Hub Docs: Keep it Up

BOSTON, MA - For a guy with pancreatic cancer, I'm doing pretty well, two of our docs told us here today.

They were especially pleased that the blood marker for cancer activity continues to fall, while the most recent CT scan shows it hasn't spread beyond the original tumor. You can't hope for much more than that, they both said. One suggested that the radiation treatment I had in November is having a positive effect.

They both agreed that I should continue my current chemo regimen. When Emily suggested that it really hurts my quality of life for a couple of days a week he said, essentially, I should be more grateful just to be alive.

It's a long way to come but it's comforting to have differing opinions on my condition and how to proceed. Their confirmation of what we were told in Albany gives us more confidence that we're doing the right thing.

Plus, I can still get home in time to watch the Siena basketball game on TV tonight.

I Need a Little Christmas Now

Six months ago today a surgeon at St. Peter's Hospital told me the mass that a CT scan had detected on my pancreas was probably cancerous. He said the mortality rate after five years was 80%. That diagnosis would be formally confirmed by a biopsy four days later.

Today I was sitting at a Christmas choral concert, listening to "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" and "Silent Night'" and thinking how lucky I was to enjoy the music. As my doctor told me Friday, "worst case, you're holding your own." A couple of people we ran into at the concert told me told me that I looked strong and healthy, which is always good to hear - especially this week when the chemotherapy knocked me for a loop more than it had before.

I also have a new found respect for the potential of Christmas to lift my mood. As the Albany Pro Musica singers put it in "We Need a Little Christmas:"

For I've grown a little leaner,

Grown a little colder,

Grown a little sadder,

Grown a little older.

And I need a little angel

Sitting on my shoulder,

Need a little Christmas now.