Turn the beat around...

Love to hear percussion. Love that song. Very apropos. We got some good news finally, and we are starting off 2011 by turning this thing around!! Long story short: scan relatively stable, nothing unexpected, some growth, but nothing surprising. Largest nodule less than 3 cm, all pretty good. Best news of all, and just got the word a couple of hours ago. I got into the Trial. Yahoo!! And rumor on the street, is that this is a pretty hot Trial. Translation, hard to get into, promising, yada, yada, yada. A big thank you to Dr. Colevas and his team for making this happen for me. There is also a big lesson in here for other cancer survivors, and that is to really work at cultivating your medical relationships. To refresh, I met Dr. Colevas last July at Stanford. Dr. Wirth had known him from their days in the trenches together in Boston, and had referred me to him as a guy who was a cutting edge research oncologist who had a really good grasp on what was available in the clinical trial arena. Anywho, I really liked Dr. Colevas, he was youngish (my age), smart, cocky as hell, etc. A sort of Dr. Mann in an oncologist wrapper. When we first met last July, I told him exactly what I wanted, which was to get into some cutting edge trials for compounds that where out of the box. I told him I was a squeaky wheel, and he told me that the squeaky wheels usually get the grease. I told him I wanted the "Smart drugs" the ones that inhibited cancer pathways, and that's exactly what this is. Hey, it may not work at all, and I get that, but the side effects are minimal, the risk is low, but the rewards are high. I am at the perfect stage right now to try this. My health is good, I have tumors, but they are growing slowly, and causing no symptoms.

So what now. I start everything the week of February 21st. We also are moving out to Seattle that week as well. Should be a really, really relaxing time for us (not). The good news is that we have 3 weeks from now until then, and we are going to try and spend that time having fun. BTW, my wife somehow made it out to CA for two days to be with me for the appointment on Friday. I still don't know how she made it, but like an angel, she appeared. She is my rock, my shining star, and the light that I see when I shut my eyes. It makes every moment worthwhile. A big thank you to everyone else who was there this week to make it all work. To my amazing parents (who didn't let me out of their sight), to my friend William (who was with me every step of the way), to our nanny Judy (back home with Charlotte), to the Bartlett family (who helped me relax and truly appreciate the value of family) to the Beckman's (for their friendship and helping us stay sane) and finally to Stefanie, Dennis, Mia, and Ouia for being there for Jen and Charlotte. We couldn't do this without all of you.

All our love,
Mike, Jen, Charlotte and Pokey