Day 9, cycle 1

Late posting...been rocking a baby and reading stories to some little girls! Nice end to a busy day!

Woody has had a rather "hum drum" day compared to yesterday...no Vanderbilt trip...that makes for almost a "normal" day. He went to work early and walked at lunch and came home from work to relax. He tried to make it on taking only one pill today...his blood pressure pill...but around 4pm his elbow got to hurting so badly that he did end up taking a pain pill. The pain in the elbow has nothing to do with his melanoma or radiation...but due to the fact that he was doing elbow bending exercises to attempt to give him more flexibility with his arm. He still can't bend his elbow completely due breaking his arm in the bicycle accident back in September 2008.

This is the second day in this cycle of the drug study when he doesn't take any chemo drugs. I didn't mention last night something that Dr. Sosman told us yesterday. When Woody starts cycle 2 on August 10th, he may be given a larger dose of the known chemo drug (temozolomide). I think that this depends on what his lab work shows over the next couple of weeks. If his blood counts haven't gone down too much then they will increase the dose.

Be in prayer for our 5 1/2-year-old granddaughter, Abigail. She will be having surgery tomorrow morning at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to patch a hole in her ear drum. I am going to go with Nathan and Abigail. Vanderbilt here I come...again...but it will be a new experience for me...their children's hospital. Soon I will pretty much know my way around all the parts of the Vanderbilt medical complex!