[Oe List ...] Update on Fred and Jann

[LAURELCG at aol.com]

Dear Community of Caring,

Fred and I appreciate so much your thoughts, prayers and messages of support. 
 The jokes are especially helpful.  My favorite is an alligator couple 
sitting in the doctor's office.  The wife is blushing as the husband says,  "I 
didn't say I had ED.  I said REPTILE DYSFUNCTION!"  I think that might explain all 
our human problems. 

We were happy that his cardiologist report was good.  His lungs are not in 
very good shape, so we are so grateful the cancer cells didn't invade there, as 
would have been expected, according to our primary care doctor.

He is seeing the same oncologist that I had for lymphoma, though we will 
consult two other people this month.  Fred has had 5 days of taking a new chemo 
drug, sutent, a "multi-kinase enzyme inhibitor."  It's designed to cut off 
nutrients to the tumors.  So far, he hasn't noticed any side effects.  He continues 
to have very low energy, which is one side effect listed, but isn't new.

This drug is covered by our Medicare/AARP prescription drug insurance.  
That's the good news.  The other news is that our copay for 28 pills was $2159.  
That put us into the "doughnut hole," where we pay full cost for everything 
until our out-of-pocket drug costs reach $3850.  After that, we'll pay 5% copay.  
(It's called "catastrophic coverage.")

This expense makes traveling to Germany for really cutting-edge cancer 
treatment seem not so expensive.  We're praying about that.  

I'm rewriting my dissertation on my own cancer experience, which I called 
"Dark Passage, Illness as Initiation."  I'm finding this new passage to be a 
whole new level of what St. Teresa of Avila called the Interior Castle.  It comes 
to me more as a cave, and there is so much to explore.  (By the way, Caroline 
Myss' book,  ENTERING THE CASTLE, is very helpful to me at this time.)

We are being supported by hosts of ----- what?  Must be angels.  We have such 
a powerful presence surrounding us.  Must be our Lord, Jesus the Christ.  I 
gave Fred a massage Sunday afternoon, listening to the Dalai Lama chant.  What 
an empowering blessing.  May we all be so blessed for our passage in this 
life, brief as it is bound to be.

Love, grace and peace,
Jann <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> See what's free 
at http://www.aol.com.</HTML>