Hi All,

It gets harder and harder to write each day. My focus is all over the place and I can't even read a book as I end up rereading each line, many times. Some have said that this is all part of the side effects of the chemo, ergo chemo brain. My treatment entered stage two on Monday and I now get twice as much radiation as before, the chemo remains the same. My voice will go soon, as I enter the final weeks of this treatment, it gets harder to eat anything, even swallow the pills is hard. But with two and a half weeks left I should manage, even if I starve through it. I trust that my old fit body will rebound quickly, and I hope within two weeks after treatment has finished that I can notice a difference. You would not believe how much I miss pizza or Cesar salad or BBQ chicken, sometimes I just sniff Kathy's food and wish I could get just one piece down. But for now the smell, is about all I get.

This is still the hardest thing that I have ever had to go through, and during my ice climbing day's I faced some tough situations. Like the climb on house of sky on a big thin pitch near the top, I kicked too hard and all below me was gone, fallen like a chandelier to crash many feet below, as I hung there by my axes I thought this is life on the edge. Or the time we went up to the wind tower, the snow was so deep the leader had to drop pack, stomp a trail,come back grab pack and stomp again, this with snowshoes on, then switch leads. Or on Athabaska where the snow was hip deep and each step made us breathless,as we struggled to reach the top, which we didn't. This treatment puts them all into shallow perspective. While all things must change I want to thank you all for your unending support, and if you see me stumble then just write it up to chemo brain.................love and peace Andy