Hello to each of you. I wanted to do something special to let each of you know how very important each of you are, and how much you are appreciated by Joyce and I. I felt that since my Team Name for the Atlanta 3Day Walk was JAG's Jug Or Nots, it was only appropriate to name all of you JAG's Angels, for that is what I consider you to be. Angels, to help watch over and support Joyce. I didn't want any of you to think that you made your donations to help us fight Breast Cancer, and then that was it, thanked and forgotten. So I decided to form this special group called JAG's Angels, so that I can keep you updated on not only how Joyce is doing, but on how I am doing, and hopefully be able to share some of the excitement and feelings that go along with the 3Day that I have become involved with. To catch everyone up on where we stand in our fight today, Joyce was first diagnosed in January of 2007. First, all we knew was that she had Cancer in her bones, we didn't know what kind. After several different scans and bone marrow biopsies, we were told that it was Breast Cancer that had metastisized into the bones. I don't think I could ever fully understand what Joyce must have felt when we heard those words. But for myself, I was devastated. I felt like I had just been told I had lost my wife. I felt more scared than I have ever felt in my life. Right after that, they removed the lump from Joyces's breast. The surgeon said that rather than put her through the pain and the long recovery period involved if he were to do a mastectomy, that "since the horses were already out of the barn", he would just remove the lump. Now my fear gave way to the second phase, anger. I was so mad that our primary care physician, and Joyce's gyn, and who ever had been doing the regular mammorgrams that she had been having done over the past years, none of them had done anything, even though she and I had found the lump over two years ago. It was always "we'll keep an eye on it and if anything changes we'll check it further". If only I had know then, when we first found it, what I know now. I would have been screaming at the top of my lungs for them to do at least a simple needle biopsy on the lump, and if they had refused I would have found us another doctor that would do it. If they had done that back when the lump was first found, we might not be where we are today. After the anger, came acceptance. Ok, we've been dealt this miserable hand, now let's do what ever we have to to to play it out. After talking with our oncologist we decide to go on a drug therapy program. Besides the two or three pain medications we were taking, we started on a drug called Femara. After being on that for 12 weeks, and dealing with all the terrible side affects, the worst being the nausea, we had another scan done to see how the Femara was working against the Cancer. It wasn't !! There were new spots of cancer in the bones. Now we had to make a choice, of either continuing with the Femara to see if it would start working, trying a different drug, or going into an aggressive Chemotherapy program, possibly one which would include being in a test group with one of the newer Cancer drugs. It turned out that we couldn't do the test group with the newer drugs because the Cancer was not in any of the soft tissues or any organs. Being in the bones only, they would be unable to accurately measure the effectiveness of the new drug, due to the fact that when it is in the bones, they are unable to measure any change, it's either there or it's not. So we wound up on just an aggressive Chemo program, where we get two drugs on a Friday called Carboplatin and Gemzar, then the next Friday we just get the Gemzar, and the third Friday we skip. Then we start the cycle over again the following Friday. We went through 6 weeks of that and then we did another scan to see how the Chemo was working. That was a week ago today. The good news was, no new spots in the bones. So the Chemo seems to be at least holding the Cancer in check for now. Since we are dealing with Breast Cancer in the bone, which is not curable, it means that we will be on some kind of treatment the rest of Joyce's life. Now we go six months on the program we are on, and then at that time our doctor says he will have to make a decision on whether to continue on the Chemo, or maybe stop that and try some kind of drug treatment. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, due to the unbelievable strength and the positive attitued that Joyce has, and all of the prayers that have been offered up from JAG's Angels, she is doing amazingly well, and there has been absolutely no terrible nausea and sickness that usually accompanies Chemo treatments. I am one hundred percent convinced that JAG's Angels have a lot to do with this. That's why I love every one of you, and every one of you will be in my heart forever. Ok, that covers all the yucky Cancer part of our story. But I figure that if the yucky part causes one of you to maybe get an exam that you've been putting off for awhile, or someone you pass the story on to does so, and an early detection is made and a life is saved, then something good will have come from the yucky part of our story. That awareness, that might be brought to someone, is part of my becoming involved in the Atlanta 3-Day. The other is my desire to do everything I can from now on to help find a cure for Breast Cancer. Those two things are what the 3Day is about. Please take some time and visit the Susan G Komen for the Cure web site.
I kind of got carried away here and this became a little lengthy, so I'm going to close this off. I wanted to share some pictures and stories with you concerning all of the training walks that I have been doing, so I will wait and put that in the next addition of "Updates for JAG's Angels". I hope you don't mind me sharing with you, and I hope you enjoy my future updates. If you don't want me cluttering up your mailboxes, please let me know. 
Thank you once again for all your prayers and your support.
-- Michael