Feb 28, 2018

My biggest fight yet

Hi everyone - usually at this time of year, this blog would be filled with posts getting ready for our annual Vegas trip in March, and the ensuing diaries of the hijinks from the 5 day trip.

However, as many of you know, there won't be a Vegas trip in March this year as I have encountered some health issues.

Again, many of you know this - but for some that have not heard, I was having some stomach issues in December and January where it was painful to eat. I went to a GI specialist for an endoscopy on January 18 - and the results were completely shocking - I had stomach cancer. More tests showed that the cancer had spread to lymph nodes and the liver.

I have started chemo on Feb 5 - don't want to bore everyone with the details here - and now doing the second round this week. The first round went pretty bad with respect to the side effects; we think we have adjusted the medicine somewhat to alleviate those side effects. It seems to be working better so far.

I want to thank many of you for your support, references, contacts for second/third opinions, visits and thoughts during this time. Janice and I have set up a Caring Bridge site that we will use for frequent updates; I encourage all of you to join the site to keep updated on my fight; here's the website:

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ericsfight/

We'll beat this and soon we can get back to Vegas stories, daffy NFL picks and maybe a repeat performance in the 2018 SuperContest. Thanks again to all of you that have helped tremendously so far. 

And on a light hearted note - here's my best friend in the beverage aisle; since I have been able to eat again I have had a craving for Hawaiian Punch. I've been living off of this for 2 weeks now...so good!