Colleen, Brenda, David, Gary and Jane....Thank you all for your words of wisdom and caring thoughts and prayers. They really do mean so much to me right now.

Finally at 10 last night they got Dad settled in a room. He slept on an off, not very good, and this morning he was sent for a stress test. The contrast dye they used made him sick to his stomach, but they gave him some anti nausea meds which seemed to help. After the last part of the test they took him to radiation and about 3 minutes after they got him off the table he was sick on his stomach again. He also was having some of the same symptoms that he had the day before after radiation - hot, nausea, etc. Mom finally went home around 4 and dad wasn't back in his room yet, but I showed up at 5 and he seemed to start feeling better after I arrived.

The cardiologist and the RO seemed to differ on whether or not radiation should take place again. Finally the RO took the cardiologist into the hall and when they returned the cardio doc said that they would continue with radiation. It seems that the RO thinks that the problem is occurring because the tumor is squeezing the carotid artery in his neck. When the tumor has radiation put to it, it draws up, putting pressure on the artery. This causes the sweating and nausea because of the restricted blood flow. Forget the radiation for a moment and just remember that it's increasing in size all the time and that alone is causing a lot of pressure on the artery.

Tomorrow they will have the results of the stress test. If they can't find any blockages then they will go with the theory above. The RO talked today about going to radiation twice a day to speed up the shrinking of the tumor. The RO also said that he thinks that maybe a feeding tube should be put in. While dad had been opposed to this in the past, tonight he said to me that maybe it would be a good idea. He's down to almost 200 pounds now which he probably hasn't seen since high school. He's always been a big man, not fat, just solid like a football player. I knew when and if the time came for the feeding tube he would be open to it and to try to talk him into it before hand would be pointless and only upset him. Tomorrow mom plans on talking to the RO about it and if that is the way they plan to go then she wants it done before he leaves the hospital.

Chemo has not been mentioned since he missed his appointment yesterday. I'm not sure if that is out of the question at this point.

So that's all the news I have for today. It's emotionally exhausting. I had tears tonight for the first time in front of him since this whole thing started back in March. I told him if I could go through this for him I would. In true dad fashion he said everything was going to be ok.

Thanks all for everything.

Joy