Big Daddy himself with an update for everyone

This was originally a ”comment” from Jon, well, I felt it necessary to make it a post. G~

- Denial is a bad thing and we all need to know what the facts are clearly. The 24% thing is completly a statistic that should not be applied to my case for the following reasons:
      1) We do not know the ages of the other people that made up the data pool.
      2) Do we know if the data pool were heavy smokers, drinkers, under 40, and over 70.
          (basically without knowing this information the Doctor should never quote anyone percentages or odds.
- My age, health, and otherwise everything else will automatically throw me outside of the “Bell Curve”. I need to develop my own set of data points to really determine if I have a chance of winning this fight.

Now for the CA19-A (cancer marker tests). Yes, this is great news to drop from 49K to 27K because now the Jon Flowers data has a positive trend. This does indicate that the 1st round of Chemo and Radiation had an effect on the cancer cells.

I just heard today (7/20/06) that my markers dropped to 26K, so the trend continues to head in a positive direction. Now I am taking round 2 of Chemo (Gemzar, a clinical trial drug and Tarceva) and now we can measure accurately how efective these drugs are. Clinical data indicates that Gemzar are very effective fighters of pancreatic cancer. I caution us all, as again the clinical data was from a data pool of who knows what. It could be all smokers or all over 60 or even all stage 3 cancer patients.

So to summarize,
Things are looking up for the follwing reasons:
- I have gained 12 pounds in the last 15 days
- I am using less pain medicine these past three days (cooresponds with the starting of me taking Gemzar)
- Cancer markers are dropping
- I can eat most anything and do not worry about tossing my cookies.
- I am actually feeling better every day, which is always a good thing as each good day is a great day to be here with my family.

Jon~

GREAT news!

Okay, I’ve been busy with everything and haven’t had the time to write. I apologize!

Jon called me last week Friday and gave me the news that his Cancer count is DOWN! yeahhhh

He was in the 47,000 to 50,000 range and his doctor called and said it was now 27,000! so the treatment is working. Also I want to add that Uncle George, Anson (we all know growing up as Andy) and Nancy drove from Indiana to see Jon, they had a wonderful time, had dinner then sat around and chatted, the guys went to Travis’s Hockey game (Minus Dad, myself anlong with Jillian, Tracy, Nancy, Mom and Taylor) When they got back we all sat around the pool soaking our feet and talking about old times on “Carpenter rd”

It was a pleasure to see them.

Well, its raining very hard here right now, I have a little Jack russel in my lap begging for attention since its been so quiet around here lately! Thanks for all the comments here, I’ll keep a better track of the updates as they happen.

G~

A little bad news

Jon has stage 4 Cancer, Its rated that because his cancer has spread. 

Today Jon met with his Doctor and had a conference call with some other specialists, it was confirmed that he has two new spots of Cancer on his liver.

This is really bad news, he now has to keep his weight up to help his body fight this off.  The grim truth here is there’s a 24% chance that he will survive a year.

I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say what a shitty deal this is.  I’m not a big religious person, but I’m asking everyone to pray for Jon, for his family and for some sign of recovery soon!  I’ve been praying myself, frankly; punching the wall doesn’t seem to be as effective.

I have talked to a few of you (family) about the magnitude of this latest news and everyone has offered help in one way or another, THATS what family does! We love you all.  Keep in mind that you can leave a comment here.  Jon gets around to reading this every once in awhile. Tracy has been great in helping me keep this information as accurate as possible.  as bad as it is, I’ll keep you posted.

G~