Count your blessings. Here is me with mine. Very Merry Christmas to all !

If this is a time of giving for you, may I ask you to receive a gift from me. I'll give you a blessing. Not one of our kids, but a message from Benny Hill (the comedian from the 50's).
"Roses are reddish violets are blueish - If it wasn't for Christmas we would all be Jewish."
He was so right. Jesus is the difference.

TARCEVA !

What is Tarceva ?
insect larvae? - a comic book hero? - a small Greek Island ? - no - no - and no. Tarceva is one of the names of the new chemo drug that I will be switching to. The other name is Erlotinib. Yes, we are in a time of transition with the treatment of lung cancer. The CT Scan from last week showed cancer still growing in my liver. So that's what we got to do - whack the tumours in the liver. The last treatment of cetuximab was on Dec. 5 and I will start treatments with Tarceva on Dec. 28. It is a pill that I will take every day for 30 days.There will be a CT booked towards the end of the 30 days to mark the progress (please pray here). As it stands now, I will not be receiving chemo drug treatments from Dec. 5 to Dec. 28 while we switch the drugs. A nice break. The change over time gives my skin a chance to recover, because guess what a possible side effect is from Tarceva - skin rash. Ha ha ha , that's funny. Not really. Actually, the old drug and the new drug are similar in many ways except Tarceva attacks the cells from the inside of the cell. How ? It just does. TARCEVA!! to the liver tumours and beyond !

Lung Cancer Support Group

The Lung Cancer Support Group meets at the BCCA on the last Wednesday of every month. The group is the first ever in Vancouver and has only met 3 times. It brings together people with lung cancer and people supporting others with the disease. We are all so different. We come from different backgrounds, we are different ages and we are in different stages of the disease and treatment. But, I believe we all have so much in common. Fear, suffering, the need for support and the desire to help others. Not that we talk about it openly (yet).
With each person at a different place in their treatment, questions and insights on topics discussed vary. One fellow is quite candid with what he has to say, "Side effects? Everything I eat tastes awful. I'm losing weight." He is about 80 years old and he was accompanied by one of his daughters. I get the feeling from something he said, that cancer has changed him. What he said was so simple and sincere, "Love one another." Hearing that from this hard old man brought me to tears.
There is a woman who finished treatments 18 months ago and is now enjoying an early retirement. She is living with only one lung (as is another younger guy in the support group). The retiree shared from her perspective, how important a positive attitude was to her healing. She referred to herself as a cancer survivor and someone said that we are all cancer survivors. That's when the hard old man said "We don't let the non-survivors in." We all laughed heartily.
The topic for last weeks meeting was - How do we cope with cancer? I'll quote the hard old man "It's just another challenge for me to face and deal with."
I'm different from the general population in the support group because I have an appetite and don't feel nausea too badly. I have a serious skin rash (which is now causing swelling in my legs). Hows the rash? You may ask. It's ... kind of ... like ... um ... AHHHHHHHHHH! Get this skin off of me !
So, if you ask me that same question and you get a different answer, chances are that I'm being socially aware. Which is a good thing.
The ongoing saga of Meekings and ICBC has a development. We have replaced one van with a 2003 Mazda MPV. Jody and I are pleased with the purchase. As soon as the snow clears we will be back at it, hunting for a 2nd car. Please pray for the rash and the car.