Quick Update!

Met with Dr. Crim yesterday he was excited to hear the good news as well. All of my blood counts are holding up well. No real side effects to note that are bothering me. I am still just ecstatic about the news. I am going to start working again here really soon at Lockheed it should all be finalized by the end of the month. I am excited it will be the first time in almost 11 months I will have worked. I guess you can look at cancer fighting as a full time job but it will be nice to have one that makes money. Other than that not much else is going on here.

God Bless
Jake

Still Smiling

I don't think I have quit smiling since Tuesday afternoon. I got to see my scans yesterday morning when I met with Dr. Patnaik before I started my chemo. It was a cool trip I was the talk of START. Everyone new before I even got to the clinic Wednesday morning and they all wanted to see pictures of the changes. It is almost impossible to put into words the changes my liver and other areas went through in only 6 weeks. Its no wonder I was hurting pretty bad before starting this drug, my liver was taking up the majority of area in my my chest and was probably 1/3 larger than its normal size. Now its the size of a normal liver again and you can see a number of large clear areas in it which before it was nearly completely cover in spots. There were also 5 other spots else where in my chest area 4 of those are gone and the other is nearly gone. It is great news and I am extremely happy but there is still work to be done cause there still a number of large and small spots still on the liver but it looks so much better than before, and I feel a million times better. I got to come back last night so my stays in San Antonio are getting shorter the better I get, which makes me happy. Oh other good news...I get to start running , working out, and PLAY SOCCER again, its been way to long. All I have to say is GOD is GOOD, keep on praying cause he is listening. Thank you and I love you all.

God Bless
Jake

Just a little bit of Good news!!!

I had my scans done early this afternoon and before I had time to settle back into the hotel room my phone was already ringing. It was Dr. Patnaik calling to see if I wanted my results. I was like this has to be good if she is calling only 30 minutes after I left her office. So I said "yeah sure but it better be good news". She replied "oh it is". It turns out this drug is working awesome. The cancer has shrunk by 30%. Its hard to believe that it is this good after just 2 treatments. Thank you all for your prayers because God surely did answer them. I have treatment tomorrow morning and I will update again tomorrow afterwards with a more complete description of what she says then.

God Bless
Jake

Back to S.A.

Its back to San Antonio tomorrow for round three. I am really excited yet nervous about this trip. I get scans done on Tuesday to show if this drug is working as well as we think it is. i hopefully will know something by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. I am still feeling wonderful and ready to get this round out of the way. I had an awesome birthday couldn't have asked for a nicer day. We had a big crawfish boil and had a great time. Not much else to say Ill update again as soon as I get the results from the scans. Everyone say an extra prayer or 10 for some good results.

God Bless
Jake

Still kickin A**

Its been a week now since the last treatment and the side effects were much more tolerable this time. I still had few but all in all I think my body is just in a lot better condition to with it now than when we began. I met with Dr. Crim today and he is impressed with how well I have progressed since he last saw me right before I started. He said he could see also see signs that point toward this drug doing some real good besides the obvious, me feeling good. I am getting very excited about this weekend since I am turning the big 25. It will be great to see a lot of family and friends and hang out. Thats all for now take care.

God Bless
Jake

Round 2 is done

I just got back from San Antonio again and got my second round of treatment to begin this second cycle. I am feeling better following this round than I did after the first I hope that keeps up. I took me about a week to get fully over it the last time. But a week is a small sacrifice to feel as good as did the last 2 weeks. I cant even put into words how good this study has me feeling. My liver on paper and in physical exams appears back to normal at least functionally. It is back to normal size and my liver function which was not good is back to proper working order. Dr. Patniak was almost brought to tears on Wed. at how well I seem to be responding. I will have scans in 3 weeks which will tell for sure how well its working. I also no longer have to go down there every single week. They are letting me get all my labs drawn and have my weekly exams done up here by Dr. Crim. I am really excited about that. All in all I just feel truely blessed to feel so good again and to have found Dr's willing think outside the box of convential treatment and hopefully have me on the right path. I hope everyone is doing good as well.

God Bless
Jake

Best week in a long time!!!

Another trip down to San Antonio is in the books. My white blood cell counts are still down and we aren’t sure if they will be high enough for me to get my normal treatment next week. For those of you who don’t know a lot about it, chemo attacks all the cells in body both good and bad it cant tell the difference. My drugs that I’m on have lowered the white cells which are your immunity cells they help to fight off bacteria and sickness that kind of stuff. If I get treated before the counts have come back up to safe a safe level it could be very dangerous. So we just have to wait and see on that.

However we did get some pretty good news on this trip. While Dr. Patnaik was examining me she noticed that the size of my liver has decrease significantly. I hadn’t said anything about it but my liver had become inflamed and enlarged due to the tumors in it, and for the last month had been causing me a lot pain. But since last Thursday I have been feeling better than I have since before I left for Europe, which is saying a lot. So we think the drug is working but we wont know for sure until we do more scans in a month or so.

A little story about how god listens and shows his mercy. About 3 weeks ago I was laying in bed hurting pretty bad and just feeling down, which doesn’t happen often at all, I prayed and turned over all my worries and asked god to take the pain away. Two days later I was accepted into this study, and now I am back to feeling great. Just ask and it will be given, maybe not right but as he sees fit.

God Bless

Jake