Update - Feb 09, 2007

Well - the word for this week is Erbitux. It was no problem with the insurance company - the biopsy results that they requested showed that I was "EGFR positive", making me a "good" candidate for the drug. We started it last Thursday. Just a few minor details before we get started - "This will take a little longer than normal - since we don't know how you'll react to the new drug, we're going to give it to you first, and then watch to see if you experience an anaphylactic reaction..." Anaphylactic reaction? What? "Oh, we'll be watching you to make sure your airway doesn't close up - we'll give you a dose of Benadryl first and we'll have the epinephrine ready if we need it...". Wow, it doesn't get much better than this does it? Well maybe, in addition to all that neat stuff, I can expect to develop acne if the drug is working. Cool - I get to be a teenager again. And I get to go in weekly now instead of biweekly so that I can get it administered every week - so one week will be Erbitux, the next will be the full deal with all the meds, and then repeat. OK - enough whining, I'm really happy to get the Erbitux and I hope that it works. This week in numbers - CEA marker number same as last time - 52.

Every time I go to the clinic, I seem to have an opportunity to meet someone who provides me with some additional inspiration to keep up the fight. This week was no different, except that this particular inspiration came after we left the hospital. After spending a very long day at the hospital, Nancy and I attended a lecture at a Seattle outdoor store given by a local man named Dan Mazur who is an Everest climber and guide. Dan was responsible for the rescue on Everest of a climber who had been abandoned and given up for dead by his climbing party last May. The story was written up in our local Sunday paper magazine section last November:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw11192006/2003430657_pacificpclimb191.html
I wrote Dan after reading the article, congratulating him for having the moral compass that everyone else seemed to be lacking that day on Everest - many people walked by this man and offered no assistance, essentially leaving him to die. We have started up an email correspondence, and I thought that I should really meet Dan in person. He knows my story, and I'm on his list to do a Nepal trek someday when I'm physically able to do so (don't worry -I'm not crazy enough to think I could ever attempt Everest - I'd be happy just to see it). The presentation covered not only his rescue of Lincoln Hall, but also the story of his very first climb up Everest (also noted in the Seattle Times story) that nearly killed him and the partner he was with. My inspiration from all this? Here is a guy who has overcome the most demanding physical challenges to climb the highest mountains in the world, but has not forgotten the important things in the process.

I'll write next week about a book of cartoons that I recently purchased called "Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person" - another source of inspiration, if not also a few good laughs.
-bob
PS - I thought that I needed to add the picture at the top. I'm not sure why. It does always seem to crack me up when I look at it though.