Stanley Park on Saturday

Bob's white blood cell count as well as his platelets are continuing to rise. And his kidney function has improved significantly with dialysis. He was told that if it continues to improve, he may get a break from dialysis!! Of course he would be monitored frequently to see if his one kidney can function acceptably on its own for at least a while. This is all very encouraging.

On Wednesday Bob will have a CT scan which will reveal the status of his tumour. The next day he'll be seeing his oncologist who will most likely have the results. We're looking so forward to learning whether the growth of the tumour has been halted or shrunk. When Bob was first diagnosed, we were told that all we could hope for was that chemo would halt the growth temporarily. We really believe that it has shrunk and want to have that "feeling" confirmed by "fact"!! Actually, Bob hasn't had as much chemo as was planned since it was suspended for two months in order for Bob's kidneys to become stabilized. Then after just one chemo treatment in mid-August, his white blood cell and platelet counts plummeted so that he wasn't able to have any more chemo. We're confident that God is at work in Bob's body bringing healing and strength and wonderful peace.

In the meantime we are enjoying the lovely warm weather we're having here in the Vancouver area. Today we drove into Vancouver and spent the afternoon at Stanley Park. We are convinced that we live in the beautiful part of the world!!

My brother Jim has reached the halfway mark of his aggressive chemo and radiation treatment. Eating and drinking has been challenging, and he's getting hydrated regularly through his chemo port. But this morning he felt well enough to go for a ten-mile bicycle ride!!! His full head of hair is beginning to "thin". It's strange that Bob, who is virtually bald, hasn't lost any of his "fringe" at all--yet, that is!!