Oct 4

Hello to all. Mark had a rocky weekend. He managed to make it out to Colton's football game Saturday morning. He got to see Colton score a touchdown and make several good carries and many great tackles on defense although their team lost by a touchdown. It was a good game. Mark's twin brother, Matt, made it in from Oklahoma and will be staying a while and my mom is still here. Brent and Kathy (Mark's parents) will be heading back this weekend in time to get my mom back to the airport.

Mark's pain patch is helping to control the pain some, but he is still requiring the pain pills and then ends up sleeping a lot. He gets frustrated and is never truly relieved of the pain. It is pretty constant for him. He is trying his best to eat, but it is difficult because of the abdominal pain that it causes (bloating and distention). He got in a Carnation instant breakfast with his milk today for the vitamins and extra protein which helped and ate pretty well this evening.

Mark wasn't able to go to mass this morning, so Father Bill brought communion to Mark this afternoon and visited for a short time. It was very nice of him and we appreciated the visit.

I will start back to work tomorrow. It will be very difficult for me to leave Mark. I'm sure I will be very distracted, so I don't know how that will go. I am going to give it a try.

We see Dr. Farmer Tues afternoon and hopefully get to give the new chemo agents a try on Thursday. We are praying that this new chemo will be helpful for Mark and that he will not develop an allergic reaction to it. We pray for strength for Mark to continue this battle. It is really wearning him down. It is hard for us all to sit and watch Mark suffer so much and not be able to help more. We all feel a little helpless and somewhat frustrated. We hope to see brighter days in the near future for Mark.

God bless!!!