An Update from Richard

Here is another Letter from Richard that he asked me to post for him....

Hi to all and thanks for your continued support and prayers.

Today, we met with the surgeon again to really talk face to face on
what was seen during the surgery on the 22nd.
The results were not good. The bottom line is, it is in the lymph nodes,
which we knew. Now we found out that there are multiple
places outside the stomach which are cancerous and malignant.
There is one place on each side of the diaphragm
which can only get there via the lymph nodes. So, we know it is spreading.
There is also a place on the original surgical site which has
cancer as well. The last one can be due to several different
reasons so I won’t speculate. These 3 places (any of these)
makes the stomach removal not an option as there must be no
other sites before they can focus on the stomach. In addition,
the tumors have gone higher up the gastro-esophagus canal
but this would not have prevented the surgery. So, things are
not looking great but I keep up my hope.

I had my 3rd day of my chemo today. I am now on a 5 day
regiment of sort. The regiment happens every three weeks.
Basically, Monday is chemo (5 hours), Tuesday is additional
meds (3 hours), Wednesday and Thursday are one quick drug
(30 minutes), and Friday is the shot to make your white blood
cells come back (5 minutes). I will do three rounds of this and
then another exploratory.

There are discussions about radiation as well at this time but
nothing definite so it is just wait and see. This would not happen
for 2 more weeks as you do the first round before starting
radiation.

That is about all we know right now other than one of my doctors
has decided to leave Mayo and go back home to MN where his
family is located. Fortunately, he is just one of the two surgeons
and both have been heavily involved.

I’d like to thank all of you for your support of my family during
this time and to request you hope as well for a very good friend
who’s grandfather was just diagnosed as well. We wish him
and them all the best as well

Sincerely,
Richard