Don drove me to Paris, TX this morning to meet with Dr. Celeste Wilcox. She is my oncologist, and I think we'll be a good fit. The game plan is as follows: I'll be going to Titus Regional for one more CT Scan, so that she will know my "architecture". Next Tuesday, the 24th, I'll have my port installed. After that I'll be going to Paris every 2 weeks for treatments.

Right now, we are looking at 6 rounds of 4 treatments each. I probably won't loose my hair, most don't on these particular drugs, so that's good news. There is medication for nausea, so I won't be worrying about that. I will probably be pretty fatigued, but that will only mean that the medicine is working.

The people who are closest to our family will remember Useless. She was Joey's dog, a bull dog mix who someone dropped at our driveway, a complete stray, who befriended our family, and ended up living the Life of Riley!

She had her own chair in every room. She really was a wonderful dog. She hated snakes, and protected our family many times over from water mocassins, and copperheads. The first time she was bitten, the snake got her on her face. She swelled up like a hippopotamus. We took her to the vet for a shot and she ended up looking like a pelican.

She chased the cows one time too many, and Don hit her on her head with a fence tool. It just bounced off. Another time she chewed up a plastic bottle of finger nail polish remover, and chased it down with a steel wool pad, it didn't even slow her down.

She was famous for sneaking food off the counter, or wherever she could find it. Chocolate cakes and brownies were favorites, but she couldn't resist Williams Fried Chicken. She could down a whole bucket in under 30 seconds.

I think I must be like Useless. I keep bouncing back. I don't know if a purebred could be quite as resilient. Useless lived to be about 15 years old. She was one lucky dog!