Thursday, October 30, 2008

October 30

Hello to all. We have heard from Pittsburgh and they have been able to speak with Dr. Farmer. It was decided to go ahead with chemo soon and not waste any more time for now. They suggest at least 3 months and then maybe looking into reversal surgery depending on Mark's response and scans/cancer marker. We will hold the Avastin which is part of the chemo regimen Mark did before, anticipating possible surgery in the future. We will proceed with the other chemo drugs as before. Mark's appointment to get started back on the chemo will be Monday morning. Pray that he tolerates it well. It is certainly hard on his body and is not any fun at all. He was so wiped out before while on chemo.

The kids went Trick-or-Treating tonight in Auburn. They did this a night early because of the High School football game tomorrow night I'm told. They had fun. Calen was a hippie, Colton the Scream character, and Emily was Aerial.

We haven't told the kids yet about starting chemo. We will break it to them this weekend. We didn't want to disrupt any school work, etc. It will be hard on them.

Continue to pray for Mark during this cancer battle. Many of you know Paulo who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Please pray for him as well. He will be starting chemo soon I am told. God bless!!!!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Everyone is sorry that Mark must start the chemo again. There will be many ups and downs, and this is one of the downs. Please just remember that so many people are praying for the Bertus family. God is with you all always, but especially when he seems to be far away.
rb, st. mike's cc

Unknown said...

I feel bad that times will not be fun during chemo, but I am also glad that the treatment is starting up again. Let's just pray that the chemo does what it's supposed to do and that there are no complications!

Be strong!

Dave said...

Hang in there Mark. Your courage is an inspiration to my wife Sharon as she copes with her health issues.