Next Chemo scheduled for Tuesday, 2/27/07

Heath had an appointment at Moffitt on Monday. Karis, Allen and Bonnie (Karis' stepmom) accompanied him.

Heath's platelets were still a little low but the doctors all agreed that it was safe for him to get a three day round of IFOS/ETOP with one day of mesna at the end. After this round, Heath will have only one more round like this and he will be finished.

This worked out very well as far as the timing because Heath wanted to play Tigerfest before his next round. His band will be playing at Tigerfest on Saturday night, 2/24/07, at Palmetto High School. There will be several other bands playing that night from 4PM to 9PM. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door.

Come see Heath's new haircut. He's had such a long break that he has hair now, and yes he did get a haircut today. If you can't make it, don't worry I will definitely have some pictures to post.

Scans done and more chemo scheduled

Karis took Heath up to Moffitt last Friday. Heath had an MRI scan and a PET scan.

We met with Dr. Agresta yesterday to go over the scans, to talk about the next round of chemo and to do labs and check his blood counts. He said the scans looked great and there was no activity on the tumor, meaning it appears completely dead. He did say that he needs to go over both scans with the radiologist but from what he could see they looked very good. Also, his blood counts are in great shape. Last time they checked his blood counts, a couple weeks ago, his platelets were still low.

He wants to go over the exact amounts of chemo that Heath has already had before he makes a final decision but he thinks Heath will only need two more rounds of the ifos/etop/mesna. He did imply that he will probably be in for up to 5 days for each.

One funny thing happened during the appointment. Before Dr. Agresta came in, his nurse practitioner came in to talk to us and get to know us a little before Dr. Agresta came in. At one point she asked Heath what he does with his free time. He smiled and looked at me and I laughed and said "she asked so show her". He got on the computer and went to his latest video on youtube "Pretty Women" and started it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSv3aGkDBxo. She laughed all the way through it. She wanted the link to all the videos and said she would show it to everyone. Heath got a big kick out of that. One thing Heath has mentioned is he thinks he can be an inspiration to other cancer patients "when they see what this kid with cancer is doing while he is going through his fight with cancer".

Thanks and keep praying