in bed. He also took it easy on Sunday, but felt good by this morning. He had his second chemo with SCWC and tweaked his program a little bit, decreasing some of the meds they give you (benadryl and steroids) that minimize the effects of the chemo. Last time he felt groggy from the benadryl, then flushed and wired from the steroid. They eliminated the benadryl altogether since there was no allergic reaction and decreased the dose of the steroid. He was also give compazine to reduce nausea. His blood work is still excellent, with normal red and white cell count, platelet, etc. The alkaline phosphotase was further reduced to 166 (started at 195, normal is 110) which is an enzyme that measures liver function. He also had a superspecial acupuncture that is part of his treatment plan.

If all goes well Jon plans to go duck hunting again tomorrow.

Staci's Visit

Staci has been here since Wednesday night and called a family meeting on Thursday. Complete with handouts, graphs, charts, and budgets, she announced her desire to move back to Washington. We are all thrilled! She will put her Beaumont house up for sale this week and move as soon as it sells. Her intention is to find another job as a police officer and return to school for her Masters in Fine Arts. For any of you that don't know, Staci is a talented poet who will be published this spring.

Jon fared very well with his chemo until today. He's back from duck hunting and sound asleep at 6pm. I'm sure early morning duck hunting in the freezing snow might be a contributing factor. He's mostly tired and a little queasy, all in all, much better then his prior experiences. His next chemo is Monday at 10am with a follow-up appointment with Dr. Chu.

Can a Person Have Fun at Chemotherapy?

If I didn't know better I would say that Jon actually enjoyed his chemo yesterday. He continues to be impressed with the efficiency, knowledge, and professionalism of SCWC. He couldn't say enough about the doctors, nurses, and administrative staff. (For all of you that know how demanding he is you can appreciate how good they must be!) Jon also enjoyed his visitors and indulging in the sugary treats.

He is feeling remarkably well today and is planning on duck hunting tomorrow with Staci. They're putting it off until tomorrow, not because he feels poorly, but because he wants to get a weight workout in before he goes. Just a side note: The nurses guarantee he will lose all of his hair this time around. He doesn't like having any "outward signs" that he is a cancer patient so I suggested he tell people he is a UFC wrestler-lots of them have shaved heads and it really suits his personality!

The First Milestone

Cancer is a disease of statistics....not that I personally subscribe to them but they are helpful to measure your actions and outcomes. In the world of cancer, if you survive five years you are considered cancer free. So here's some stats on pancreatic cancer:

In the United States, 4% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive.
Most don't survive past 4-6 months and 90% are dead within one year.

That being said, today was an important milestone in our world. When Jon was first diagnosed, Dr. Liao told us if chemo doesn't work he could be dead in two months. That was on November 2.

Today is January 2, 2007 and we are celebrating life!

Jon is strong, optimistic, and starting a promising treatment at Seattle Cancer and Wellness Center tomorrow. Their statistics are 88% success in the last two years....that means 8 patients out of 9 have lived throughout the course of the study. By far the most promising statistic we have.

I don't believe in statistics.
I do believe Jon is one of the 4%
I believe that he would be one of the 1%
I believe in his strength, dedication, and tenaciousness.
I believe that if anyone can beat this it is Jon Nichols

He will start the new program at 9:15 tomorrow morning. He can eat lots of sugar to get his cancer cells all excited so the chemo can blast them! Levi and Cindy are equipped with Cinnabon for their visit. Kristi, Kelsey, and I will send him out with chocolate bars.

Keep him full of positive thoughts, prayers, and energy!

Happy New Year

What an interesting year 2006 has been-some of our greatest joy and certainly a few surprises. We are optimistic about the coming year and expect it to be full of hope and challenge, in the end a complete recovery for Jon by 2008.

Today we hiked in the snow to our favorite "first date" spot, Greenwater Lakes. Jon was feeling a little fatigued and nauseous so we turned back earlier than we had planned. He was terribly excited about a deer kill we came upon and investigated it thoroughly. Jon's not really sure what happened, but there was evidence of coyote tracks and bear scat.

Its been three weeks since his last chemo and although he's done very well, some of his earlier symptoms are returning. We are anxious to start with Dr. Chu on Wednesday. Staci will be back Wednesday night and if all goes well at chemo, she and Jon will duck hunt on Thursday and Friday. First time in 20 years they've been able to go together.

Wishing everyone a Healthy and Happy 2007!