JB

AWESOME LILLY!! I'm glad you went ahead and did it. Congrats.

Col hates her wigs as well. i can't believe the hairdresser talked her into wearing one for her sister's wedding. That's about the only time she's worn it. If she wears anything it's usually a baseball cap, but she isn't shy about walking around bald, or with what now looks like a crew cut. She does that quite a bit. IMO it says hey, I've been thru the sh** and I'm still here. I say go for it, and don't look back.

Yes I believe I would be ready. Plenty of beer always, food is just a phone call away. Depending on who it is, I may do the dash and stash, or I may not. Maybe a scented candle, mainly because I am addicted to scented candles. Anyone that requires more than that is a pest, not a guest, lol.

Sounds like things have gotten a little better on the in-law front, and I'm glad to hear that. Everyone realizes things in their own time, unfortunately, it usually takes a blow-up to get it to work. Hope things continue to go well for you and Aaron.

ALRIGHT!!! DOuble digits. Way to go Donna. I'll be at the pub until you run out of virtual Yuengling Lager, or until I get tossed. I'll let you guys figure out which one will happen first, but I think we all know the answer to that.

Many prayers for him Nova, as well as all the men and women who fight for our freedom. Without them, we're lost. I have known more than a few who have been there and back already.

Grateful Randy doesn't know my full name to pass along to his new friend Tammy at the IRS. lol. IRS agents are all bad Randy, I had a lot of them as teachers in my Master's program. They were great.

John, I'm trying to picture my wife's port in my mind. I seem to believe that it would be below the but of the gun no matter what side it was on, but it would be close, so it wouldn't hurt to ask. Kudos for the forethought, I wouldn't have even thought about it until after i fired the first shot and realized, man that's a bad spot.

I'm with Ginny, Oh Holy Night.

I'm John (32), caregiver to my wife Colleen(32) who was dxed in Oct 2006. We live in Pottstown, Pa which is a suburb about 35 miles outside of Philadelphia. I grew up in a small coal mining town in Northeast Pa, Col grew up a city girl in Philly. We met in college, it's a toss up as to who was drunker. We've been married seven years, and have a son Jack (John III) who turned 3 in October. He is the only thing that seems right in our crazy world, and we find great comfort in just spending time together as a family, even if that means just sitting around on cold days palying with his toys. I'm now trying to teach him to play with my toys (Tiger Woods 08 on PS2) so hopefully I can move past laucnhing fake rocks from a castle catapault at some alien guy we set up on the floor. I'm thankful to everyone who supports this board and the people who take the time to run it. It has been a great place to come.

Alright Connie, you got it all set up, now we just have to wait until you're back on your feet. Best of luck, and make sure you update us as soon as you can. Too bad about your husband, I know my uncle put off surgery as long as he could just by using the cortizone shots, which he said were the best. If it's not one thing it's another I suppose. Best to you both.

I will begin voting today. In addition, seeing as how I am employed at Siemens as of September 24th, I'll see if I can't just "rig" the election and save us all some time. lol.

I'm grateful that tomorrow, actually beginning now, our home will be filled with family. Lot's of family, Col's aunt and uncle and cousins, her mom and dad, her sister and her husband, my parents, my grandparents, my brother and his girlfriend. Grateful to have another thanksgiving like this, as last year's skeleton crew just didn't cut it, if you know what I mean, and the worry of will there be another loomed large right out of Col's surgery and in the middle of Chemo. I am also grateful that I took the step out of lurkdom and into an actual poster. What this site did for me as a lurker was incredible, what it has done for me as an active member immeasurable. Finally I am thankful for everyone here who are all so helpful. Thrust into this boat, not by choice, yet able to discuss freely the trials and tribulations of this disease. Tomorrow, we forget about the C word, and for one day think about Turkey, and football, friends and family past and present, and precious memories lost and experiences yet to come. It's not Christmas, and It's not New Year's, It's Thanksgiving, but it's my favorite day of all.

Julia, I believe that this calls for my first unsolicited PM. I'm sending it along now.

Lot's of Tarceva questions today, glad to add my two cents. Col has been on it for about nine months, and been stable. From our standpoint it is a "breeze" compared to the traditional chemo. Tarceva has been shown in studies to be MOST effective in women, never smokers, and asians. Perhaps a reason the Dr. didn't offer it as an option was because of a history of smoking. That being said, I don't see that as being a reason to not ask the Onco, or at least discuss trying it as an option. Wish you all the best.

Randy thanks for the info, certainly sounds like an option. Tracy, please keep us posted on this, as I am extremely interested in it. I have no evidence or scientific reason, but I've always believed, since my first experience seeing a realtive with LC, that there was much more to this disease. I believe that these newer meds such as tarceva, and this protein inibitor, are cutting edge, and closing in on an enormous breakthrough. Don't ask me why, that's just my belief, especially for those advanced patients. I wish you all the best with your next treatment. If you do enter this trial, please keep me posted as I would be very interested in discussing this with Col and her Oncologist, should the need arise. As for now, I'm going to do some researsh, If I find anything worthwhile, I'll let everyone know.

you'll get through it just fine connie. We all know it and we're all praying to make sure of it. You'll also get past this little bump in feeling nervous. Once the giggly juice kicks in, you'll be just like Jack, "you ready to rock and roll". Best of luck.

All sounds promising Max. Best of luck, and please keep us posted.

Dark Meat.

Chicken...Always loved that add with the cows holding the signs "saying eat more chicken

Sorry, no cranberries for me. You may catch me with a cranberry juice, but that's only because it's filled mostly with Vodka, and even then, I'm still not interested in the cranberry juice. So i guess from no on I should just order a vodka and cranberry, hold the cranberry.

oh yes, the foreign **Word not allowed** link. That's the second time I thought it was something important and opened up the discussion. Poor Katie B like after dealing with people like me begging here to explain how to get my avatar working, which is did so kindly, she then needs to patrol the board for Spam. Interesting advice, as even I have never used any type of message board before and would not have known that.

11 out of 12. Number 8 got me and I would challenge that the question itself is not clear enough to properly answer the question. Although semantically speaking the do ask "how long will the pills last" which is 60 minutes, instead of "how long will the effects of the pills last" which is what I thought they were asking, and I answered 90. I see they're point, but I would like to appeal that line of questioning lol. NO ONE cares how long the pills will last, only how long the effects of the pill will last, and in general society, a question such as this, stated in this manner would lead any resonable person to assume that the question was referring to how long the pill would work, or perform for, being 90 minutes and not how long before the pills would be gone. If I wanted to know that I would have said, how long before all the pills are gone? I should have been a lawyer.

My favorite one is the one Col uses all the time. Anyone in traffic in Philly knows that if you want to merge or change lanes, you just do it, take your chances, signal only if you want and just go. Well, now, anytime I'm trying to squeeze in somewhere, Colleen says hold on, I'll take my hat off and lean out and point. That's probably the only thing I've ever seen work down here. We received a gift card to stay in Hershey and we were hoping to use it for a night at the hotel breakfast with Santa, and Christmas Candy Land, but were told they were all out of that package. Called a friend who works there to help us out and said, don't be afraid to use the cancer card. If she doesn't make any progress, I'll ask Col to call again and play it. She just flat out forgot the first time. I personally think you should all play it all the time. Get what you can from this stupid cancer.

Congrats. That's awesome.