So, how's Bill doing?

Thanks to everyone for all their love and support throughout this time! We decided to create a blog to better answer the constant "How's Bill doing?" questions. We'd love to still talk to you about everything that's going on, but thought having a somewhat regularly-updated blog might be a good idea, as well.

So, what exactly is going on?

Dad was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer a few months ago. (We just discovered that there is a link between malignant melanoma, which he battled a few years ago, and pancreatic cancer - that would have been good to know a while back!) Although this is a horrific form of cancer, he's in good company - Patrick Swayze, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Steve Jobs are all dealing with this disease at the moment. Because it spreads so quickly, doctors initially didn't give us a very good prognosis. He started chemo right away, though, and baffled everyone by making it to my graduation in May. Dr. Patel has since stopped giving us updated prognoses, because Dad keeps beating the odds!

A bit of technical stuff, for anyone who's interested. He's on Gemzar, the best chemotherapy available for pancreatic cancer patients. We're also participating in a study through UCLA that combines Gemzar with an experimental drug. While we don't know for sure if he's receiving the experimental treatment, we all believe he is - and his doctors, as well as the researchers from UCLA, seem to agree!

Overall, he's doing fantastically. Considering everything, of course. He's finished four rounds of chemo now, and had a CT scan this morning to see how well it's been working. His doctors are all very impressed with how well he's responded to treatment, but by no means are we through this yet. Fortunately, he's been healthy enough to travel a bit, so we've been over to our house in Pismo a few times, and we're off to Disneyland in a few weeks. We also just got back from a fantastic week in Cabo, which, with the exception of worrying about swine flu and Dad's immune system, seemed to be just what he needed. Last week, Dr. Patel told him to keep spending money - "Not because I don't think you'll be around in a month or two to spend it anyway, but because all this traveling and drinking of good wine seems to be working for you!"

In other news, Mom (Diane) retired yesterday, and I think they're both looking forward to enjoying retirement together!

Dad's doctors have all said that his positive attitude is doing wonders for his health. Part of that attitude comes from your continued well-wishes, so please feel free to leave us comments! Our email addresses are below, in case you'd prefer to send a more private message.