UPDATE ON CANCER AND RELATED NEWS

We got back late last night from Houston following several days of tests and examinations, and I am happy - once again, to announce the tests show no signs of cancer now. I had the blood tests, x-rays and CAT-Scan and everything looks like it is okay. For some reason, this series of tests seemed to be more difficult for me than the previous ones. I have been very tired and my stomach area hurts as though some one has been punching me. I remember I upset my wife late in the evening - I don't remember how or why, and she may have used me for a punching bag after I went to sleep. That is the only logical thing I can think of. Anyway, I am aching and sore today but I am sure it will go away.

Just the trip is a little tiring too. The day after the tests, we had a free day and drove down to Galveston. I hadn't been there for around 25 years and - like everything else - it has changed a lot. Went out to the Lone Star Flight Museum which is a big hanger housing some of the war birds from the World War II and Korea eras. I really enjoyed this as I had personally had some contact with some of these planes after the big wars when I was at the airport in Denver. I have even flown in several of them or the civilian version of them. Some of the old fighter planes and bombers were bought by some of the younger or middle aged wealthy people as toys. Planes like the P-51 were toys for the rich and famous of the day. The bombers were often used as corporate executive planes - obviously they had been refurbished and were very plush planes. It also reminded me that they just don't make things today like they did in the old days. I would say the old planes just had a lot more character than some of the newer models. Of course the same thing applies to the male species.

You might remember I was having a weight problem. I was down to 152 from 254! I reached a point where I looked like I had just come from a concentration camp. As I mentioned, the initial part of the surgery consisted of cutting me open in the stomach area. Just one long slice up and down my tummy. I think they had forty or fifty staples holding everything together after they finished. My stomach looked like a miniature railroad track with all those little staples. I got out of the shower one morning and saw myself in the mirror. At that point I was this skinny old guy with these tracks going up and down my stomach. I realized if I just stuck out my tongue, I would look just like a zipper.

After struggling with the weight problem and not finding any solution, my oncologist
in Albuquerque suggested Prednisone - a steriod type medication. He gave me a prescription and I started on it about month to six weeks ago and my weight has shot up to 173. I am very pleased about that but am concerned that it might keep going until I am back to 254. I used to get nauseated just thinking of food, now I want to eat anything and everything in sight. I took myself off the Prednisone for several days and then learned you are not supposed to do that. For some reason you are supposed to ease off the medication over a period of time. In addition to the fear of gaining too much weight, I heard from a number of people that Prednisone can have some harmful side effects. However, when I took myself off the medication I started getting sick again and had some other side affects so went back on until I could consult with the doctors in Houston.

The oncologist here in Albuquerque had suggested Prednisone as one of two drugs I could take. The second one, Marinol is a marijuana related drug. I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted the steroid based drug with the probability of becoming a stud NFL star, or the marijuana based drug where I wouldn't care what I became. The docs down in Houston like the marijuana drug - Marinol best. Not too many people I talk to like the Prednisone.

I went out and got a prescription for the Marinol today - and guess what? My insurance doesn't cover this drug and it is around $1,100.00 for a little ole bottle of 90 pills. After I got all upset, I realized this isn't all that bad a deal. If I could buy gas this cheap - I would be getting gasoline for around $1.25 per gallon. It just depends upon how you look at these things. My insurance did say they would accept a request from my doctor for an exception - doesn't mean they are going to make one, just means he can request it. We will see what happens.

I mentioned earlier that my stomach area is a little tender. It was a whole bunch tender a short while back. I was carrying a stack of plastic cones across the show room floor several weeks ago and ended up flat on my face on the show room floor with plastic cones all over the place, including right under my entire chest and belly. These cones do not bend and they created some severe "ouches" in my abdominal area. You aren't going to believe this, but the reason I ended up on the floor was because I tripped over a Chevrolet Corvette. We have this beautiful black 2008 Chevy Corvette on the showroom floor with only 2,000 miles and we are selling it for only $68.000 +. Now you do know that Corvettes do have a low profile and kind of hug the road, it had no distinctive markings like racing stripes or stars or wild color paint. It was dark black and as I recall the showroom was overcast that day - so you could hardly blame me for a slight misjudgement which caused me to trip over this car.

Because of my recent condition, within seconds everyone had rushed over to me and were asking if I was alright, trying to help me get up, asking me what happened, etc. This is totally embarrassing! I do not like this kind of attention. If I had wanted attention I would have floated across the show room floor in a tutu. There is a wonderful lady at CarMax who is the HR Director. She laughed at me and told me she had fallen twice and broken her wrist each time. As painful as her fall was, the very first thing she did was look around to see if anyone had seen her fall. I hadn't thought of it before, but that is exactly what I did. Both knees were bruised and sore, my belly was hurting bad - but I looked around to see who had seen this old fool trip over a Corvette.

The Lord has taken good care of me and has guided me and provided for me in so many different ways. I am grateful and thankful for everything that has happened. Now I must once again ask the Lord for his blessings, his guidance and help. Llast week we learned our oldest son, John Leslie, was in the hospital in Dallas. I guess he has been undergoing tests for several months but had not said anything to us as he did not want to add to the problems we already had. At first they thought he might also have pancreatic cancer but decided he probably has lymphoma. They did exploratory surgery and did find a tumor the size of a grape fruit and did a biopsy. I guess there are many different forms of lymphoma and at this point the test results have not come back. At this point, all we can do is pray and I would ask for your prayers as well.

God Bless all of you. I appreciate you more than you will every know!

AL