So far so good!  He doesn't seeem to be having any early ill-effects to the drug.  Keep him in your prayers that it continues!  I think it has given him a sense of peace to be doing something right now, while we wait.

My fundraising idea was a great one- and it accumulated more funds than I dreamed it could!- but we are still very far away from our necessary goal to make arrangements.  If anyone has any great ideas for getting the word out more, please let me know!!

George and I are heading for BRANSON, MO this weekend!  woohoo! Actually, I'm being a tad sarcastic, because I'm not a fan of places like Branson- but it will be a lot of fun.  We are going there to attend a conference with our travel business.  There will be a dinner cruise and then a day of training/workshops.  We are able to stay in the same hotel the conference is being held, so it will be nice to not have to navigate traffic while we're there.  Plus, hitting the road with hubby is always fun.

On Wednesday we spent the day with George's sister, brother-in-law, niece, and great-niece.  It was the great-niece's (Kate) 1st birthday!  We had a really nice time.  We decided to go to the park after the birthday party was over:

  Kate & I going down the tube slide- where a big spider dropped down right in front of us on our way down!!!

  George getting a workout on the pedal-thingie!

  George & sister, Mary.

George has decided to go on the hormone therapy while waiting to get into the treatment center.  He was in conversation with the treatment center today, and it would not conflict with anything regarding what they would be doing to him, so they said it would be fine if he went on them.  It will drop his PSA and help "stay" the cancer while we're waiting, rather than it continuing to grow and invade.  PLEASE pray for MINIMAL side effects- as they can be troubling.  He goes in on the 28th of this month to see the doctor who will start his treatment.  The drug is called Zoladex.  He will get a monthly shot.

George's PSA did go up again- his reading yesterday was 20.4.  We're not happy that's it's still climbing, but we are relieved that it did NOT double (or triple like last time!) so that's encouraging.  He is still contemplating going ahead and getting started on hormone therapy while we wait to get him into the treatment center- want to get a 2nd opinion about the particular drug being used at the AFB hospital.

Our fund continues to grow- much more slowly now, but we are optimistic we will find a way to get him there all the way, and SOON!  We are really hoping to see it a reality by summer.

So far, he feels GREAT- no pain, lots of energy, and just feels overall really good.  PTL!!!    We want to keep it that way!!

George did go through the screening and learned more about the trial.  Still not sure it's the right thing for him to do- but feeling more like it might be a good idea for him to be on hormone therapy while we are waiting for him to get to Issels.  We don't know his PSA score yet.  They had to send away the lab work to NJ and it takes about 2 weeks to get results- so that certainly didn't speed things up for us!  He goes in next week to see his oncologist, so we will have a reading then.

Our fund has been doing AMAZINGLY well- http://www.friendsofgeorge.com/progress.html- we have had such an outstanding response, and we've also had some enormously generous donations from a few sources that have skyrocketed our total.  We are still about $8,800 away from our goal!  If you can think of anyway to help spread the word out there, we would be SO grateful!!  We have noticed a significant slow down lately in our daily intake, and we really need this to keep going and reach our goal as quickly as possible.  Time is NOT our friend right now!  We would appreciate any and all help in keeping this going- we couldn't do this without ALL of our friends and loved ones out there going to bat for us.  THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!!

I would like to ask for specific prayers regarding a decision that we are going to be faced with in a few days.  We have been advised by more than one professional source for George to get started on the hormone therapy in the interim period while we are trying to accumulate the funds to get him to Issels.  We have been hesitant to have him put on hormones because of the side effects involved.   However, the hormones WILL cause the psa to slow down and will basically "buy" him time while he is waiting to get into the treatment center, versus the cells being allowed to grow and get even uglier.  He goes in on Tuesday for a screening for a clinical trial of a drug that is already a mainstay of doctors treating patients like George- Lupron Depot- but this trial is for a 6 month dose shot.  I'm not sure I want him going whole-hog with the 6 mos. dose, but he is still going to participate in the screening, etc. in order to get a psa reading and to get his foot in the door with this urology group.  They are supposed to be the largest in the nation.  His own doctor can administer a one-month dose, which I think would be more reasonable, especially initially to see his reaction to it.

We are anxious to see what his psa is after doing some intense juicing and tightening the diet up a good bit.  I wll let you know what the results are after we find out, and what we decide.  Please pray for wisdom and guidance with this.  I don't want to do anything that will cause him harm- or NOT do anything that will cause him harm.

Thanks!

As a sidenote- for you girlfriends out there... I have decided to start a fun, light, upbeat blog that is "just for girls".  My life gets pretty intense and overwhelming sometimes, and I needed an outlet to just sort of of let loose and enjoy being the kind of woman God made me!  Here's the link: http://lattesandlipstick.bravejournal.com/ 

Takin' Care of Hubby... (or, What I Do on My Days' Off)

Setting up the juicer for George's carrot juice.

Feeding a carrot- the juice comes out below and the pulp comes out the end.

A delicious and nutritious glass of freshly juiced carrot juice!

A very important milestone has been met!  Go check it out!! 

A couple pics to share with you...

Here is George in his "Prayer Blanket" (working on taxes- ugh!) that the Tuesday Morning Ladies' Bible Study Group made for him.  They prayed for him as they tied the knots!  I think that is so sweet and thoughtful.

This is the wall I painted for the Sunday School classroom at church- it's a hearing impaired class.  An earlier class had painted the hands on the wall, and we turned it into a tree, and then the flower stems will become flowers with hands as the flowers.

I'm back from my trip!  I had a great time- I will post pictures soon.  George managed to survive 4 days without me.

Check out our Friends of George website- our totals our amazing!!!

Will write more soon...!

UPDATE: Here's the link for the PICTURES of my trip!  Enjoy!