Julie asked me to write on her behalf tonight. So, here it goes. We met with her doctor today and he gave us the results of the latest cat scan, comparing it with the one from a couple of months ago. The cancer was reduced even more, which is very encouraging. Then the doctor laid out the game plan of where we go from here. He termed this phase "maintenance." We also met with a nurse afterwords to help us understand in a little more detail what maintenance means.

Now I'm going to try and relay this plan to you in the form of an analogy (it's how I try to make sense of complicated things). The four rounds of chemo that Julie just finished is like calling in air strikes from the air force to bomb the insurgents, but there are civilian casualties as well (both bad & good cells get killed). But now, the marines are going to be sent in to target just the insurgents (Julie will take chemo type pills every day that will kill just cancer cells). In a couple of months, we'll know if the marines arsenal has been effective in advancing or just holding ground in the war effort (will the new chemo pills work)? If so, we'll keep the marines fighting the battle. If not, we'll bring back the air force to deliver a different payload of smart bombs (we'll try another combination of drugs as chemo treatment). The goal of this war is to reduce the insurgents numbers and prevent them from recruiting any more (we want the treatments to drive the cancer to remission and maintain it there).

If you don't know what the heck I'm trying to say, please ask Julie to explain it in her own words.
Thank you for your loving concern and your persistent prayers!
Greg