Hunting Goats on the Mountain

Greetings from Alaska where I am reporting that Dennis and hunting buddies flew in to a lake above Ketchikan and are hunting mountain goats. The weather cleared just enough for the plane to get in and I have to assume the next two days of nice weather has allowed the men to get their animals and get out. How do you like the hunting mohawk?

Dennis got some work in for The Nature Conservancy in this week! We traveled by interisland ferry to Prince of Wales Island only to have a rough crossing coming home on Friday. Even Kona was seasick!

The week was a topsy turvy one for us, beginning with great news that his MRI on Monday was even clearer than the one three weeks before and that the area of the surgery was healing nicely. He has a tiny leak of cerebro-spinal fluid into his left eye socket and the sinuses in front of and behind his ear, where there is still some swelling. The doctor says this will clear up in a few weeks; he is due to see his eye surgeon next Tuesday as his eyesight in the left eye is not as good as it used to be.

The month "off" from his oral chemotherapy is now over and he is finishing up his five days of temodar for the month. So far he tolerates it well, sleeps hard on the nights he takes the drug, and appears to have minimal side effects. He will do this every month until July. The drug is a lot stronger than the doses he was taking for the months on radiation.

We received notification that Dennis cannot have his avastin/placebo infusions anywhere but Seattle through the remainder of the clinical trial. This was upsetting as he is trying to live his life and heal by being home. He is now deciding what he will do; movement in and out of Alaska is problematic in winter due to low fog ceilings and visability, so everyone pray for a mild winter.

I want to personally thank all those that were working to allow Dennis to have his infusions at home in Alaska, you know who you are. We love you all and I hope to be posting goat pictures soon. Best from Dennis and Faith