No more jumping rope...at least right now

Josh has, despite the additional pain he's been feeling over the last 5-6 weeks, been continuing to try to work out 3 times a week, including jumping rope, bench press, step-ups and the like. Yesterday, the doctor told Josh that he's not to jump rope or do anything more physically demanding than walking for the near future because of the risk of fractures.

We learned yesterday that:

• The primary tumors in his chest are still stable (after their considerable reduction with chemo).
• He has a very small mass growing next to the two primary tumors, but the doctor isn't worried about that yet.
• The cancer in his bones (particularly his hip area) has surged since last time...hence his increased pain.
• The radiation he had to his L5 vertebrae in his back did great things to beat the cancer back in that location. The doctor is very excited about this result.
  

Bone Pain. Today Josh gets a pelvic MRI and Monday he gets another lower back MRI. And he meets with a radiation oncologist on Monday to understand the plan of attack. The options it sounds like we have is either radiation in a pill form that will attack the cancer in all his bones or traditional radiation targeted in all the areas they can hit (rather than taking a selective approach on where his pain crops up). It depends on what the MRIs indicate. Unlike the last radiation round that Josh took up in Dallas, he'll definitely be in Houston for this one since it's much more involved.

Neuropathy. Josh is trying a medicine that will hopefully help him deal better with the neuropathy in his feet. We may try an aggressive acupuncture regime as well to see what that can do. And he meets with a specialist here today to see what strategies they suggest.

Next Steps. Josh's biopsy taken many months back is being tested to see if he's one of only 3 to 4% of the population that has a particular gene so that he qualifies for a clinical trial for a chemotherapy that has shown tremendous effectiveness. We'll know in about a month. If he doesn't qualify for that one, there are other clinical trials either open now or upcoming that he'll participate in. But the next chemo round won't be until after the radiation therapy is complete.

Sounds like Josh will be quite busy between now and Christmas. But not with jumping rope.