Alan’s Army

Greetings dear friends,

I have been remiss in updating you however life has been very full. I am once again at Frankfurt airport with a longish layover so I am taking this opportunity to write. I have had some trouble with my Blackberry since yesterday but hopefully it will limp along enough to get this written. Snow and Ice delays with de-icing procedures have cost about an hour and half of time this morning in Nuremberg and many people on my flight have missed their connecting flights but luckily my flight will not board for another two hours.

Alan’s last set of chemo 3+ weeks ago did not go so well. He has reached the upper limit of 500 mg of the Temodar. On Monday night he was up all night sick. On Tuesday we got a better anti-nausea drug and he was OK Tue - Thur evenings. On Friday night he was sick again and he was sick all weekend as well. It is not clear if the illness was due to the chemo or if he may have had a stomach bug.

This coming Monday is the next set of chemo, again at 500 mg, so we shall see how it goes.

Back on November 18th we saw the eye doctors again in Newark. Alan’s sight has shown some slight improvement again, and although it is too slight to make much difference in what he can do, it is a continued improvement and we continue to hope and pray for some meaningful restoration of his sight.

We have heard from the NJ Commission for the Blind and once Alan’s chemo is concluded in February he will be eligible to enter into an occupational program where they will assess his abilities and work with him on computer programs to work around his blindness.

In the meantime Alan is filling his time with Books on tape and an occasional mobility training session using his cane.

Unfortunately my business trip cut short a planned weekend with our friends the Enmans in Maine, but we did get to spend last Saturday there with them and Alan and I played a round of doubles on the beautiful Pleasant Hill course in Scarborough. There was no snow this year so it was an easy round for Alan to get around and he really enjoyed the round and although he could not see much, we used his throws quite a number of times and on one hole his drive off the tee was so awesome the disc golfers on adjoining holes cheered and applauded. Although a short weekend with only one day in Maine with a day of driving on either side, it was a wonderful time regardless.

We look forward to the Ice Bowl Tournament on January 3, when hopefully our friends will be able to come down and spend time with us in NJ and Pennsylvania.

All our best to you all and God Bless,

Andrew