Well, we made it through another week of treatment. This week makes it 10 rounds of radiation and 4 rounds of Erbitux. Pat is hanging in there. She really is a strong and incredible woman. No wonder I love her so much.

In terms of symptoms the list is starting to grow now that we are a couple of weeks into radiation. The inside of her mouth is full of painful sores and just about anything harder than a noodle is painful to swallow. Her tongue is also becoming very painful and seems to bleed easily. (One of the things I want to get checked out this coming week is whether or not she may have thrush.) We got an Rx for the magic mouthwash this week and it does help. She's starting to get the infamous dry mouth but we've had very good results with the Biotene spray and the Biotene gel. They work quite well at this stage.

Also, we got in 6 cases of the Carnation VHC this week. Pat is drinking these more often now. They are very tasty (like a vanilla shake) when they are cold and they soothe her throat and mouth somewhat. She is very commited to trying to keep feeding herself as much as possible by mouth for as long as possible even if it's just something soft.

We've done a good job thus far in maintaining her weight. Normally, Pat is about 130 lbs. and when she weighs in each day she's been around 134. So far so good.

Also, this week Pat had a lot of energy and was not as fatigued as she was the first week. However, she's been getting up at night more frequently with dry mouth type symptoms.

One odd thing we've noticed is that late in the day, usually before bedtime, she will run a low grade fever. When I say low grade I mean in the vicinity of 99.5 to 99.9 range. Sometimes she'll take a tylenol while other times she'll try to get down a few more fluids. Lately she's been drinking gatorade and she can tolerate this better than just plain water.

Anyway, that's a short report. We're hanging in there, Trusting the Lord no matter what. Pat and I thank each of you for your kindness and prayers. Be assured you all are in our prayers as well. Take care and God bless and have a great week.

Walt