Second chemo treatment

Dad went yesterday (Tuesday) for more blood work and his second chemo treatment. The blood work was more of the same, I think, and the chemo went well. As of a few minutes ago, when I talked to him, he was not yet sick. He said he felt pretty good, actually. Let's pray that the side effects from this second treatment are minimal! He fared pretty well after the first treatment, with only about two days of real sickness, and I'd like to see it go even better for him this time.

I keep reminding him that sickness, baldness, and tiredness mean that the chemo is doing its job--killing all fast-growing cells--but I doubt that really helps when you feel like you're going to puke your guts out. I long for the day when we can treat cancer in a less barbaric, more targeted way (i.e., designing chemo to target only cancer cells and not ALL cells that divide quickly--red blood cells, hair and skin cells, and stomach lining cells), but I am thankful that we have a treatment at all. A mere fifty years ago, all forms of cancer were virtual death sentences. Look how far we've come! The most common form of childhood cancer, acute lymphocytic leukemia, now has a cure rate of something like 90%, whereas in the 1950s, it had a cure rate of around 3-5%. Wow! Let's pray that researchers all over the world will soon make the same sort of progress with more difficult-to-treat cancers, like Dad's.

Please keep praying for Dad--for him to be free of side effects, for his continued great attitude, for his energy levels. Also, please continue to pray for Mom. She has so much on her right now. She called an ambulance for my grandmother earlier today, so Mom-o is once again in the hospital (I don't know any more than that--she was having shortness of breath). It's a lot to shoulder all at once, and there is only so much that others can do to help.